【 Culture & Leisure 】
New Guangdong Museum
广东省博物馆
Location: The New City Center Plaza of Culture and Art at the southern waterfront of Zhujiang New City. The building neighbors the Guangzhou Opera House.
Construction commencement: December, 2004.
Operation commencement: 2008.
An artist rendition of the Guangdong Museum. (Guangzhou Government)
The complex is designed like a huge and fabulous box containing treasures by a Hong-Kong-based company.
Its some-20,000-square-meter show area is divided into three parts - history, nature and art - for the expected 1 million visitor/times annually.
Paintings and calligraphy works, pottery and porcelain, bronze ware, coins, banknotes, wooden-carvings, jade, ancient antiques, modern items, items of folk custom, stone-carvings, minerals, fossils, and natural specimens will be shown in separate halls.
New Guangzhou Library
广州新图书馆
Location: The southern part of Zhujiang New City.
Construction commencement: Feb., 2006.
Operation commencement: 2008.
Investment: ￥840 million (US4 million).
An artist rendition of the Guangzhou Library. (sina.com)
The complex will provide a large floor space, as much as 98,000 square meters, 6, 100 seats, 6 times as big as the existing Guangzhou Library in Zhongshan Si Lu. It will be home to 4 million volumes.
The construction design, named "Beautiful Book", is co-developed by the Guangzhou Design Institute and Japanese Nikken Company.
Guangzhou Opera House
广州歌剧院
Location: Linjiang Dadao, Zhujiang New City.
Construction commencement: January, 2005.
Operation commencement: 2008.
Investment: over ￥1 billion (US2 million).
An artist rendition of the exterior. (Guangzhou Government)
An artist rendition of the exterior. (Guangzhou Government)
The construction will become the 3rd largest Opera House in China, next to Beijing' s and Shanghai' s.
It is designed in grey and black by British female designer Zaha•Hadid and features natural, rustic shapes and distinctive materials in sharp contrast to neighboring buildings. It is a state of the art post-modernist building.
An artist rendition of the interior. (Zaha•Hadid's blog)
An artist rendition of the auditorium. (Zaha•Hadid's blog)
Construction site of the Guangzhou Opera House. (Guangzhou Daily)
The opera house will cover 42, 000 square meters and provide a floor area of 46, 000 square meters. It will comprise a 1,800-seat theater, a 400-seat multi-functional hall and a 4,000-square-meter front parlor and lounge.
It will have an underground parking lot for over 250 vehicles, connecting with the underground parking lots of nearby Guangdong Museum and Guangzhou Children' s Place.
Nansha Bathing Beach
南沙海滩浴场
Location: Near the Tian Hou Gong Temple, Nansha in the southern end of Guangzhou
Operation commencement: May, 2008
It will be the first natural bathing beach of Guangzhou, with gorgeous seaviews of the Pearl River Mouth into the South China Sea.
A 430-meter wooden walk has been constructed and opened to the public for free just beside the beach.
The coastal combination of beach and wooden walk is the first ever in Guangdong Province.
An artist rendition of the Gang Wan Plaza. (Information Times)
Gang Wan Plaza
港湾广场
Location: Riverside west of Haiyin Bridge, Yanjiang Dong Lu.
Operation commencement: 2008.
It will become the largest waterfront plaza in Guangzhou, with an area of over 2,000 square meters and a cruise pier.
【 Transportation 】
New Guangzhou Railway Station
广州新火车站
Location: Shibi Village of Zhong Cun Town, Panyu of Guangzhou.
Construction commencement: December 30, 2004.
Operation commencement: 2008.
Investment: ￥13 billion (US$ 1.8 billion, excluding metro).
An artist rendition of the New Guangzhou Railway Station. (Guangzhou Daily)
The station will feature 15 platforms, 28 tracks, four times larger than the existing station in Huanshi Xi Lu.
The complex will have four floors with an area of 377, 600 square meters, including one underground.
An artist rendition of the New Guangzhou Railway Station. (ycwb.com)
Its three floors that are above ground will be for waiting halls for VIP passengers and routine commuters of express railways between Wuhan and Guangzhou, Guangzhou and Zhuhai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and Guangzhou and Hong Kong, while the underground will be for the metro.
The new station will be capable of accommodating 78 million passengers annually.
Construction cost of three major new railway stations in China
Beijing West Station: ￥6.5 billion (US$ 880 million).
Shanghai South Station: ￥3.123 billion (US$ 422 million).
New Guangzhou Railway Station: ￥13 billion (US$ 1.8 billion, excluding metro).
Metro Line 5
广州地铁五号线
Operation commencement (whole line): 2008
Inside look of the underground construction site of Guangzhou's Metro Line 5.
The line will connect Jiaokou of Fangcun in the west to the Huangpu Passengers Dock in the eastern Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development District (GETDD).
