Beijing Government Relocation to Tongzhou to End by 2026

Beijing has announced that the relocation of all municipal-level government offices to the city’s suburban sub-center in Tongzhou District will be fully completed by the end of 2026, marking a major milestone in a decade-long effort to decentralize administrative functions and alleviate congestion in the capital’s historic core.

According to Xinhua News Agency, the announcement was made at a press conference on May 20 by the Beijing Municipal Government. The move is part of a broader urban planning strategy to address “big city disease” — the severe congestion, pollution, and overpopulation that have long plagued central Beijing.

A Decade in the Making

The Beijing Sub-Center project traces its origins to 2012, when Tongzhou was initially designated as the city’s urban sub-center. Formal plans were announced in 2015, and in September 2017, the CPC Central Committee and State Council approved the Beijing Master Plan, establishing the “one core, one main, one sub” spatial layout that has guided development ever since.

The first batch of 35 municipal government departments relocated to Tongzhou in January 2019, marked by a flag-raising ceremony attended by top municipal officials, as China.org.cn reported. A second batch followed in February 2024, with relocations conducted at night to minimize disruption to residents.

Current Progress and Remaining Moves

Chen Xiaofeng, Deputy Director of the Beijing Sub-Center Party Working Committee and Administrative Committee, told reporters that to date, 81 municipal-level government organs and one central government unit have already relocated, with nearly 30,000 staff now working in the Sub-Center’s administrative office area. The office complex and supporting facilities total approximately 2.68 million square meters of floor space.

The Beijing High People’s Court and the Beijing People’s Procuratorate are the final major institutions still to move. Their projects are nearing completion and are scheduled to relocate by the end of 2026. Certain units responsible for capital security, urban operations, territorial management, and public-facing services will remain in central Beijing.

Economic Transformation of Tongzhou

The relocation has driven a remarkable economic transformation in Tongzhou District. Li Xianxia, Standing Committee Member of the Tongzhou District CPC Committee and Executive Deputy District Mayor, reported that the district’s GDP grew from 65 billion RMB in 2016 to 163.88 billion RMB in 2025, representing an average annual growth rate exceeding 6%. In 2025 alone, GDP growth reached 10.8%, the highest among all Beijing districts.

The Sub-Center has attracted 374 central and state-owned enterprise subsidiaries, according to Li, as People’s Daily reported. Of 14 relocated Beijing municipal SOE headquarters, three are already operational, three will be completed by the end of 2026, and five are under construction. Tongzhou District now has 207,000 registered enterprises, ranking third among all Beijing districts.

Strategic Framework: Two-Pronged Decentralization

The Beijing Sub-Center is part of a two-pronged strategy for decentralizing the capital’s non-essential functions. While Tongzhou receives municipal-level government functions and administrative offices, the Xiong’an New Area in neighboring Hebei Province receives centrally-administered non-capital functions, including universities, hospitals, and central enterprise headquarters. The two areas are described by officials as having “separate divisions of labor, mutually reinforcing each other.”

This approach is embedded in Beijing’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), approved in January 2026, which emphasizes continued optimization of capital city functions, high-quality development of the Sub-Center, and deepening of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development.

Analysis and Implications

The completion of the government relocation represents a fundamental shift from Beijing’s traditional monocentric urban model to a polycentric form. The Sub-Center is being positioned as a new economic growth pole for the capital region, with the concentration of government functions and SOE headquarters expected to catalyze further private sector investment.

Tongzhou’s GDP growth rate of 10.8% in 2025 significantly outpaces Beijing’s overall growth, suggesting that the economic decentralization strategy is already yielding results. The Sub-Center is also being built with sustainability in mind, described by planners as a “green city, forest city, sponge city, smart city,” with a greenbelt park ring of seven parks recently completed.

What to Watch For

As the relocation enters its final phase, several questions remain. What will happen to the vacated government buildings in central Beijing? How will commuting patterns evolve for the tens of thousands of relocated staff? And how will property values adjust in both central Beijing and Tongzhou as the new administrative hub reaches full capacity?

For now, the end-of-2026 deadline sets a clear target for what has been one of China’s most ambitious urban planning initiatives — a project that, over the course of a decade, has fundamentally reshaped the geography of governance in the nation’s capital.