A rendering of a large underground development project below the Hangzhou Future Sci-Tech City in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]

Hangzhou plans to begin focusing more on exploring underground space, something which may even be included in the 14th National Five-Year Plan (2021-2025).

Hangzhou has undertaken a number of underground development projects every year since it first launched a plan dedicated to developing underground space in 2016.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), Hangzhou added 38.15 million square meters of underground space, bringing its total underground area to more than 97 million sq m.

The underground roads beneath the Hangzhou Future Sci-Tech City connect neighboring buildings in the city. [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]

According to the 2019 Report on Underground Development in Chinese Cities, at the end of 2018, Hangzhou ranked third among Chinese cities in terms of total underground space.

Hangzhou is also focusing on the construction of utility tunnels, and over the past five years, it has built seven national pilot utility tunnels.