CHINA – Following the Shanghai World Expo last year, urban planners have announced the city is to construct the world’s largest exhibition complex.
Construction will begin on the 500,000sqm complex by the end of the year in the Hongqiao commercial area of Qingpu District, said the deputy director of the Bureau of Planning and Land Resources, Ye Ming.
“The complex will be both above and under ground and will be triple the size of the Shanghai New International Expo Centre in Pudong New Area, the city’s largest exhibition venue so far,” Ye Ming told the Shanghai Daily. “It will also exceed the area of the exhibition hub in Hanover, Germany, which is currently the world’s largest.”
The 23bn yuan (US$3.49bn) complex will sit at the heart of a new business hub jointly built by the city government and China’s Ministry of Commerce in an effort to make Shanghai the world’s leading international trading centre.
According to Shanghai Daily, Shanghai can host about eight million square meters of exhibitions every year but the demand has been more than 10m. This is expected to reach 15m by 2015.
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