General Secretary Xi Jinping once posed a question to Beijing: 'What kind of capital should we build, and how should we build it?'. Beijing is striving to write the answer sheet. The Decision of the Third Plenum of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposes to promote the formation of a new system of intelligent and efficient governance for super large and mega cities. This further clarifies the direction for the construction and development of Beijing, a mega city with a permanent population of over 21.8 million and an area of 16000 square kilometers. To promote Chinese path to modernization, the world-class problem of governance of mega cities cannot be avoided. In the vivid practice of Beijing, there are long-standing practical actions, rapid development and changes, as well as city data updated day and night: every day, about 24000 tons of vegetables are delivered from Xinfadi Market to thousands of households in Beijing, more than 9 million people shuttle through Beijing's rail transit, more than 60000 citizen demands are directly sent to the Beijing Citizen Hotline Service Center, and thousands of builders have created a GDP of billions of yuan... This mega city, supported by countless bones and blood vessels, has an unimaginable complexity of operation and difficult governance, which is a microcosm of the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. Beijing Municipal Party Secretary Yin Li stated that by thoroughly implementing the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech, Beijing firmly grasps the strategic positioning of the capital city, seeks momentum from reform and vitality from opening up, and strives to transform the strategic deployment of further comprehensive deepening of reform into a powerful force to promote the modernization of Beijing with Chinese characteristics, striving to embark on a path of mega city governance with Chinese characteristics. The governance of a big city is guided by planning. The central axis, known as the "soul and backbone of Beijing's old city," recently successfully applied for World Heritage status. As a key project for the protection and inheritance of cultural heritage along the central axis, Qingcheng Palace has been a complex and problematic expropriation project in recent years. The Xicheng District of Beijing has broken through difficulties, found a way out, and orderly promoted the work of eviction. The overall restoration of the historical style of Qingcheng Palace has become a beautiful business card of the central axis. Protecting the old city area is a responsibility undertaken by Beijing as a cultural center. A few years ago, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that we should focus on the functional positioning of Beijing's "four centers" and continuously optimize and enhance the core functions of the capital. Based on this, a new version of the overall plan for Beijing has been released. This plan is changing a city. The concepts of "capital and city", "sacrifice and gain", "evacuation and improvement", and "core and two wings" have been deeply integrated into urban governance, becoming the basic basis for the development, construction, and management of Beijing in the new era. Planning is also a blueprint, laying out a thriving picture. From a population perspective, the permanent population of Beijing's six districts has decreased by 15% compared to 2014, and the amount of urban and rural construction land has decreased by 130 square kilometers; From an environmental perspective, over 9200 hectares of demolished and vacated spaces were utilized for greening, and more than 7700 convenient commercial outlets were constructed; From an industrial perspective, the proportion of newly established operating entities in high-precision and cutting-edge industries such as technology, commerce, and information has increased from 40.7% in 2013 to 66.1% in 2023... "Beijing has set three red lines: the population limit, ecological control line, and urban development boundary, using reduced development to force the transformation of development mode and move towards high-quality development," said Yang Xiuling, Secretary of the Party Group and Director of the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission. Beijing, with a history of over 3000 years of city construction and 870 years of capital building, has become the first mega city in China to promote high-quality development through reduction. This is due to the guidance of planning. Planning science is the greatest benefit ", Beijing deeply implements the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech, while deeply understanding the deeper considerations of the Party Central Committee. Planning guidance is not just about planning walking on one leg, but also reflected in the transformation of the integrated system and mechanism of planning, construction, and operation. This is also the 'hard bone' that reform needs to tackle when entering the deep water zone. In some places in the past, water was water, and the shore was shore. 'Nine dragons control water, each managing their own end.' What should we do? Break through the situation through reform. Chaoyang District, Beijing, is implementing the governance of the Liangma River, including water management, shore repair, and lighting of building facades, in a "joint governance of water and shore" approach. After the renovation of the waterfront space, Liangmahe has been described as a "reception room" in the city. In some places in the past, there were stations and cities, but they were all integrated and the connection was not smooth. What should we do? Pave the way through reform. Coming out of Dongsi Station on Metro Line 6, several quaint buildings come into view. Underground, there are well-developed transportation arteries; On the ground, there are all kinds of commercial and catering facilities available. In recent years, Beijing has continuously strengthened the integration of stations and cities, with rail transit complementing urban renewal. The governance of big cities is