Kunming south development, January 2010

In January this year, we visited Kunming. The city has big plans to expand to the South. Big plans. Today, the SCMP writes:

Kunming, in southwestern China, is the capital city of Yunnan province. It is building six underground railway lines in a bid to improve accessibility. Lines 1, 2, and 6 are scheduled to be completed and operating by the end of 2012, followed by Line 3 in 2014, and Lines 4 and 5, which are due to open in 2018.

The crossing of these subway lines will be the opportunity to create a landmark, according to the vice-mayor He Bo:

One of the major projects at the intersection of three of the lines will include a 456-metre-high skyscraper – “the city’s future landmark in the core business district”, He said.

But there’s more. Kunming has a big and beautiful lake in the south east part of the city. The lake is now heavily polluted, but offers potential for great development. Into what? Right, en eco-city!

Apart from the skyscraper project, Kunming also hopes to invite investors to participate in a 25 billion yuan redevelopment of the 8.73 square kilometre Chao Hai district in the southwestern part of the city. The area will be developed into an “eco-city”, surrounded by a lake.

As for the development model, Kunming looks at the Hong Kong model, of creating real estate value with the development of public transport:

Mayor He, however, believed land value would have a greater upside potential when the metro system was completed. “The Kunming [property market] will present a big surprise to investors over the next three to five years,” he said.

Read the whole story here:

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