Decoding Beijing's development through satellite lens

On April 17, a launch ceremony was held in Beijing for the short video series entitled “Overlooking Beijing – A City’s Wisdom for Development”. The video series, jointly launched by the Information Office of Beijing Municipal Government and GMW.cn, is based on satellite images and uses data, graphics, and text to present a magnificent painting scroll of Beijing’s development over time.

Xu Hejian, Deputy Head of the Publicity Department of CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and Director of the Beijing Municipal Information Office said that the video series speaks the language of fact, uses satellite images to reflect the new era, empowers communication through technology, and created a model for international communication of Beijing so that people can not only see the changes of the city, understand its development better but also envisage its future.

Lu Xiangao, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Guangming Daily, said that the series of videos tell a wonderful chapter of Beijing’s development through satellite data visualization, 3D modeling, and other new expressions. Satellite images record the green transformation of Beijing as it becomes more livable and international. The pictures contained in the videos are resonating well with the interest of viewers. The Beijing stories told by the video series, one after another, have presented a three-dimensional painting of a dynamic city.

The series of 20 episodes will be broadcast from April 17 to May 24, with three to four videos released each week on the WeChat account of Beijing Publishing and GMW.cn, as well as on the New Media Matrix of Beijing and its social media channel overseas, and other platforms at home and abroad. The video series, “Hello! Beijing Municipal Administrative Centre” shows the vibrant development of the city’s sub-center through satellite images that change over time. “The Glowing Lights of Beijing” highlights the changes in Beijing’s urban construction through high-precision optical images of the city’s view at night. “Every Species Can Find a Home” tells the biodiversity of Beijing through the krubi in the National Botanical Garden, whereas “Hello! Beijing” showcases Beijing’s sci-tech achievements with a line of code.

In his speech, Prof. Zhang Guo from the State Key Laboratory of Mapping and Remote Sensing Information Engineering at Wuhan University, said that “remote sensing journalism” has wide applications in the era of new media, and that greater integration and collaborative innovation between the remote sensing and journalism are needed.