The Shanghai Ganghong Industrial Co. plans to build Asia's biggest shopping center in Shanghai, China's leading business and industrial center.

A spokesman for the company said the cost of the first phase of the shopping center project is estimated at 1.5 billion yuan (nearly 200 million U.S. dollars).

With a planned floor space of 330,000 square meters, the shopping center will be located in the Jinhongqiao Resident District in the Hongqiao Development Zone.

There will be about 130 lifts inside the center, including some for sight-seeing. The planned parking lot will be spacious enough for up to 3,500 cars to park simultaneously.

The shopping center will feature general merchandise, cultural and art products, food and drink, furniture, products for home decoration, and exercise equipment.

A hotel and an office building will be built during the second phase of the development.

( People's Daily July 3, 2002)