British Trade Commission in Hong Kong
9th Floor Bank of America Tower 12 Harcourt Road Hong Kong
Mail Address GPO Box No 528 Hong Kong
Telex HX 73031
Fax: 5-8452870
J.K.Chapman Esq British Embassy
Peking
Cable Address Uktrade Hong Kong Telephone 5-230176
HRB 020/6
Your reference
Date
PA (8
Dear Ben,
Our reference
CECO 030/
25 January 1988
Ли
Footman
4/2
Jew
4/2
VISIT TO ZHUHAI: 19-20 JANUARY 1988
1. This was my first visit to Zhuhai and its Special Economic Zone adjoining Macao, 36 nautical miles and one and a quarter hours by hydrofoil ferry from Hong Kong. I spent two busy and enjoyable days there in pleasant and agreeable surroundings which fully justified their claim to the title of "Garden City".
2. I was particularly impressed by the architecture, normally such a dismal feature of China's modernisation programme. In Zhuhai, and more particularly in the SEZ itself, the use of lighter, brighter stone and more imaginative design have brought a touch of the Mediterranean to the South China coast, not only to hotels and holiday apartments but to workers' flats, office blocks and even factories. The roads are broad and straight and the verges planted with trees, bushes and flowering shrubs. After Hong Kong, they are, moreover, refreshingly uncrowded. Only the narrow streets of the old town recall the normal grubby, animated reality of urban life in the PRC.
3. The hotel where I stayed, the Zhuhai Resort, a joint venture with Hong Kong interests, was comfortable but not exceptional. But I liked its
pseudo-classical Chinese design, a single storey complex around a lake, with covered walks and gardens. This seems a popular style in Zhuhai as the Gongbei Hotel close to the Macao border is built along similar lines.
4. Two other positive advantages which Zhuhai enjoys by comparison with so many other Chinese towns and cities are its freedom from pollution and the absence of power supply problems. The former is the result of a conscious and continuing policy on the part of the local authorities in concentrating on light and technologically advanced industries which present no major threat to their environment. The latter is a tribute to the foresight shown in developing the requisite infrastructure for the Zone. reflects a lack of demand due to a short fall in the hoped for level of
But it perhaps also industrial activity in the area.
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