CBD Crucial for Beijing: OfficialThe proposed Central Business District (CBD) is crucial in the process of building China's capital into a world metropolis, said Liu Qi, Mayor of Beijing, in Beijing on April 7, when meeting a panel of experts who had examined and commented on blueprints for the CBD submitted by applicants all over the world.Last year, the city asked for worldwide bids for the CBD design, and has now received eight candidate scenarios. The blueprint will help reflect Beijing's traditions as well as its new developments, and it will even be conducive to the city's bid to host the Olympic Games in the summer of 2008, said the official. To be located about two kilometers east of Tiananmen Square, the CBD will cover some 4 sq km of Beijing's Chaoyang District, where over 60 percent of the city's foreign-funded companies and more than 50 percent of its star-rated hotels are located. Forty-three office buildings, apartment buildings and other facilities have been built so far in the area. Ninety-two of the 156 large multinational companies represented in Beijing, such as Motorola and Samsung, have already set up their representative offices in and near the planned CBD area. The CBD plan was initiated in the early 1990s, and it has been included in Beijing's 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005). |
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