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Shanghai's Hongqiao district is fast developing as an international business and transportation center.

- Tamsin Cocks

Downtown Shanghai is a fascinating spectacle – two time-warped cityscapes divided by the snaking Huangpu River. On the west bank, The Bund’s magnificent colonial architecture forms an impressive facade to Puxi, the rich historic and cultural center, while just across the river futuristic skyscrapers proudly signal the gleaming new metropolis of Pudong.

The younger eastern district has captured the lion’s share of modern business activity, thanks to key infrastructure and financial institutions such as Shanghai Pudong International Airport, the Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone and two of three Shanghai Stock Exchanges, plus international facilities including the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Centre.

But the landscape is set to shift again as a new CBD starts to emerge. Back in 2009, the government began planting seeds for a new international business hub to ease the pressures on Pudong. Fast-forward almost 10 years and the Hongqiao central business district is starting to blossom.

The 33-square-mile zone straddles four neighborhoods to the west of downtown Shanghai – namely the Qingpu, Minhang, Jiading and Changning districts – and has been highlighted in both the 12th and 13th Five Year Plans as a special area of rapid growth.

One of the ambitious aims is to create an economic gateway to the prosperous Yangtze River Delta region, encompassing powerhouse second-tier cities such as Wuxi, Suzhou, Hangzhou and

Ningbo. But the area is also being strategically tapped as a new international trade center, with a modern service industry to attract business headquarters and financial organizations, and acres of modern office space in mixed-use developments like the Hongqiao Vantone Sunny World Centre.

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