The bustling Yuzui Station in Chongqing. The comprehensive community service complex at Shiyou Road. Can the "Two-Hour Chongqing" transportation circle become a reality? What are the latest developments in building the 15-minute high-quality living service circle? During this year's National Two Sessions, these two "circles" in Chongqing's livelihood sector have become a focus of attention for many delegates and committee members, as well as a hot topic of discussion among netizens.

In recent years, Chongqing has been actively building the "Two-Hour Chongqing" transportation circle and the "15-minute high-quality living service circle," aiming to enhance the city’s livability from both the macro level of transportation accessibility and the micro level of community convenience. Today, these two time-based livelihood development "circles" have become distinctive achievements in Chongqing’s modernization governance of a megacity.

In recent days, reporters have taken high-speed trains and visited communities to experience the warmth of livelihood improvements and the tangible changes in Chongqing’s modern governance of a megacity.

**Two-Hour Chongqing Transportation Circle** **Travel from Wushan to the City Center in Just Two Hours—Something "Unimaginable" Two Decades Ago**

At 10:38 a.m. on March 7, at Wushan High-Speed Rail Station, the transit train G3451 departed for its final destination, Chongqing North Station, after a brief stop. An elderly passenger, after settling into his seat, calmly took out his phone to call his son, who lives near the Guanghuan area in Liangjiang New Area: "I’m coming to visit for a few days. I just left Wushan. My stomach hasn’t been well lately, so I’d like some congee for lunch."

The elderly man, surnamed Yang, is 61 years old and a retired official from the Gaotang Subdistrict Office in Wushan County. "Traveling from Wushan to the city center in just two hours—this is something I 'wouldn’t have dared to dream of' over twenty years ago!" Mr. Yang expressed deep emotion when reflecting on the changes in Chongqing’s transportation system over the years.

Wushan County, known as the eastern gateway of Chongqing, was once one of the city’s remote districts. Although geographically only about 400 kilometers from the city center, for many Wushan residents, this distance once felt like an insurmountable psychological barrier.

Recalling his first trip to Chongqing, Mr. Yang’s memories are tinged with hardship. In 1997, while working in a township in Wushan, he took a bus for most of the day to reach the county seat. At that time, there were two ways to travel from Wushan County to the city center: by passenger ship or by road. Taking a passenger ship would take about two days and two nights, but since tickets were unavailable that day, Mr. Yang had no choice but to take a sleeper bus for an entire day. After getting off at Wan Zhou’s Shahezi, he transferred to another sleeper bus bound for the city center, finally arriving at Chaotianmen after nearly a full day of travel.

Mr. Yang recalled that many sections of the road were unpaved or covered with gravel, making the journey extremely bumpy. Even though he doesn’t usually get motion sickness, he vomited multiple times during the trip. After several days of arduous travel, returning to Wushan felt like recovering from a serious illness.

By the end of 2003, the expressway from Wan Zhou to Chongqing was opened; at the end of 2016, high-speed rail service between Wan Zhou and Chongqing commenced… The completion and operation of a series of major projects significantly improved travel efficiency between the Three Gorges Reservoir area and the city center. The "Eight-Hour Chongqing" achievement once filled many Chongqing residents with pride.

On June 20, 2022, the Wan Zhou North to Wushan section of the Zhengzhou-Chongqing high-speed railway opened to traffic, ushering Wushan, Fengjie, and Yunyang in northeastern Chongqing into the "high-speed rail era" and realizing the "Two-Hour Chongqing" vision—something Mr. Yang "wouldn’t have dared to dream of" two decades ago! That day, Mr. Yang boarded the inaugural train C6403 after the full opening of the Zhengzhou-Chongqing high-speed rail line to experience the "Two-Hour Chongqing Journey." When the train arrived at Chongqing North Station two hours later, Mr. Yang and several other passengers couldn’t hold back their tears of joy!

**15-Minute High-Quality Living Service Circle** **From a Time Metric to a Life Standard—15 Minutes "Circling" a Better Life**

At 8 a.m. on March 7, in the Erpu residential area of Shiyou Road Community in Yuzhong District, 62-year-old resident Granny Li stepped out of her home and walked just two minutes to a breakfast shop on the street. A bowl of hot congee and three steamed buns cost only six yuan—the simple, everyday comfort of local life.

At the entrance of the community, a previously idle office space has been transformed into a convenient service area for residents. Four small storefronts line the street, offering fresh fruits and vegetables, fragrant breakfast options, and a bustling shoe repair and key duplication stall—meeting various daily needs right at the doorstep. Within this compact 0.22-square-kilometer community, over 300 local shops form a residential commercial service circle. Convenience stores like Chongqing Department Store’s Good Neighbor have set up shop in the community, allowing residents to purchase daily necessities without traveling to distant supermarkets. The convenience of life in this older community rivals that of newly built neighborhoods.

The charm of the community lies not only in the practicality of daily essentials but also in the blend of modern comfort and poetic living. Around the corner, a 6-square-meter community coffee shop offers small joys. The 26-year-old owner, Liu Yang, has turned it into a shared space for neighbors—a place for elderly residents to rest and chat, and for young people to work or read. The fusion of traditional community life and contemporary trends creates a warm and inviting atmosphere. Whether seeking leisure for the elderly or refinement for the young, the 15-minute living circle caters to all.

