中国寄望京津冀一体化改变华北面貌

choi

张彦, 中国寄望京津冀一体化改变华北面貌. 纽约时报中文网, July 20, 2015
http://cn.nytimes.com/china/20150720/c20supercity/

, which is translated from

Ian Johnson, Pain and Hope as China Molds Its Capital into New Supercity; A dearth of vital services in a booming suburb. New York Times, July 20, 2015 (one of the front-page top reports).

Note:
(a) "YANJIAO, China -- Every morning at 5:30, Liu Desheng joins a dozen retirees waiting for the express bus to central Beijing from this small city in Hebei Province."
(i) This is the first sentence in print. The dateline does not appear in the cn.nytimes.com.
(ii) a dateline
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dateline

is different from a byline.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byline
(iii) Yanjiao  河北省廊坊市三河市 燕郊镇
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/燕郊镇
(因春秋战国时期地处燕国城郊而得名)

(b) "The planned megalopolis [京津冀 will be] a metropolitan area that would be about six times the size of New York’s * * * the new supercity ['of 130 million people'] is intended to be different in scope and conception. It would be spread over 82,000 square miles, about the size of Kansas, and hold a population larger than a third of the United States."
(i) All from tables in en.wikipedia.org:
(A) New York City area: Total 468.9 sq mi (1,214 km2), of which Land [is] 304.8 sq mi and Water[,] 164.1 sq mi.
(B) New York state: Total 54,555 sq mi (141,300 km2) -- "% water        13.5"
(C) Kansas state: Total 82,277 sq mi (213,096 km2) -- "% water 0.56 [ie, one half of 1%]"
(ii) That is what I thought upon reading "six times the size of New York’s." (New York city is jut a speck on US map, I was thinking.)  City or state?  Apparently neither.

(c) "With no property taxes, Chinese cities rely on public land sales for tax revenues. Municipalities are not allowed to keep other locally raised taxes, for fear that local leaders will misuse the proceeds. * * * Even though the supercity [in the future] will consolidate affluent Beijing with tax-starved towns like Yanjiao, they will not share revenue."
(i) I of course am clueless about tax in China.
(ii) In Taiwan, only central government can tax, which then distributes to various governments--with lion shares to 直辖市. So 直辖市 has been "affluent" whereas towns and country live hand to mouth.

(d) "High-speed rail, Professor Zhang ]Gui, a professor at the Hebei University of Technology 河北工业大学教授张贵] said, has changed that equation. Chinese trains now easily hit 150 to 185 miles an hour, allowing the urban area to expand. A new line between Beijing and Tianjin cut travel times from three hours to 37 minutes. That train has become so crowded that a second track is being laid."
(i) I look at the map supplied in the print report (but not in cn.nytimes.com), and the air distance between downtown Beijing and downtown Tianjin is just 20 miles. I have no idea how the current travel time between the two points lasts "three hours."  By car, rather than by train?
(ii) In any event, high-speed rail can not be used as commuter rail, with many stops. That is my view.