Chongqing puts on new dress for city summit
By Zhou Liming (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-12 05:44

Chongqing has undergone a massive facelift in preparation for the 2005 Asia Pacific Cities Summit, which opens today in the city's brand-new international convention centre.

The riverside city spent up to 7 billion yuan (US$863 million) on improving its infrastructure, closing the gap on the country's international metropolises.

According to Gong Ke, dean of the business school of Chongqing Postal Communications Academy, the city has made changes in two years that would normally have taken five, putting its stage of development significantly closer to the Shanghai benchmark.

In response to questions about possible "white elephants" or what the Chinese call "face projects," Mayor Wang Hongju explained that although the focus of much of the investment is the summit, the changes will bring long-term benefits to ordinary citizens.

"The roads, flyovers, museums and the convention centre that we have built for the event will all help us in the long run," emphasized Wang.

He further revealed that, of the 7 billion yuan, the municipal government stumped up 1.1 billion while the city's districts chipped in hundreds of millions more.

Work on the Chongqing International Convention Centre, the main venue for the event, actually started 12 years ago, but the project initially grounded to a halt "due to unfavourable market conditions." It was revived in September 2003 and, with a final price tag of 1.5 billion yuan (US$185 million), the Asia Pacific Cities Summit is its maiden show.

A series of conferences and exhibitions will follow, including the Autumn Real Estate Show, the Fifth City Construction Exhibition and the China International Electric Machinery Expo. City officials reckon that for every yuan the convention and exhibition makes from its event, nine more will roll into other related businesses. They are not shy about their dream of matching Shanghai and Singapore in the international convention market.

New face

The trickle-down effect is already working, they claim. The 3 billion yuan poured into the Nanping community, where the new convention centre is located, has already sparked a chain reaction, firing up the local housing market. Pu Yueyu, a planning manager with a local real estate firm, estimates there will be 10 billion yuan in economic gains, accounting for at least 1 per cent of the community's GDP.

Chongqing, a city with 3,000 years of history gives the impression of a sparkling new metropolis today, hardly recognizable to someone who has been absent only a year or two. More accurately, one has the visual excitement of putting on a new pair of glasses and finding a richer and enhanced version of the old cityscape.

One of the summit's slogans is to welcome guests with "flowers and smiles." Flowers of every variety line wide boulevards and cluster winding streets, forming exquisite patterns. There are 3.5 million flower pots, one for every 10 Chongqing residents. On top of that, the city has built 2.1 million square metres of public green land and planted 1.5 million trees. Spending on greenery alone adds up to 370 million yuan (US$45 million).

These are just a few of the 56 "landscaping projects" that have made this boomtown in the Southwest China a shining diamond on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

One of the projects is called "new clothing for older buildings," which has been controversial because some see it as a typical face project. A total 584 buildings that face the streets and are easily visible to casual visitors have been given a fresh coat of paint, often in new, brighter colours.

Costs have been met by municipal and district governments, said Guo Ruqi, a city official. "Owners of the houses don't need to shell out a penny." The city has also ensured the paint will not peel as soon as convention delegates leave: All facades - almost 1 million square metres of them - received sulphur- and water-resistant coatings and are guaranteed for five years.

"I don't think this is just for the sake of appearance," Mayor Wang Hongju justified in an online chat. "It is like washing your face or clothes. These houses need regular cleaning and painting. We started in Yuzhong District, our downtown, and when the result got a positive response, other districts followed suit. Now, the whole city has taken on a new look, which is good. And it is not restricted to the visible exterior, we are also working on the more 'internal parts' of the buildings as well."

On the north side of the Yangtze River Bridge, in a community called Shibanpo, rows of traditional "hanging houses," or "diao jiao lou," got more than a clean new face. The community had limited indoor plumbing and dirty water used to flow onto the street. "Whenever it rained, we stayed at home so we didn't have to walk on the dirty, slippery roads," said an elderly lady named Zhang, who has lived in the area all her life.

But now, the city has laid pipes underground, built public toilets and installed fire hydrants. "We have peach blossoms in the spring and willows in the summer. Our community is so picturesque that I've taken photos and sent them to my daughter in Shenzhen," added Zhang.

Business appeal

Ordinary citizens are not the only people who are excited about the conference and its benefits. Qingling Group was the first business to sponsor the event. It shelled out 1.6 million yuan (US$197,300) for a chance to "get close and personal with mayors of Asia Pacific cities."

The automaker, which has a partnership with Isuzu of Japan, is aiming for the international market, said Yuan Congyun, the general manager. "The summit will enable us to get to know the needs of these cities and establish footholds there."

Yuan explained that Qingling has already gained some big contracts, all from the Asia Pacific region.

There are at least 28 sponsors for the event, putting up a sum totalling tens of millions of yuan. Also participating are some 255 businesses that have sent representatives to the conference, among them Sony and Microsoft.

Tomita Masahiro, Japanese consul general in Chongqing, praised the city's efforts in environmental protection, one of the themes of the conference.

"Starting from 2001, an economic alliance from Japan has been working on a forestation project here in Chongqing and significant progress has been achieved, and now it has decided to keep up the co-operation," he said.

Since the "go-west" programme was launched in the late 1990s by the central government, Japanese automakers have settled in Chongqing, producing cars and motorcycles, said Tomita. Now software and chemical companies are exploring the vast potential of this market.

To participate in the summit, the Japanese city of Hiroshima has dispatched a delegation headed by its mayor.

"They're here to seek opportunities for co-operation," the consul general said.

Chongqing is on a fast track to becoming an international metropolis, local residents and outside visitors agree. The new monorail, the new airport terminal, the new planning exhibition museum under the busy port plaza of Chaotianmen, and highrises mushrooming all over the city, changing its skyline year after year, are a reminder of Shanghai in the 1990s.

Throngs of pedestrians ramble along Nan'an the south bank of the Yangtze River a strip that rivals Shanghai's Bund for glitter and glamour. They enjoy flower displays, check out statues and marvel at the neon-silhouetted skyline across the river and the miles of glitzy restaurants on the other side of the boulevard.

Among the crowd was Claudette Trombley. Although a Chongqing resident for only four months, she has already fallen in love with city. Talking about the big event and the impressive build up, the native of Michigan, the United States, said: "It's worth it. It gives energy to the city and pride to its people."

(China Daily 10/12/2005 page5)