Xiamen in Fujian province launched an activity on Nov 13, where more than 60 journalists from about 30 mainstream media outlets, such as China Daily and Xinhua, took a tour to get a closer look at the city's subway transit-oriented development model (TOD).

TOD integrates mixed land use and transportation to build an urban center to facilitate office space, businesses, culture, education, and housing.

Zhu Xiaobing, director of the TOD Research Center of Southwest Jiaotong University, said that Xiamen ranked first in terms of transportation efficiency among urban cities of the same network size. He explained that the rapid development of TOD in Xiamen is due to the suitable urban spatial structure and future planning. The railway transportation stations are set up in accordance with population distribution, which can guarantee a rising amount of passenger volume.

The media group took a tour to the TOD Urban Reception Room at Wetland Park Station. Covering about 6,000 square meters, the room was designed based on the "light forest" theme where visitors can enjoy more than 30 abstract artworks made by 10 modern artists from eight countries. It is not just a distribution hub for the station, but also a public space that holds urban activities and art exhibitions.

TOD, a new development model, was developed with the intention to help the city expand public spaces, gather resource factors, rebuild its economy and improve its urban competitiveness. Xiamen plans to build more TOD projects based on transportation stations, which are expected to improve tax revenue, create more jobs, and speed up the regional development along the rail transit lines, and thus help the city develop in a structured way.

More than 60 journalists from about 30 mainstream media outlets take a tour to get a closer look at Xiamen's subway transit-oriented development model. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]