Changxing Island: A rising tide of growth

Xu Changyuan is nothing if not optimistic - and ambitious. The director of development at Dalian's Changxing Island expects the island's GDP to rise more than 600 percent from 1.12 billion yuan in 2008 to 130 billion yuan by 2020.

He predicts that total foreign investment on the island will reach $30 billion by 2020, when domestic investment will total 300 billion yuan.

He foresees that Changxing's population will also surge from 57,000 in 2005 to 500,000 by the end of 2020.