With foreign investors flocking to the Tianjin Economic & Technology Development Area, local authorities are spending on infrastructure to make the destination a world-class business and recreation area. Jason Subler checks out the new developments.
Frequent business travellers to Hong Kong will have two new accommodation options with the expected opening of the 396-room Four Seasons and the 113-room Landmark Mandarin Oriental later this year.
Having established itself as one of China's leading economic development areas, the Tianjin Economic & Technology Development Area (TEDA) in Tianjin, northern China, is now focusing on developing infrastructure to cater to the business travellers flocking to the destination.
As a result of its attractive investment environment, TEDA now serves as home to more than 3,800 foreign-funded enterprises (among them Motorola, Toyota, Samsung and Nestlé) with investment approaching US$25 billion.
But it is not just an industrial park - it also houses an increasing number of public facilities, part of a strategy on the part of TEDA to enhance the quality of life in the area, and thus its attractiveness to investors and business travellers.
Tianjin TEDA Group president, Mr Meng Qun, said: "The function of TEDA has changed since it first opened more than 20 years ago. It is not just an industrial area for factories anymore. We've been trying to combine it with an urban environment."
That effort is turning TEDA into a world-class centre for business and recreation, with hotels, exhibition and conference space, and options for leisure quickly multiplying. Key among these is the 60,000m2 TEDA International Exhibition Center, which opened in early 2004 and has a second phase on the way. The centre, linked to downtown Tianjin by a light rail line, has already played host to a number of large-scale industry trade fairs, with many more lined up for the coming year.
It is complemented by the Renaissance Tianjin TEDA Hotel & Convention Center, which opened in June 2004. Besides its 542 rooms, the venue boasts a 16,000m2 convention centre, 14 meeting rooms, three large ballrooms and an 800-seat, two-level auditorium capable of hosting events ranging from large meetings to theatrical performances.
Other hotels in the zone are innovating too, to cater to the needs of business travellers. Ms Chen Zejun, spokesman for Tianjin TEDA International Hotel and Club, a five-star hotel in the centre of the zone, told BTN Asia-Pacific it was developing a serviced residence complex behind the hotel.
Clients will be able to buy apartments in the complex for their own use, or business travellers who want a larger, more homelike abode while visiting TEDA can rent them.
Ms Chen said: "These rooms will be better equipped than a normal hotel room and will feel more like home. But they would come with the service one would expect of a five-star hotel."
Travellers visiting TEDA have plenty of options not only for conference space, hotels and dining, but increasingly for leisure and recreation. TEDA now boasts a 40,000-capacity football stadium - one of the best stadiums in China.
The stadium and exhibition centre will form the two pillars of the TEDA Promenade, to be the area's main entertainment and leisure complex covering 1.22 million m2 and including a cinema multiplex, an entertainment centre and a complex of hotels and restaurants on an artificial island. Mr Meng said construction on a large shopping centre and 4,000-unit apartment compound will start in the first half of this year.
The 100,000m2 Civilian Culture Plaza, to be completed in the later part of the year, will further serve the needs of TEDA's visitors and residents. The plaza will have fitness facilities in addition to a theatre and a convention hall.
Director of the Trade Promotion Center of TEDA, Ms Li Jiaxiang, is confident TEDA will increasingly serve as an attractive destination for business travellers and investors in the future. "We are the first (development area in China) to focus on improving our services. Our slogan is, 'investors are kings'."
With a 48km2 Western TEDA Zone under development, in addition to an US$843 million TEDA City project comprising shopping, entertainment and office venues in central Tianjin, the flow of business traffic can only increase.
