As the only island district in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province, Haizhu District aims to build itself into a commercial centre by further developing the exhibition and textile industries.
Since the opening of the Pazhou International Convention and Exhibition Centre early in 2003, Haizhu has emerged as an important foreign trade and business centre in Guangzhou.
Located at Pazhou Island, the exhibition centre, with an area of 700,000 square metres, is the largest one of its kind in Asia.
As the major exhibition area for the Chinese Export Commodities Fair, known as "Canton Fair," it has also hosted other professional international fairs.
Since all exhibits at the Canton Fair will be displayed at the centre starting from its next session in October, the construction of its second phase also started early this year.
The second phase of the centre, with an investment of about 2 billion yuan (US$250 million), occupies an area of 300,000 square metres, which has 10,000 exhibition booths.
With more than 300,000 foreign and domestic businesspeople flocking to each session of the Canton Fair, a series of industries in Haizhu District have also experienced fast development.
It is estimated that the businesspeople outlay nearly 6 billion yuan (US$750 million) every year in Guangzhou.
Besides the exhibition centre, a series of business and trade projects are also under construction in Haizhu.
The Five-star Shangri-La Hotel and the Poly International Square, which are situated east of the exhibition centre, will start operations in September to better meet businesspeople's accommodation and recreational demands for the 100th Canton Fair.
The Zhongzhou Centre, a commercial building designed for domestic and foreign exhibitors, is already operating after its first phase of construction was completed last March.
More than 40 enterprises, which often make an appearance at the Canton Fair, have settled at the centre.
It was designed to become a leading commercial centre for large Chinese enterprises.
In addition, an international purchasing centre, which will be finished at the end of this year, will provide more business opportunities for international buyers.
The purchasing centre has an area of 250,000 square metres.
Infrastructure
With respect to the development of infrastructure, a number of highways and metro lines have also been built near the centre, to make it more convenient for domestic and foreign visitors to travel in Guangzhou.
For example, the Pazhou Bridge and Metro Line 2, which run across the Pearl River, have all been put into operation.
The traffic area around the exhibition centre is 25,000 square metres, accounting for 24 per cent of the total within Pazhou Island.
Textile industry
As Haizhu was once the starting point of the ancient Silk Road at Sea, the Haizhu District government has also spared no efforts to develop the textile industry by setting up a fabric market near the Sun Yat-sen University.
Called "Zhongda Fabric Market," it first emerged in the late 1980s and has now developed into the second largest professional fabric and textile market in the country.
With an area of about 320,000 square metres, it now occupies about 11,000 shops and more than 1,000 storehouses.
Trade volume of the market hits about 25 billion yuan (US$3.2 billion) annually, with more than 20,000 fabric categories being shipped to domestic and overseas markets.
The Guangzhou International Fabric Town, which is situated at the core of the market, is one of the largest indoor textile business exchange centres in China.
It was put into operation last May, and has boosted development of a series of industries around the market, including the logistics and electronic sectors.
