Part of the city's urbanization program, Anting New Town, which will use German architectural styles and standards, is the brainchild of Professor Albert Speer, a master of urban planning from Germany, and his colleagues.

"The town will be an urban model for Shanghai as well as the whole country," said Vice-Mayor Feng Guoqin.

Shanghai plans to complete 11 new towns surrounded by 22 urban villages by the year 2020.

The model town will cover an area of 5 square kilometers and will accommodate 80,000 people when completed by 2010. It is expected to cost about 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion).

And the German Fichtner Company will help build an energy supply system which will use natural energy rather than air-conditioners.

The project is being built in two phases with the first to be completed in 2005.

The first phase will provide 1.2 million square meters of housing on 2.5 square kilometers of land, said Jin Jianzhong, director of Jiading District.

Local officials said the town, upon completion, will become a major residential quarter for the nearby Shanghai automobile manufacturing center, a joint venture with German Volkswagen that manufactured 300,000 vehicles this year.

"Funds for the first phase have been put in place thanks to the support of local banks," said Jin.

Bank of Shanghai, China Construction Bank's Shanghai Branch and China Industrial and Commercial Bank's Shanghai Branch have agreed to put 3 billion yuan (US$363 million) towards the project.

Shanghai International Automobile Property Company Ltd, which is responsible for the town construction, has 1 billion yuan (US$121 million) in loans from the Bank of China Shanghai Branch and Minsheng Bank.

Jin said the town design was completed after five months of shared effort by seven German planning and engineering companies and three Chinese design institutes.

Meanwhile, a 6-kilometre-long channel, also the nation's first, is being built to contain all necessary pipes and cabling so that they can be maintained without having to dig up the road in the process.

(China Daily December 27, 2002)