A grain depot built 70 years ago is set for a rebirth. On July 6, the Nandulehe Town State-owned Grain Depot revitalization project was selected for signing at the 2026 Beijing Urban Renewal Promotion Conference, becoming the sole representative urban renewal project from Pinggu District. It will be transformed into a rural living room integrating long-term risk avoidance, smart agriculture achievement displays, and public service functions.

The Nandulehe grain depot project is just one example in Pinggu's urban renewal wave. In recent years, Pinggu has started by taking stock of idle resources, allowing dormant old factories, outdated facilities, and vacant land to rediscover their value, turning them from urban development burdens into new spaces for industrial upgrading and urban-rural integration. A cold storage facility has been converted into a comprehensive service hub for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Reasons for Renewal: An Inevitable Challenge

Initiating action before the Beijing Urban Renewal Regulations, Pinggu became a frontier explorer of suburban renewal in 2021 out of urgent necessity. The district shoulders major functions like the Agricultural Zhongguancun and the Capital Logistics Hub, urgently needing to expand industrial space. However, as an ecological conservation area, it faces severe constraints on new construction land. In contrast, existing urban spaces house abandoned industrial factories that have lain dormant for decades in core areas, offering neither output value nor aesthetic appeal, and posing safety risks. Old residential communities built in the 1980s suffer from clogged pipes and leaks; in the core streets of Binhe and Xinggu alone, over 120 old buildings have aging pipelines. Across the district, various idle resources cover an area nearly the size of 300 standard football fields. Meanwhile, resident demands remain unmet. Binhe Street alone collected 20,000 resident questionnaires, highlighting a shortage of cultural activity venues, insufficient elderly care centers, and inadequate convenience services. Tourists visiting rural homestays complain of "nothing to do," citing a severe lack of nighttime consumption and cultural creative experiences. With the triple pressure of shortfalls in people's livelihoods, an abundance of existing space, and development needs, urban renewal has become an unavoidable challenge for Pinggu.

How to Renew: Audit Assets and Match Precisely

Urban renewal is not simply about repainting walls, repairing roads, or replacing equipment. It requires answering a more fundamental question: What should a once-vibrant space do in the future? In Pinggu, the first step is to create a "file" for these dormant resources. Staff took blueprints and walked through all 18 townships and subdistricts, surveying idle factories, commercial facilities, and old buildings one by one. Each factory's age, ownership, structural safety, and surrounding industrial demand were recorded in a database. Ultimately, 352 idle resources were given a "one-map" identity card. However, "seeing the assets" is only the first step. The real challenge of urban renewal is matching resources to needs. On the resident side, through home visits, community questionnaires, and analysis of swift complaint-response data, 12,000 resident renewal demands were collected. The renovation of old communities like Nanxiaoqu and Yingbin Huayuan started with the most reported issues. On the industrial side, spatial demands were sorted and precisely matched with idle spaces. On the resource side, idle space in urban areas was prioritized for supplementing life services, industrial factories focused on food technology and smart manufacturing, shallow mountain resources were allocated for leisure tourism, and logistics areas served industrial supporting facilities. Urban renewal also faces a practical challenge: where does the funding come from? Pinggu has explored multiple new investment and financing paths, including government-enterprise cooperation and independent corporate investment. The Nanxiaoqu community urban renewal project is a typical case. Before renovation, it was like many old communities: peeling walls, aging pipes, and insufficient living service facilities. The boiler room and idle office buildings nearby were underutilized for a long time. The total project investment was 51.06 million yuan, with 66% from fiscal funds for basic old community upgrades and 34% from the municipal state-owned enterprise Beijing Uni-Construction Group for renovating and operating idle resources like the boiler room and office buildings, effectively solving the problem of post-renovation maintenance. Now, walking into Nanxiaoqu, the once quiet space is bustling again. Residents can buy groceries, drink coffee, and eat rice noodles downstairs. Tennis, badminton, and pickleball courts are full of people. The Party and community service center has a health room, government service station, and employment service station. During summer break, a "4:30 class" was opened for children of new employment groups and dual-income families. Children do homework, draw, and make crafts here. An interesting change is that due to limited space, remaining spots are only offered to families actively participating in community affairs—leading to the disappearance of hallway clutter and more proactive waste sorting. Through the principle of "you serve me, I support you," residents have transformed from observers to participants, making the urban renewal of old communities truly "warm." To attract social capital, the government has also used measures like building scale rewards, tax reductions, and simplified approvals to lower transformation costs and stabilize profit expectations. As a result, the empty cement workshop of Shengyang Packaging Factory became the Zixingyuan Modern Food Production Base. Through a 270-meter-long viewing corridor, one can see dough kneading and cutting on automated lines, robotic arms precisely placing pies and flatbreads, and milk-skin yogurt lining up on conveyors. The space that once held equipment at Dafeng Cold Storage facility's industrial heritage has become a shared office space, where over a hundred companies have taken root, and entrepreneurial youth and research teams gather.

