SHANGHAI: From its vantage point at one end of the site where the Hanghzou Bay Bridge is being built, Cixi's future looks pretty bright.

The government of this city in East China's Zhejiang Province is gearing up to capitalize on the influx of people the bridge will bring when it is opened to traffic in the next year.

Linking Cixi and Jiaxing, another city in Zhejiang Province, the 36-km Hangzhou Bay Bridge will be the world's longest trans-oceanic bridge. The bridge, which spans Hangzhou Bay, an inlet of the East China Sea, will also ease travel to Shanghai and Zhejiang.

For example, the bridge will shorten the journey between Shanghai and Ningbo by 120 km.

Officials in Cixi say the bridge will bring people, cargo and business into the city. With the opening of the bridge, the county-level city under the jurisdiction of Ningbo will find itself in the center of the traffic network linking Shanghai, Hangzhou and Ningbo. It will be just one-and-a-half hours' drive from any of those cities.

To prepare for its new place in the region, Cixi began to expand by building a new city, which the bridge will bisect.

The 143-sqm district tentatively called the Hangzhou Bay New District is located on the southern bank of the bay and sits partly on land that has been reclaimed from the sea. Construction of the new area is unfolding in a series of planned phases.

Shi Ke, deputy office director of the new area's administrative committee, said the local government had already invested 4.76 billion yuan ($618 million) in infrastructure construction. So far, about 100 enterprises have settled there, representing investments worth about 24 billion yuan in the area, Shi said.

In addition to functioning as an industrial precinct, the new area is expected to have a logistics park and retail space. Since the town will have easy access to both Shanghai and Ningbo, city planners see the logistics industry as a natural fit for the area.

"Cixi could be an important logistics hub in cooperation with the country's two biggest ports and provide them with services such as cargo distribution and assembly," said Sean Chiao, a senior urban planner and Asia director of the EDAW, an international architecture and urban planning company. The firm has been hired to design a 27-sqm area which is located east of the bridge.

Chiao said the ports in Shanghai and Ningbo both face uncertain futures because of dwindling land resources, leaving little space for convenient infrastructure facilities. Having a logistics park close to the bridge will relieve land pressure on neighboring cities. A bond area will also be set up there, which will mainly serve Ningbo's Beilun Port.

"The new district in Cixi will also become a tourism and shopping destination when the bridge is completed," said Chris Yoshii, EDAW's regional director of economics development, who is also involved in the planning. "People from Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo and other cities in the Yangtze River Delta will come to see the bridge as well as seek out recreational activities and shop there. We envision this place will become a new lifestyle destination."

The retail center will also serve Cixi locals. Statistics show that disposable income in the city was 19,000 yuan in 2005 and many experts have said Cixi's population is wealthier than that of Ningbo, which is fairly well off.

"Actually, we are designing the new district to be a truly livable city with not only manufacturing and service industries, but also a high quality environment. Our approach is not just ecologically sensitive, but it will also attract people from the region to consider relocating here," said Chiao.

"The Hangzhou Bay Bridge gives Cixi a great chance to optimize its future stance in East China's coastal region."

What urban designers call the "bridge economy circle" is also expected to benefit Jiaxing at the other end of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge. And a 26-sqm economic development zone is reportedly under construction in the county-level city of Haiyan, which will mainly host manufacturing and hi-tech industries.

(China Daily 05/08/2007 page4)