Qianhai FTZ [PhotoXinhua]
A TOTAL of 11 new major projects are under construction and construction of 89 buildings was completed in the Qianhai and Shekou Area of the China (Guangdong) Pilot Free Trade Zone by the end of April, said Tian Fu, chief of the Qianhai-Shekou area’s authority, on Wednesday, a day ahead of the area’s second anniversary.
Projects such as the New Times Plaza, Qianhai Free Trade Building, the Kerry complex, the China Resources complex, Hony Global PE Center and Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Innovation Center have all shown hints of the intensive development of the area.
“We can now picture the future landscape of the three ‘cities’ and one port, namely the Qianhai International Finance City, Qianhai Free Trade City, Shenzhen-Hong Kong Innovation City and the International Pivotal Port,” said Tian.
According to the authorities, construction of the highly anticipated project — Qianhan Shenzhen-Hong Kong Fund Town — is expected to be finished in July and operations will start in October.
“The urban planning of Qianhai has made a solid foundation for its construction projects,” said Ye Weihua, deputy director of Qianhai’s planning and construction division. “Soliciting of the construction plan started in 2009. Over 60 globally renowned design institutions made proposals, and one American company won the first prize. In 2010, the city organized a comprehensive planning workshop and invited 13 design companies to make a final plan based on the winning proposal. The plan was implemented in 2013 after more than 80 studies were carried out.”
Night scene in Qianhai FTZ [PhotoXinhua]
According to Ye, Qianhai was divided into three function areas: from north to south, there is Guiwan area (financial center), Qianwan area (business, high-tech and comprehensive services center) and Mawan area (international port and logistics and supply-chain headquarters).
“Based on the construction plan, five major construction companies (Shenzhen Metro Group, the Shenzhen Municipal Public Works Bureau, Qianhai United Development Holdings, China Merchants Group and the company cofounded by Qianhai Authority and China Merchants Group) are now building both the landscape and the skyline of Qianhai,” said Sun Yi, director assistant of the construction command center of Qianhai Authority.
Sun said that although construction has met several challenges, such as the complicated underground geological conditions, the relatively small space for each project, safety pressure and the various paces of each project, they have managed to overcome the difficulties by forming a team to coordinate with the different builders and by hiring professionals to carry out safety inspections of the construction sites four times a month.
Authorities in Qianhai said that they hope to attract 650,000 talents to work in the area and are offering apartments to 150,000 residents.
To achieve the goal, the public rental apartments will be provided to mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and international professionals.
Qianhai[PhotoXinhua]
Besides government-subsidized housing, Qianhai has also tried to reach out to other resources.
On April 22, 57 well-furnished apartments that were operated by Guangzhou-based YOU+ International Youth Community opened their doors to applicants from Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Youth Innovation and Entrepreneur Hub (E Hub), a current innovative youth center in Qianhai.
Roei Simantov, founder of an educational product, and Liu Wenxiang, partner of a Hong Kong startup team, both expressed their desire to move into the community.
Simantov, an Israeli man who created an image-recognizing broadcaster, said that he was happy to learn that Qianhai provides a beautiful environment, quality facilities and aid to entrepreneurs. He has also built a bond with the team that shares the working space with him and became one of their clients.
Liu, who often commutes between Qianhai and Hong Kong, said that Qianhai has saved transportation time for his team as they can either take the shuttle bus between Hong Kong and Qianhai or just rest there after they received permission to move into the residence.
In the future, international schools, international hospitals, above-ground and underground shopping malls, office and apartment buildings, parks, Metro lines and intercity railways will provide conveniences to people, and the 89 newly built buildings are just the tip of the iceberg — they will soon be just a tiny part of this modern, man-made hub.
Xinhua recently marks how Qianhai FTZ evolved in the past 2 years through Aerial photos. Let's have a look...