Post-Renewal: Changes Beyond Physical Form

More individuals and enterprises are seeing the potential in idle resources and actively joining the renewal process, with industries emerging from the dormant spaces. The venue of the World Leisure Congress branch, idle for years, was transformed into a village livestreaming industrial park in early 2024. The original structure was preserved, with the interior divided into standard livestreaming rooms, a product selection center, and training classrooms. Over 200 companies have moved in, and more than 300 local hosts have "graduated" from here. Zhao Yongjiu was one of the first hosts incubated here. A car accident in his youth took his legs, and he had previously run a massage shop in the village to make a living. As his physical strength declined, he seized the opportunity from village livestreaming to change careers, not only livestreaming himself but also teaching over 20 villagers. "Many farmers used to push tricycles to sell peaches and vegetables, and if they couldn't sell, they would rot in the baskets," he said. "Now they learn livestreaming and self-media, promoting their own fruits and vegetables, with packages being sent out from their doorsteps." Stories like Zhao's are common in the park. Among the over 300 hosts are returning youth, housewives, and old farmers who have grown peaches for decades. They might still be a bit awkward in front of the camera, but the transaction numbers flashing on their livestreams are genuinely changing their income and lives. Around the park, previously barren land has been planted with flowers. The varieties are changed periodically, including sunflowers, chrysanthemums, and cosmos. This once-neglected area has become a "back garden" for nearby residents to stroll and relax. "I never expected such a beautiful sight at my doorstep," a villager told reporters. "Before, it was just a reed marsh and wild grass. After planting flowers, tourists come to take photos—it's very lively." The changes have extended beyond the park. Since 2023, Daxingzhuang Town has been included in Beijing's "Hundred Villages Demonstration, Thousand Villages Revitalization" project demonstration area, sparking not only the livestreaming economy but also attracting new formats like Zhouji Coffee, Taoyuanli Happy Pastoral, and Agricultural Zhongguancun Zero Store. Three idle caretaker rooms were repurposed into "Zhouji Coffee." Pushing open the courtyard gate, the open-air yard is adorned with hydrangeas, daisies, and roses. A small pond under a fountain shimmers. Walking along the path, the distant green mountains, white clouds, and vast green fields create a scenic backdrop. This once overlooked corner has become a new hotspot for young people to relax and check in. "The coffee shop's construction coincided with the city's 'Hundreds and Thousands Project,' gaining significant publicity and policy support," said the owner. "Now the village environment is better, with more diverse formats. Young people are willing to come here, sit, drink coffee, and take photos. With popularity, the village has more possibilities." In Pinggu District's Zhenluoying Town, a 160-mu abandoned orchard was transformed into a lakeside study and farming garden, cultivating new formats like research and camping. The park's revenue supports village elderly care services, sustaining a low-cost 800 yuan monthly elderly care program per person. In Xinggu Street, an abandoned cattle shed was transformed into the bustling Pingdong Market, with a market, night market, and public dining hall bringing the idle space back into residents' lives. Urban renewal changes not just the physical form of buildings, but the production models and lifestyles behind them. When idle resources are combined with industrial introduction, environmental improvement, and public services, rural areas are no longer just the "back garden" of the city. They become new spaces that can attract, retain, and create value, growing their own vitality. In the future, with the accelerated construction of the Agricultural Zhongguancun and the Capital Logistics Hub, Pinggu's urban renewal will continue to deepen, writing more stories of transforming unused stock on the outskirts of the capital.