Xiongan has been in constant change since April 1 last year when the CPC Central Committee announced its establishment as a new area to take over some of Beijing’s non-capital functions and blaze a trail for the balanced development of the densely-populated Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area.

It is no exaggeration to compare its role to that of Shenzhen as a Special Economic Zone in the 1980s and that of Pudong New Area in Shanghai in the 1990s, which were in turn pioneers for reform and opening up at different stages of China’s development in the past four decades.

The success China has achieved based on the experience of Shenzhen in the 1980s and Pudong in the 1990s will hardly be relevant for the development of the interior regions. So a new model is needed to blaze a trail in the new era, which is why Xiongan, 100 kilometers south of Beijing, was chosen as the latest development area.

What has happened to Xiongan over the past year is encouraging. More than 100 high-end and high-tech enterprises have settled there, a tree planting campaign has been carried out, with 100,000 trees being planted there each day. A number of prestigious universities, including Peking University, have started to establish branches there, and the building of a high-speed railway line between Beijing and Xiongan is underway and expected to be completed in 2020, when it will take 30 minutes to travel from Beijing to Xiongan.

A world vision, international standards, Chinese characteristics and high goals are what CPC Central Committee General Secretary Xi Jinping expects of the development of this new area. To be exact, breakthroughs need to be made to hopefully propel and help navigate the deepening of reforms and opening up.

What this country has achieved in both technology and construction capacity has laid a solid foundation for the high quality construction in the Xiongan New Area. But that is only part of the story. How this new area is built and run is of great significance to the future development of this country.

What is expected are innovations that point to the way to how the reform and opening up will be deepened and how innovation will make a difference to the future of this country.