Shanghai Yibai (Group) Co Ltd and the Zhabei District government yesterday unveiled Shanghai Riverside Commercial Development Co Ltd, which is tasked with rebuilding the 1,000-meter-long river bank. The total site area will cover at least 100,000 square meters.

The area will extend to Zhejiang Road Bridge to the east, Wuzhen Road Bridge to the west, Qufu Road to the north and Suzhou Creek to the south.

According to the project's blueprint, worked out by French and German architects, the area will be built into an S-shape pedestrian mall. Automobiles and bicycles will not be allowed to use the streets in the area along the river except during rush hours.

The current Shanghai Industrial Product Wholesale Market on Gansu Road will be revamped into a shopping plaza.

Taking advantage of the enchanting scenery, tourism companies will establish yacht docks, inns, hotels and outdoor bars along the creek.

An entertainment square, office buildings, food courts, an art gallery, high-level residential quarters, an exhibition center and an international health center are also in the works.

Xu Guoliang, board chairman of Shanghai Riverside, said: "The area is a witness to the early stages of Shanghai's financing and warehousing industry. We will protect and make full use of the European-style warehouses, which were built in the 1920s and 1930s."

The Yibai Group owns eight buildings in the section with a construction area of 130,000 square meters. Four of them register historic backgrounds and need to be protected, Yibai said.

The 33,000-square-meter Sihang Warehouse, for instance, is a memorial to the war against the Japanese aggression. During the Japanese invasion in 1937, 800 Chinese soldiers took advantage of the building's thick walls to resist the enemy for four days.

The other historic buildings housed bank offices.

"Most of the buildings are in a shabby condition and are an impediment to the city government's plan of building Suzhou Creek river-side into a symbolic landscape," Xu, formerly with Yibai, explained. "Therefore the project is both an opportunity and a necessity."

(eastday.com April 3, 2003)