CONCRETE structures on bare land with scaffolding and huge cranes are a part of the landscape of Shenzhen, the young and booming special economic zone city that just turned 25.

The image of constant development is also part of the University Town of Shenzhen, a giant that is no more than 3 years old. Next month its eastern section will see the completion of the financial engineering school campus of Nankai University.

And more projects are under construction. The long, huge library is almost completed. Its waved roof, designed to reduce the mammoth weight the building bears, has emerged from behind scaffolds.

According to plans, more construction will happen in the near future, including sports facilities and a network project, which will allow the university town to become a node in CERNET2, the second generation of China's education and research network.

"We will start building a sports center next year to be completed in 2007, which will facilitate the Universide if Shenzhen hosts it in 2011," said Zhang Rulin, deputy director of the administration office of the university town. Shenzhen is currently bidding to host the Universiade in 2011, 11 years after Beijing became the first Chinese venue of the international sports event for university students.

Despite the busy construction site, the university town at the foot of the Tanglang Mountain, beside Xili Lake is an escape from the intensity of city life.

The campuses for post-graduate schools of Beijing University (Beida), Qinghua University (Qinghua) and Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) were finished in 2003.

Occupying an area of 264,000 square meters, the education complex consists of 38 buildings for holding class, labs, conferences, dormitories, dining halls and administration, in a picturesque setting with bridges and greenery. Eventually the campus will be expanded to 1.54 square kilometers.

"It seemed we were in nowhere the first year we came, but now the faculty have made up their minds to settle down in Shenzhen," said Wu Xingqin, an administrator with HIT. He displayed a picture of students holding up a school banner above their heads, standing on bare, yellow ground before a single building in 2003.

Shenzhen's university town is the only one in China with no undergraduates. It limits itself to postgraduate studies to supplement the education resources in the city.

The university town was launched with uncompromisingly high standards, starting with agreements signed with top universities such as Beida, Qinghua and HIT. The major investment was shouldered by the city government.

Beida, Qinghua and HIT all enroll graduates nationwide and send them to their Shenzhen postgraduate schools with the students' consent.

In the past two years, the three universities launched more than 100 research programs with companies and government bodies such as Huawei, ZTE, the TV maker Skyworth, Shenzhen People's Hospital and urban planning organizations.

The university town has increased its international connections after including programs with universities in Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, the United States and Japan.

Editor: Wing