A view of the Xiong'an Urban Computing Center on April 2, 2026 Photo: Tao Mingyang/GT At first glance, the streets of the Xiong'an New Area in North China's Hebei Province look clean and new, yet not particularly remarkable. It is only when driving through them that one senses the pulse of what has been widely referred to in China as "the city of the future." Here, drivers no longer "obey" green lights; the lights "obey" the traffic. This is no illusion. Behind the so-called "green-wave traffic system" lie more than 20,000 roadside sensors that monitor traffic flow, queue lengths and vehicle types in real time. The data feed into an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered "city brain" that recalibrates signals in milliseconds. As a result, the average number of stops per vehicle has fallen by half, according to official figures. This is just one example of the technological innovation that is being born â and coming alive â in the Xiong'an New Area. Established in 2017 under a grand national blueprint, the city has, in just nine years, made striking progress in smart-city construction and sci-tech innovation. More efforts have been urged to build the new area into an innovation hub in the new era and a model of promoting high-quality development. Smart city During the Global Times' recent trip to the new area, "new Xiong'an residents," including sci-tech workers, speak eagerly of the smart features of their new home and express quiet pride in contributing to its development. On a national level, development of this city of the future holds great significance for China's broader push toward high-quality development, an expert told the Global Times. "Driving in Xiong'an, it's no longer about cars watching the traffic lights â it's the traffic lights that watch the cars," Zhang Yan, who moved to