Jun 3, 2013
Video produced by Feng Juan and Sun Weiwei
Subtitles by Zhu Na

Property prices in some areas of Hebei, the province surrounding China's capital, have been rising of late, pushed up by pent up demand for apartments from people locked out of the capital's housing market due to new purchase restrictions introduced in 2010.

This has led to the development of "sleeping" satellite towns that offer no local employment options and simply house populations that commute to the capital for work.

Hebei had planned to take advantage of Beijing's economic transformation and attract industry that was being pushed out of the capital to settle in the province. Provincial policy makers also began discussing a plan to develop a "Capital Economic Circle," that would help drive economic development in the province by taking advantage of the regions proximity to Beijing.

Not much in the way of practical detail was ever announced and now some areas of the province that are close to the border with Beijing are seeing property prices surge but they still lack any kind of industrial base.

You can watch the video here or click on the embedded link above. If you want to view the extended Chinese version of the video, click here.