On the morning of June 25, Gao Jinhao, Director of the Hebei Provincial Department of Transport, disclosed this information during an online interview on the official website of the Ministry of Transport.
　　The so-called Beijing Seventh Ring, also known as the Capital Ring Corridor, refers to the Beijing Outer Ring Expressway, also called the Beijing Seventh Ring, approximately 940 kilometers long, passing through Langfang, Zhuozhou, Zhangjiakou, Chengde, Pinggu and other places.
　　The above-mentioned ring line is only the inner ring of the “2 Rings” in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei transport integration plan; its outer ring is the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regional ring corridor, approximately 1,250 kilometers long, passing through Tianjin, Langfang, Baoding, Zhangjiakou, Chengde, Tangshan and other places.
　　And the above-mentioned “2 Rings” are merely “one ring” in the future blueprint for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei transport integration.
　　Gao Jinhao summarized the layout of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei transport integration with “2 Rings, 8 Corridors, 4 Links, 8 Ports, 8 Hubs.” The “2 Rings” are as described above; the 8 Corridors refer to four vertical comprehensive transport corridors—Chengde-Beijing-Baoding-Shijiazhuang-Xingtai-Handan, the Coastal Corridor, Beijing-Langfang-Cangzhou, and Beijing-Hengshui—and four horizontal comprehensive transport corridors—Zhangjiakou-Beijing-Tangshan-Qinhuangdao, Zhuozhou-Langfang-Tianjin, Baoding-Tianjin, and Shijiazhuang-Hengshui-Cangzhou; the 4 Links refer to four comprehensive transport corridors—Chengde-Tangshan, Tianjin-Shijiazhuang, Xingtai-Linqing, and Handan-Jinan; the 8 Ports refer to four seaports—Tianjin Port, Qinhuangdao Port, Tangshan Port, and Huanghua Port—and four airports—Capital Airport, Beijing New Airport, Tianjin Airport, and Shijiazhuang Airport; the 8 Hubs refer to eight national comprehensive transport hub cities: Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Tangshan, Handan, Zhangjiakou, Chengde, and Baoding.
　　Gao Jinhao said that once the comprehensive transport network with the “28488” framework is completed, high-speed rail will connect “every city,” expressways will reach “every county,” the three central cities of Beijing, Tianjin, and Shijiazhuang will each be linked by three expressways, and counties (cities and districts) around Beijing and Tianjin will each have at least one first-class highway connection, forming a “one-hour transport circle” among Beijing, Tianjin, and Shijiazhuang and between neighboring cities, and a “half-hour living circle” between major cities and surrounding satellite cities. At the same time, it will form a rationally divided, fully functional, and highly radiating port cluster around the Bohai Sea and indeed the largest in the country; and form a Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei airport cluster pattern of “four hubs and multiple feeder routes” with clear positioning and optimal functions.
　　Li Lan, President of the Macro Research Institute of the Hebei Provincial Development and Reform Commission, said that in the process of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration, Hebei is the most active, because compared with Beijing and Tianjin, Hebei's level of economic development is lower; after the top leadership proposed the concept of integration, it is both an opportunity and a challenge for Hebei.
　　In terms of transport, the gap between Hebei and Beijing and Tianjin is also obvious. Gao Jinhao said that compared with Beijing and Tianjin, Hebei still has a considerable gap in highway technical grade and road network density. The proportion of highways of Grade II and above is 8 and 19 percentage points lower respectively, and road density is 44 and 42 kilometers lower respectively; among them, expressway density is only 1/2 that of Beijing and 1/3 that of Tianjin. Hebei also has many dead-end roads and bottleneck roads; expressways such as Beijing-Kunming, Beijing-Taipei, the Capital Regional Ring, and Beijing-Qinhuangdao have not all been fully connected. To advance Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei transport integration and achieve transport taking the lead, Hebei must shore up its “shortcomings.”
　　Precisely because they recognize the above gaps and the rare opportunity, Hebei leaders have attached great importance to transport integration. In drafting the plan, senior officials took the initiative to lead teams to coordinate with Beijing multiple times, and ultimately submitted the plan to higher authorities.
　　Dong Yan, a researcher at the Comprehensive Transport Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei transport integration requires not only communication among the three places but also cooperation between provincial and ministerial levels; especially when it involves top-level design and institutional development, intervention at the level of the Ministry of Transport is even more necessary.
　　At present, the Ministry of Transport also attaches great importance to this matter. A researcher from the Policy Research Office of the Ministry of Transport told a reporter from the 21st Century Business Herald that the ministry currently has dedicated personnel responsible for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei transport integration, as well as regular meetings and consultations with the three places, and ministry leaders also attach great importance to this matter.
　　To this end, on June 10, 14, and 17, Yang Chuantang, Party Secretary and Minister of Transport, successively went to Tianjin, Hebei, and Beijing to conduct research on Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei transport integration. At various symposia during the research, Yang Chuantang put forward important ideas for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei transport integration, such as formulating a catalog list of major construction projects.