Shanghai tycoon buys island in Dubai

Chinanews, Shanghai, Oct 17 – The
Shanghai Zhongzhou Investment Group recently signed an agreement with Naheel
Company in Dubai of the United Arab Emirates. The agreement allowed the Chinese
company to spend 28 million US dollars buying an island in Dubai. The Shanghai
company wants to copy the city layout of Shanghai on the foreign land. This is
the second largest investment project that a Chinese company has made in Dubai.
Earlier, a Chinese businessman from Wenzhou had purchased a national television
station in the United Arab Emirates.

The Shanghai Zhongzhou Investment Group plans to build a river on the
island. The river will be connected to the ocean and flows in an S-shape, which
is, in every way, very similar to the Huangpu River in Shanghai. Visitors can
travel to the island by boat or helicopter. The preliminary work for the project
will be completed by the end of this year and the project will start next year.
The project will take two years to finish. On Tuesday, the Chinese company held
a ceremony to mark the unveiling of the design map for the “Shanghai island”.

Apart from the river, the Shanghai Zhongzhou Investment Group will build
three bridges across the river. The three bridges might look very similar to the
Nanpu, Yangpu and Xupu bridges in Shanghai. With these efforts, it is hoped that
the island can display the unique architectural style in Shanghai, a style that
combines Oriental with Western flavor. The company also plans to build some
streets on both sides of the river. These streets will be built in a way that
will reflect Shanghai's typical folk culture and its business tradition, said
Mr. Huang, assistant manager of the Shanghai Zhongzhou Investment Group.