275 Billion Yuan Used to Build PudongThe Pudong New District in Shanghai has seen a total of 275 billion yuan (US$ 33 billion) of investment in fixed assets over the past 10 years.Pudong will celebrate its tenth anniversary on April 18. The new economic district was set up to rejuvenate Shanghai's status as an international financial and trade center and promote economic development in the Yangtze River valley. In the first five years of the construction of Pudong, priority has been given to building the road links, telecommunications facilities and the energy systems. The Yangpu and Nanpu bridges were built into the longest and third longest cable-stayed bridges in the world. In the second five years, 100 billion yuan (US$ 12 billion) was spent on building an airport, an information hub and deep-water port. The Pudong International Airport, Waigaoqiao Port Bonded Zone, Pudong Information Hub, the No.2 Subway Line, External Ring Road, East China Sea Natural Gas Transportation System, Sewage Treatment Plant and the International Conference Center were all completed during this period. As the largest infrastructure project in Shanghai, the Pudong International Airport was built at an initial cost of 13.3 billion yuan (US$ 1.6 billion). The airport covers 12 sq. km. and can handle 20 million passengers and 750,000 tons of cargo a year. The downtown area of Pudong has expanded from 17 sq. km to 100 sq. km.. With an average annual growth rate of over 20 percent, the economic zone will by the year of 2010 be extended to 200 sq. km. and its population will grow from one million to more than two million. |
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