Fengtai District has issued Beijing’s first set of guidelines on community parking.

According to the latest data from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport, as of this year… By the end of May, Beijing’s motor vehicle fleet had reached 6.21 million, including 5.19 million passenger cars, making parking challenges increasingly acute. In particular, older residential communities—where property rights are unclear, management services are inadequate, and infrastructure lags behind—often leave residents grappling with a persistent concern: Where can they park their cars, and how should they do so?

Fengtai District recently issued the city’s first-ever guidelines on community parking. This document, titled… The document “Fine-Grained Management and Safety of Motor Vehicle Parking in Residential Communities in Fengtai District” establishes regulations governing parking practices within communities, covering aspects such as responsible entities, parking space allocation, handling of violations, and parking fees.

According to reports, prior to the release of the working guidelines, the specific content had already been piloted in Qianniwa Community. Recently, a reporter from The Beijing News conducted an on-site visit to the area. After more than two years of exploration, Qianniwa Community has designated… With 420 parking spaces, each household is guaranteed at least one spot. The third-party parking management company brought in by the community also handles road maintenance, security patrols, and other duties, and annually allocates a portion of its profits to support the community.

Recently, in the Qianniwa community of Fengtai District, private cars were neatly parked in designated parking spaces. (Beijing News reporter) Jiang Huizi Photography)

Within the former Niwa Community, the government‑funded micro fire station has been put into service. (Photographed by Xin Jing Bao reporter Jiang Huizi)

Before the pilot program for refined parking management was launched, both sides of the roads in Qianniwawa Community were packed with vehicles, leaving only a narrow lane open for passage. (Photo provided by the Qianniwa Community, Fengtai Subdistrict)

Before the pilot program, due to parking… “One spot is hard to come by”—former residents of the Qianniwa Community have been occupying parking spaces with old bicycles and other clutter. (Photo provided by the Qianniwa Community, Fengtai Subdistrict)

Before 1994, the Nihua Community was completed, and Zhang Xinyan was among its first residents. As her living conditions improved, her family acquired a private car in recent years—yet she finds herself troubled by the difficulty of finding a parking space.

“Every day after work, I end up facing a race to snag a parking spot.” The Qian Niwa community is an old‑style residential area that, when first built, lacked an underground garage. Though there are surface parking spaces, they’re not assigned to specific owners, so whether you can park depends entirely on luck—“it’s all about getting there first,” says Zhang Xinyan. To secure a spot, residents have resorted to every trick in the book: traffic cones, bricks, bicycles, broken sofas, homemade wheel locks, and even odds and ends from their homes, all conspicuously left out in plain sight on empty spaces. Some families even send their retired elders to “manually hold” spots for them.

These “Placeholder vehicles” are scattered throughout the residential community, leaving the neighborhood in a state of dirt, disorder, and poor conditions. Qianniwa Road, the main thoroughfare leading into and out of the complex, is often packed with three rows of parked cars, leaving only a single lane open for traffic—resulting in frequent fender benders, heated arguments, and even physical altercations.

These are still not the most troubling issues for Zhang Xinyan. The difficulty of finding parking is only one of the problems facing older residential communities. Due to unclear property rights, inadequate property management, and weak infrastructure, she has long been anxious about the prevalence of street vendors, poor living conditions, potential safety hazards, and limited emergency‑evacuation capabilities.

Stayed here In 2025, recalling the expansive green spaces that had initially delighted her upon moving in, Zhang Xinyan found herself staring at the over-one-meter-tall weeds sprawling unchecked before her. She felt that her residential community, like those wild grasses, had grown dilapidated, chaotic, and utterly lifeless.

Over the past two years, the community situation has improved. In August 2017, the former Niwa Community introduced a third-party parking management company through a government‑procured services model, marking the beginning of an era of professional parking management.

Ma Yun, the former Party Secretary of Qianniwawa Community, stated that, at present, a total number of parking spaces has been designated within the community. There are 420 parking spaces, ensuring that each household has at least one designated spot, and more than ten additional motor vehicle spaces are reserved at the community’s entrances and exits for temporary access, thereby meeting residents’ parking needs.

In the first year of the partnership, the government covered all costs associated with purchasing services and building the infrastructure. By the second year, parking fees were introduced: each household was allocated one parking space, with an annual fee of… 1,200 yuan; two parking spaces cost 1,600 yuan per year. To accommodate the many young people who come to visit their parents, we’ve introduced a special “Family‑Friendly Card” for 20 yuan, offering three hours of free parking and charging 0.5 yuan per hour thereafter. If young visitors stay overnight at their parents’ home, they’ll pay only 5 yuan for parking the entire night.

This pricing was set by the residents themselves. The parking company convened a parking management committee to deliberate and decide on matters such as setting rates and designing family‑friendly parking cards, with all residents participating in the process.

Hu Jinyi is a resident representative who participated in the entire process, from price setting to fee collection. “The second year’s billing went very smoothly, because in the first year we experienced service that was worth its price—and even more.”

Not only does it help plan and manage parking spaces, but the parking company has also gone a step further… “Giving back” to the community.

According to the contract, during the first year of cooperation with the government, the company is required to allocate a portion of its annual net profit earned in the community… Ten percent is allocated to “giving back” to the community, covering activities such as adopting green spaces, managing abandoned waste, conducting neighborhood patrols, repairing road surfaces, and providing emergency fire safety support through micro‑fire stations.

Last year, the dividend payout ratio reached a level of 30%–40%, of the annual operating costs totaling over RMB 400,000, more than RMB 80,000 was allocated to reinvestment.

