On Monday afternoon, the Hongkou district where northern Bund locates signed a cooperative agreement with Shanghai Shenjiang Development, Construction & Investment Group Ltd. and Shanghai COSCO Salim Property Group Company Ltd respectively, setting up Shanghai ShenJiang Northern Bund Development & Construction Co., Ltd. in charge of the projects for a comprehensive development of the northern Bund. Deputy-director with the Development and Research Center under the State Council Chen Qingtai and Shanghai Municipal Standing Vice-Mayor Han Zheng raised the curtain at the inauguration ceremony of the company.

By sources from Shanghai Northern Bund Development Forum held on the same day, projects that have been decided on construction include an international passenger traffic center for berthing huge liners, an five-star "world trade new plaza" and an international trade zone for Taiwan investors with an area of 37,000sqm. Particularly, "Shanghai Star", the cultural street, will cover 250,000sqm and be symbolized by a 200-meter high skyscraping cogwheel for a panoramic view.

Lying along the bank of Huangpu River and to the north of Suzhou Creek, northern Bund has been considered as one of the four major areas in the new round of comprehensive development of Huangpu River area. Covering an area of over 3 square kilometers, northern bund area will be divided into several parts according to different functions such as a shipping trade zone, a modern business zone and a riverside leisure zone etc. Related figures show that northern Bund, once fully developed, will strike a "tripartite balance" with the old Bund area and Pudong Lujiazui financial trade zone, featuring the most flourishing and splendid landscape in Shanghai.

(People's Daily January 11, 2003)