REGIONAL> Development
A huge man-made lake project launched in Jiading
By Chen Qide (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-28 17:01

Jiading District in Shanghai today launched a man-made lake project by investing 230 million yuan as a key effort to push forward its construction on urban infrastructure facilities.

The project, named Yuanxiang Lake, covers an area of 62 hectares with 33.85 hectares of waters.

"The lake project will greatly improve the living environment of the suburban satellite city as it is completed," said Li Jian, president of Shanghai Jiading New City Development Co Ltd.

"It will also become a strong stimulus to the development of the areas nearby and even to Shanghai," said Sun Jiwei, head of Jiading district government.

Sun said apart from the lake project, Jiading plans to launch three more infrastructure projects in the near future, including a forest belt.

The four projects will have a combined green area of about 2 million square meters with trees and lawns planted, he said.

"So many trees and lawns will better improve Jiading's ecological environment, creating pleasant suburban circumstances for the metropolitan city," Sun said.

According to the district government, six social welfare projects including hospitals and schools, with a combined investment of 490 million yuan, will be soon mounted.

A local government spokesman said Jiading has spent 5.5 billion yuan on infrastructure projects this year.

"We will take out 7.4 billion yuan next year to launch more projects to improve our living and business environment," Sun said.

After three or five years of efforts, Jiading will build a new city downtown center for local residents to live, Li said.

At present, some of the world's well-known real estate developers, such as Poly Property and Bangkok Bank Ltd, have involved themselves into Jiading's development, Li said.

China Daily Shanghai Bureau