“Since the parking company moved in, our community’s environment has undergone a qualitative improvement,” said Li Jingrong, a resident. “Now, Qianniwa Community operates under closed‑gate management, with cameras covering every corner, and the parking company’s staff conduct daily patrols, ensuring public safety. The designated parking spaces no longer encroach on green areas; thanks to thoughtful planning, once‑neglected patches of weeds have been transformed into landscaped greenery. And those ‘parking‑spot‑claiming’ tools that used to be scattered throughout the community have completely disappeared.”

“The street administration set clear expectations for us: if we’re going to manage parking, we have to handle every aspect of residents’ lives.” At first, Liu Junjie reluctantly accepted this “unreasonable” condition, but as the collaboration deepened, he came to realize that providing services to older residential communities simply cannot be reduced to addressing just one issue.

Unlike newly built communities, older residential areas still face lingering historical issues regarding property ownership. They are characterized by a mix of resettlement housing, market‑priced homes, and public rental units, with overall infrastructure that remains relatively underdeveloped. “Managing older residential communities is challenging, and it’s even harder to hear a single word of satisfaction from the residents,” said Shan Jie, deputy director of the Fengtai Subdistrict Office.

“Both the government and third-party companies must fulfill their respective roles,” says Dan Jie. While calling on parking operators to “give back” to the community, she adds that the government, too, should proactively assume its responsibilities and play a guiding role.

To this end, Fengtai Subdistrict has allocated funds to upgrade and renovate the community’s parking system, micro fire stations, and other facilities, with operations entrusted to a third-party company. “If the hardware can’t be moved, we’ll fund its construction ourselves. Once the partnership is terminated, the third-party company can simply withdraw, thereby preventing any subsequent disputes from causing harm to residents,” said Dan Jie.

After more than two years of practical experience, the Qianniwa Community has developed a number of effective approaches to community parking management. Building on this momentum, it has also gradually gained valuable insights into the governance of older residential neighborhoods. “Method and structure.”

Dan Jie believes that matters concerning residents should first be grounded in resident self-governance and fully incorporate residents’ views. Prior to introducing parking management, the community conducted door-to-door surveys to gauge public opinion, with more than… A leading group was established and a plan was formulated only after 75% of community residents gave their consent. She also underscored the “back‑feeding” role of third‑party firms, noting, “For older residential neighborhoods, improving the overall environment is what matters most.”

Following the release of the Fengtai District Community Parking Guidelines, community parking management will now have clear, standardized procedures to follow. However, given the varying circumstances across different communities, how can we prevent… “A one-size-fits-all approach”?

During the process of scaling up the former Nihua experience to Fengtai Subdistrict, it went through a phase of… The transition from “struggling to adapt to local conditions” to “tailoring solutions to local circumstances.” At present, four communities—Beida Jie Nanli, Bei’erli, Jianguo Jie Yili, and the West District—have implemented parking management, each with its own needs and priorities. For instance, the West District has drawn heavily on the experience of Qianniwa, embarking on a pilot initiative to align parking‑management practices with quasi‑property‑management standards, while adopting a menu‑style approach to handling various community matters. Meanwhile, two other residential complexes, including Dongda Jie Xili, have adopted a resident‑self‑governance model for parking management.

Zhao Junqi, head of the Comprehensive Transportation Section of the Fengtai District Urban Management Committee, stated that Fengtai District encompasses a variety of community types: newly built communities face relatively fewer challenges, whereas older residential areas must contend with numerous obstacles. In light of this situation, the operational guidelines are not rigid regulations, and their implementation must avoid any form of inflexible or mechanical application. “A one-size-fits-all approach.” “At present, the operational guidelines have been issued to all subdistricts and communities for trial implementation. We will continue to monitor any variations or issues that arise during implementation, making ongoing revisions and refinements to the guidelines so as to effectively address residents’ parking concerns,” said Zhao Junqi.

Implementing community-based parking management could have a positive impact on improving urban traffic. Cheng Shidong, Director of the Urban Transportation Division at the Comprehensive Transportation Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, previously told reporters that the key factor affecting urban traffic is… “Car use” rather than “car ownership”—as China relaxes its restrictions on car purchases, future regulations governing vehicle use and parking, particularly residential parking, are likely to become even stricter. It will be necessary to gradually foster a community‑wide mindset that prioritizes securing designated parking spaces.

Since the beginning of this year, China has successively introduced policies to stimulate automobile consumption, and local governments have begun, in light of their specific circumstances, to gradually explore lifting or abolishing vehicle purchase restrictions. Lowering the barriers to car ownership is likely to boost overall vehicle stock, potentially placing greater strain on urban transportation systems. In response, Cheng Shidong argues that both traffic congestion and environmental pollution stem from the use of private cars, rather than from car ownership itself. Therefore, the focus of urban transport governance should be on encouraging rational usage, rather than on restricting ownership.

Guiding rational use, including public education The awareness of “parking in an available spot,” coupled with enhanced community parking management—such as engaging third-party firms to implement market‑driven operations and designating specific parking spaces for residents—is precisely what has, through practical application, both guided and reinforced this principle.

Cheng Shidong argues that, unlike roads, parking spaces are not a public good. Residents should be empowered to address basic parking needs within their neighborhoods and other residential areas, rather than shifting the burden of parking onto society at large. In addition to leveraging market‑based community parking management mechanisms to guide behavior, more sound urban planning—aiming to achieve a balance between work and residence within districts and clusters, thereby reducing long‑distance, peak‑hour commutes—is essential. Furthermore, intensifying efforts to alleviate subway overcrowding, shortening transfer distances, safeguarding bus right-of-way, enhancing the speed and punctuality of surface bus services, and improving conditions for walking and cycling—all these measures constitute longer‑term, fundamental steps in urban transportation governance.