It will span 42.8 km and cover 29 stops as a major commutation line across Tianhe CBD.
Guang(zhou) – Shen(zhen) section of Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong-Kong Passengers Railway
广深港客运专线广深段
Operation commencement: 2008.
Investment: ￥16.7 billion (US$ 2.3 billion)
This railway will basically lie parallel to the present Guangzhou-Kowloon line and will further connect Hong Kong to the national rail network.
The railway is designed for speeds between 250-350 kph. The travel time between Guangzhou and Hong Kong along the line is expected to be shortened to 40 minutes from the current 100 minutes along the Guangzhou-Kowloon Railway.
Guang(zhou) – Zhu(hai) Railway
广珠城际轨道
Construction commencement: July 2005
Operation commencement: 2008
Investment: ￥19.5 billion (US$ 2.7 billion)
The railway will span 140.8 km and consist of 18 stops. It is divided into a main line (connecting the New Guangzhou Railway Station in Panyu and Zhuhai) and a side line (linking Xiaolan of Zhongshan to Jiangmen).
The commutation along the line features on-bridge drive, as the main line runs on 30 big bridges.
Trains will depart every 2 minutes on average during service hours from 6 am to 12 pm. The fare for the whole drive is ￥55 (US$ 7.5). The complete trip will take 86 minutes.
The Tunnel between University Town and Biology Island
生物岛—大学城隧道
Construction commencement: December 2005
Operation commencement: 2008
Investment: 500 million (US$ 68.6 million)
Map of the tunnel. (www.lifeofguangzhou.com)
The construction site. (Guangzhou Daily)
It will be the third cross-river tunnel in Guangzhou and the main commutation route between downtown, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center (so-called "University Town") and Biology Island in the southern part of the metropolis.
The construction will span 1, 338 meters and 2 lanes in each direction.
Lie De Bridge and Road System
猎德大桥系统
Location: from Guangyuan Lu, Tianhe, Zhujiang New City to Xingang Lu in southern Guangzhou.
Operation commencement: End of 2008 (for phase I spanning from Lie De Bridge to Guang Yuan Lu).
Two An artist renditions of the Lie De Bridge. (Guangzhou Government)
The north-south span will function as a new major express route in Tianhe CBD and through the center of Zhujiang New City of Guangzhou, to substantially relieve the traffic load along Guangzhou Dadao and congestion-haunted Tianhe.
The system (phase I) consists of Lie De Bridge, three overpasses, three tunnels and Guangyuan Dong Roundabout. The Lie De Bridge, the core part, is a 750-meter suspension construction. It is located between Guangzhou Bridge and Huanan Bridge and connects to Xin Guang Expressway to Panyu.
【 Logistics 】
Part II of Nansha Automobile Pier
南沙汽车码头二期
Location: Nansha District in southern Guangzhou
Operation commencement: 2008
The special pier will become the largest auto logistic checkpoint in Asia, through which over 5, 000 vehicles per month on average will be shipped northward to Shanghai and Tianjin. The annual volume will be 200,000.
The cargo stack area will increase to 370,000 square meters and the trailers' loading zones up to 48 after the part II construction is completed.
FedEx Asian-Pacific Logistics Center
联邦快递亚太转运中心
Location: Eastern Runway of the Baiyun Airport, Huadu in northern Guangzhou.
Construction commencement: January, 2006.
Operation commencement: 2008.
Investment: ￥2.4 billion (US$ 324 million).
Construction site of the FedEx Asian-Pacific Logistics Center. (Huadu Government)
This international center for air express delivery will function mainly for cargo sorting and express trans-delivery. It will cover 187 acres and provide 28 berths for the expected weekly flights of 150.
It will make possible 24-hour delivery within Asia, and daily sorting of about 125,000 items and cargo of some 1,800 tons.
The center will produce an output of ￥8.4 – 47.3 billion (US$ 1.13 – 6.39 billion) to South China directly.
Industry
Ship-fixing Section of Longxue Shipyard
南沙龙穴造船基地的修船项目
Location: Longxue Island of Nansha District in southern end of Guangzhou
Operation commencement: 2008.
It will be the largest ship-repairing center in South China, modern and well-equipped. It includes two repair docks respectively for 200,000-ton and 300,000-ton vessels and a 1.5-km-long quay.
The boatyard is invested by the Guangzhou Dock (Holdings), which was established by Guangzhou Shipyard, Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard and Yuanhang Group.
【 Public Communication 】
Guangzhou News Center
广州新闻中心
Location: Zhujiang New City
Operation commencement: March, 2008
The center will become the venue for the Guangzhou Municipal Government to hold press conferences and to release official information.
Media reporters can enter the compound with special IC cards and will be provided with one-stop-shop and timely press and information services, including internet connection and simultaneous interpretation.
(By Ronald Li and Alan Devey)
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