[photopress:MBA_guangzhou_uni.jpg,full,alignright]Just across the border from Hong Kong in Xiao Gu Wei island in Guangdong province, in China’s diamond center of Panyu, is the Guangzhou University City, established at a cost of US$3.7 billion.
It is currently home to ten of the province’s universities’ campuses, with the capacity to accommodate up to 200,000 students, 20,000 teachers and 50,000 staff.
Effectively this is a true university city with university clusters sharing facilities. (Note that there are cities which boast more students. But in, for example, Manchester, they are not assembled in one large area as they are here.)
In the center of the island is the Eco-Park for sports and culture, including a stadium for 35,000 people, hotel/conference center, library, recreation center and large lakes and gardens.
The university city has spectacular frontage and views of the Pearl River and could be romantically though of as tje starting point for the Silk Road that links trade to the Middle East and the West.
Located in Xinzao, Panyu District, Guangzhou University City covers an area of approximately 43.3 square kilometers (17 square miles). The island site is surrounded by the Pearl River and across from the Pazhou Complex –home to CONEXPO Asia 2007.
When fully completed the total population in Guangzhou University City is expected to reach 400,000 people, which is equivalent to the size of an intermediate city like Macau. Guangzhou University City is currently the largest development of its kind in China and is almost certainly the largest development of its kind in the world.