Beijing will undertake a major restructuring of the capital government as part of a broader plan to create a giant urban corridor in northern China, officials say.

At the end of a Communist Party meeting on Saturday, city officials said on the evening news that hospitals, wholesale markets and some of the city's administrative offices would move outside the city centre.

An elderly Chinese farmer stands outside her home near a housing development in Hebei province just outside Beijing. Credit:Getty Images

Beijing is to limit its population to 23 million, slightly more than its current estimated population of 22 million, and reduce the population of its six core districts by 15 per cent. Many important services will move to suburbs or neighbouring Hebei province, officials said.

The centrepiece of the plan will be an administrative centre in the Beijing suburb of Tongzhou, a historic move that reverses decades of urban planning that wedged government offices into the imperial city. The move will begin by 2017 at the latest, Beijing party secretary Guo Jinlong said in a speech.