How Would You Improve Beijing? The City Wants Your Suggestions

As great as life in Beijing can be, there are times when the sky isn't so blue, it takes too long to get somewhere, and you may be wishing you'd rather be somewhere else. It's never popular to point out problems in China, but having such a discussion may bring up solutions to issues affecting everyone.

As an opinionated expat, that's where you come in. The city's government is now soliciting the public for their suggestions on how to improve our fair city, and they want to know what you think. Seriously.

But this isn't just about complaining about smog or the city's vast urban sprawl, Instead, Beijing wants to know what specific steps to take to make the city better under current policies implemented by the municipal government.

For example, Beijing has been decentralizing its municipal institutions and facilities, moving them from the city core out towards the suburbs. Given that this trend started by city authorities isn't likely going to stop, Beijing is now asking for suggestions on how to best carry out this plan.

In the same way, the city is looking for suggestions on how to develop its "secondary downtown cores" outside of its "primary downtown." And as Beijing gears up to re-host the Olympic Games for a second time, the city wants your suggestions on how to locally promote winter sports (if the weather ever gets cold enough to go ice skating, that is).

Authorities have already taken measures to limit Beijing's population to under 23 million by 2020 by targeting residents living in illegal structures, but maybe you have a better idea you are willing to share.

Here are the 12 categories for which municipal authorities want your suggestions:

1. How to reduce non-capital functions in Beijing's urban center; how to promote collaborative development between Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei (the future supercity) and the unification the transportation system serving these areas; how to promote and improve the local ecology and environment.
2. How to improve the secondary downtown cores and their associated functions.
3. How to prepare for the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics and associated winter sport infrastructure and facilities; how to promote winter sports to city residents.
4. How to improve and promote the city's economy.
5. How to mitigate and solve "big city problems" such as pollution, overpopulation, and traffic congestion.
6. How to improve and promote the city's strategy to consolidate the country's technological and scientific innovation area (ie Zhongguancun).
7. How to strengthen the country's culture and patriotism; how to improve and promote civility and harmony; how to preserve the city's historic sites.
8. How to raise the city's quality of life that result in such improvements such as more university graduates and lower unemployment; how to aid the urbanization of rural residents; how to integrate basic health insurance for rural residents; how to help the young, infirm, and elderly.
9. How to make improvements to housing and medical systems that result in a stable real estate market and a more evenly-dispersed medical services.
10. How to improve and develop the city's educational services; how to more quickly implement compulsory education for rural residents.
11. How to improve municipal health and hygiene conditions.
12. How to improve the fight corruption in politics; how to help facilitate legal proceedings.

Given that it's such a rare opportunity to feel like your opinions matter in this cutthroat town, we've come up with a few that we'd like to see enforced from the get-go:

1. Enforce traffic laws on bicycles, three-wheelers, and motorbikes to reduce risk of death at intersections. More on that here.
2. Make sidewalks sacred ground, banning all driving and parking on them for the sake of pedestrians.
3. Ban delivery vehicles from driving on pedestrian footbridges and sidewalks.
4. Immediately upgrade all city buses to brand new electric vehicles.
5. Create a workable congestion charge to reduce traffic in the city center at peak times and to promote use of public transport.
6. Rein in apparent free-for-all that the bike sharing economy has become, now boasting four separate companies vying for customers that are inexperienced on bikes, creating waste, and clogging up the sidewalks.
7. Provide (and require them to make use of) anti-pollution masks for all public work employees. More on that here.
8. Allow selected vendors to operate in the subway system, à la Shanghai, for the convenience of commuters.
9. Extend the subway operating hours to 2am every night.
10. Immediately equip all schools, buses, subways, and public offices with the appropriate air filtration devices. Don't obfuscate the rules for those who want to improve their quality of life.
11. Make all buildings pass an air quality protection test in order to receive city services like central heat, water, etc.
12. Target the actual causes of pollution i.e. cars and factories rather than going after the small fish i.e. barbecue stands and chuan'r restaurants (then teach us how to spell it).
13. Promote the 2022 Winter Olympics by officially endorsing our new column OlymPicks.

Want to share your ideas? Contact the People's Suggestion Collection Office through their website, their email or by phone via 6519 2411. You can also mail them a letter to:

3 Taiji Guangdajie, Dongcheng, 100743, Beijing
北京市人民政府人民建议征集办公室（东城区台基厂大街3号，邮编100743）

Don't delay; the deadline for soliciting public opinions is December 31 of this year. 

More stories from this author here.

Twitter: @Sinopath

Images: Nandu, Pinterest, Travel Daily News, Shutterstock, Reddit, CNN