UPPING THE PACE
The first thing commuters see when they arrive in Wangjing – a northeastern subdistrict of Beijing – is a fibreglass sculpture of a mother and baby panda placidly chewing on bamboo. The gentle maternal tableau speaks to the former wholly residential nature of the area, but nowadays that homely image is somewhat misleading.
Around 20 years ago, the commuters were heading in the opposite direction. Wangjing, then nicknamed “Sleeping City”, was nothing more than a bedroom community – a place for workers to lay their heads at cheap rents after a hard day’s toil in the city. Although strategically placed between the airport and the CBD, there were few shops, hardly any restaurants and absolutely nothing in the way of big business in what was then considered a remote location.
Today, the district, which lies between the fourth and fifth ring roads that encase the city in ever-tightening loops, is a buzzing hive of established and striving tech companies. The area’s new profile, led by the likes of Sony, Panasonic, Daimler, Alibaba and
