'Oasis' plan for disused airport land

GUANGZHOU: Disused land once home to the city's airport is to be developed into a leisure and culture "oasis", it was announced yesterday.

The 9.22-sq-km area, which is valued at more than 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion), has stood empty since the airport moved to the Huadu district in 2004.

But the urban planning bureau for the Guangdong provincial capital this week unveiled a 1-billion-yuan plan to build new parks, office buildings and cultural centers, and rename it Baiyun New Town, said the project's chief engineer Ye Haojun yesterday.