Smart technology enhances the sense of security in daily life. The smart wristband worn by Auntie Li connects to the community terminal in real time, monitoring health data and providing a one-click solution to prevent wandering incidents. Smoke detection devices in building corridors ensure round-the-clock home safety. Grid inspectors report issues with a single click, enabling timely and efficient resolution of problems, making residents feel secure and content.

The "Happiness Treasure" mini-program serves as a life management tool for residents. With a tap on their phones, they can access 39 government and lifestyle services, including chronic disease management, medical appointments, and educational resource matching. Digital solutions bring both speed and warmth to public services, overcoming governance challenges in older communities.

From dawn to dusk, 15 minutes defines the daily living radius for Shiyou Road Community residents—a measure of their happiness. Here, there is no alienation from towering skyscrapers, only the warmth of neighborly companionship; no inconvenience associated with older communities, only the benefits of refined governance. By integrating resources and leveraging digital technology, this compact community has become a livable, work-friendly, and joyful home.

**Livelihood Interview** **Huang Hai, Member of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Director of the Yuzhong District Planning and Natural Resources Bureau:** **The "15-Minute High-Quality Living Service Circle" Should Transition from "Availability" to "Quality"**

Regarding the current challenges in building the "15-minute high-quality living service circle," such as resource allocation, service provision, and operational coordination, Huang Hai proposed addressing root causes with systematic thinking, reform spirit, and digital empowerment to shift the focus from "whether it exists" to "how good it is" and "sustainability."

First, strengthen data-driven planning and guidance to achieve precise allocation of spatial resources. Integrate and establish a unified "living circle spatial resource information platform," set standards for collecting and sharing information on existing and idle spatial resources, and vigorously promote the aggregation of resource data from various departments and ownership units onto a unified platform. Ensure dynamic updates and provide the public with convenient query, filtering, and information release functions. Encourage property owners to prioritize using idle resources to address gaps in livelihood services within the "living circle" and support social forces in participating in operations.

Second, build a demand-oriented and all-age-friendly system to enhance the precision and inclusivity of service provision. Develop a refined and dynamic evaluation standard system, increasing the weight of "soft indicators" such as service utilization rates and satisfaction levels. Establish a dynamic matching and feedback mechanism among "resident demand lists," "resource inventories," and "service supply lists" to enable needs-based allocation and continuous optimization. Strengthen inclusivity by deploying multi-functional self-service terminals and forming "digital elderly assistance teams." Create participation processes covering planning, construction, operation, and evaluation stages, clarifying the responsibilities of all parties. Establish a closed-loop management mechanism for "collection-processing-feedback-application" and provide appropriate incentives for active contributors, achieving a substantive shift from "making decisions for you" to "you making the decisions."

Third, innovate collaborative governance and diversified operation models to ensure the sustainable vitality of projects. Promote diverse and sustainable operation models, vigorously encourage public-private partnerships where the government provides venues, subsidies, or purchases services, and enterprises handle professional, market-oriented operations. Explore integrated "public welfare + commercial" models, allowing a certain proportion of convenience commercial services within public service facilities, using rental income to support public welfare costs and creating a self-sustaining mechanism. Integrate and streamline grassroots assessment tasks, allowing grid inspectors to focus on their primary responsibilities. Improve incentive mechanisms, mobilize couriers, shop owners, and enthusiastic residents to serve as "mobile grid inspectors" and "public sentiment monitors," deepen the integration of government services like "Yu Kuai Ban" into communities, and build a new pattern of co-construction, co-governance, and shared benefits involving the government, market, society, and residents.

**"Two-Hour Chongqing" Transportation Circle to Be Fully Completed During the "15th Five-Year Plan" Period, Covering Wu Xi and Chengkou**

Regarding netizens’ concerns about when the "Two-Hour Chongqing" transportation circle will be fully realized, a relevant official from the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Transport stated that in June 2025, the Chongqing East to Qianjiang section of the Chongqing-Xiamen high-speed railway will begin operation, bringing high-speed rail service for the first time to Nanchuan, Wulong, Pengshui, and Qianjiang, and officially ushering southeastern Chongqing into the "high-speed rail era." Currently, the "Two-Hour Chongqing" transportation circle is largely complete. Among the 29 distant districts and counties from the city center, 27 can now be reached within two hours. Only the urban areas of Chengkou County and Wu Xi County are not yet accessible within two hours from the city center.

The official indicated that the "Two-Hour Chongqing" transportation circle will be fully completed during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period.

**65 Community-Embedded Service Points Already Established; 100 New Ones to Be Built This Year**

In recent years, Chongqing has explored distinctive and effective pathways tailored to local conditions, coordinating and refining 11 areas including housing, employment, and healthcare, and advancing the pilot construction of 50 urban community-embedded service facilities. So far, 65 "15-minute high-quality living service circles" have been established, covering 276 communities and serving over 3.1 million people.

In the 2026 government work report, Mayor Hu Heng Hua stated that Chongqing will build 100 new "15-minute high-quality living service circles" this year, making urban life more vibrant, humane, and happy.