CPC 19th Congress: Party, City Officials Make Last-minute Preparations

Some 2,287 Communist Party of China delegates meet in Beijing on October 18, 2017.

Officials of the Communist Party of China, CPC are making last-minute touches to preparations for the party’s 19^th national congress that opens in the Great Hall of the People in the Chinese capital, Beijing on October 18, 2017. Elsewhere in Beijing, security has been beefed up since the beginning of the month with Armed Police deployed in subways and at other strategic points. Thousands of visitors have in the last days trouped into the city to be part of the party congress, even from a distance. Understandably, the capital’s hotels are fully booked and taken up.

Some 2,287 delegates are expected at the gathering that holds after five years to select new top party officials and lay the framework for the country’s development in the following five years and beyond. Given the importance of the congress, 1,800 foreign journalists and thousands more from China have been accredited for coverage. Some 27 African journalists on Monday October 16, 2017 visited the Beijing New Airport under construction between Yufa Town and Daxing District in Hebei Province. The bird view distance of the new airport is 46 km from Tian’anmen Square in central Beijing. The African journalists were joined by other foreign and Chinese colleagues. Later on in the afternoon of Monday, a reception was held for all journalists to cover the party congress.

Able to handle 100 million passengers annually and costing over 400 billion RMB (including expressways, subway lines and high-speed rail, hotel, restaurants, etc), the new airport project began in December 2014 and is due d...