empowered by numbers. Previously, the biggest headache after work was encountering traffic jams. Now, I often pass a few green lights in one breath, and it feels like holding a 'remote control' in my hand Many Beijing residents have deep feelings about it. Traffic congestion is a common problem in many big cities. The "remote control" described by citizens is the Beijing traffic signal control and management platform. At present, the platform has completed dynamic optimization of more than 100 main road green wave belts, helping to improve the overall road network traffic efficiency by 4.7%. The Decision of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed to "build a system and mechanism that supports comprehensive innovation". In recent years, the construction of the Beijing International Science and Technology Innovation Center has been solidly promoted, and the construction of global digital economy benchmark cities has accelerated. The development of the "Three Cities and One District" (Zhongguancun Science City, Huairou Science City, Future Science City, and Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone) is thriving... Since the beginning of this year, 14200 new 5G base stations have been built, and more than 7000P of public intelligent computing power has been added (1P is equivalent to a computing speed of 1000 trillion times per second). The city has 82 registered and launched large-scale models. These data also enhance the efficiency of urban governance. Cities are smarter. In Haidian District, Beijing, the "urban brain" aggregates urban indicators such as transportation, ecology, water, and electricity, and the construction of artificial intelligence blocks is steadily advancing. Underground 8 meters, in the unmanned inspection demonstration area of the cable digital tunnel in Fengtai District, Beijing, a "robot dog" is inspecting and monitoring the cables. On the ground, unmanned vehicles can be seen everywhere in Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone. After 4 years of construction, the high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone in Beijing has achieved continuous operation of 600 square kilometers. Cities are more resilient. During this year's flood season, the cumulative rainfall in Beijing has exceeded the same period last year, and flood prevention work is proceeding in an orderly manner. The deployment of rain monitoring radar, the establishment of "three lines of defense" for rain water monitoring and forecasting, and the use of urban pipeline network data for model calculation... "Smart flood prevention" provides support for cities to cope with flood situations. We will closely focus on the construction of smart cities, anchor the 'one district, three centers', coordinate and promote the digital transformation of the entire area, deepen the' one network for operation 'and' one network for unified management ', better support the' efficient completion of one thing ', and empower the precise and fine governance of cities Shen Binhua, Deputy Secretary General of the Beijing Municipal Government, Secretary of the Party Group and Director of the Beijing Municipal Government Service and Data Management Bureau, said. The governance of a big city is based on the people. The two super large communities of Huilongguan and Tiantongyuan in Changping District, Beijing have a permanent population of over 800000. We used to mock ourselves as' spectators', with a large interior but a small exit, like a jar, "said a resident who has lived in the Huilongguan area for many years. The 'Return to the Sky Action' plan focuses on the transportation, education, and bed related issues that residents are concerned about, and aims to address them systematically and accurately, shifting from treating 'big city diseases' to pursuing high-quality development. Since 2018, the Huitian area has added over 30000 new degrees, more than 2000 medical beds, and 4 large-scale cultural and sports facilities. The coverage rate of parks and green spaces within a 500 meter service radius has increased to 96.3%. The new city is growing, and the old city is being updated. General Secretary Xi Jinping has conducted research on the four alleys of Caochang in Dongcheng District, Beijing. The old city cannot be demolished anymore, how can the hutongs be preserved and used? Application based lease termination reduces population density, and environmental improvement, repair and reconstruction, and cultural relic restoration are carried out simultaneously. Nowadays, residents are amazed by the changes in the hutongs. As of now, more than 5200 back streets and alleys in the city, represented by hutongs, have been revitalized. Chinese path to modernization focuses on people's livelihood. In Beijing, 75831 appeals were accepted on the same day; 343 streets, townships, over 100 municipal departments, and public service enterprises are ready to respond at any time; Real time updates on indicators such as the number and duration of transactions completed... The jumping data on the large screen of the Beijing Citizen Hotline Service Center records the concerns of the public. In the past five years, Beijing has put in a lot of effort to continuously improve the institutional mechanism of driving the governance of mega cities based on citizens' demands, from establishing a response mechanism for serving the masses through "whistleblowing reporting", to using the 12345 hotline to handle complaints immediately, and then promoting proactive governance through "one question per month". Thread by thread weaves the temperature of a mega city. More than 610 "pocket parks" provide citizens with scenic views when they go out; 18000 universal daycare spaces to assist in "affordable" and "reassuring daycare"; This year, 100 new regional elderly care service centers will be built, striving to deliver inclusive elderly care services to the doorstep of the elderly... With good governance in big cities and meticulous attention to detail in Beijing, the path of mega city governance is still being explored. (New Society)