Tianjin’s Nankai District Advances

By WU MEILING & WANG NAN

The Drum Tower.

Kemao Street

The Jinhe River.

Haiguangsi.

Musical Fountain Square.

The Haihe River.

The Macu (Goddess of the Sea) Tourism Festival.

The Olympic Sports Center under construction.

Tianjin is the municipality closest to Beijing. It is the economic center of the Bohai Sea Rim Area and the largest open seaport in northern China. After being made a treaty port In the middle of the 19th century it gradually developed into northern China’s biggest financial and commercial center. Nankai, Tianjin’s bustling urban district characterized by its commerce and culture, is tailor-made for integrated development.

A Newly Modernized District

Nankai District in southwestern downtown Tianjin covers 40.64 square kilometers. The district’s long-term development goal is to become “one center, two bases” -- a high-tech industrial base with commerce and tourism as its two main strands. The third stage of Nankai’s “one center, two bases” construction and specific operational plan went ahead in 2004.

Liu Changshun, Party secretary of Nankai District, believes that a scientific approach will enhance development of Nankai’s economy and that the subsequent higher standard of living will create more harmonious society

Nankai District’s accent on science has made it center for new technology, commerce and logistics with a GDP that increases by more than 30 percent annually. Nankai plans to develop its science-based inner-city industry, particularly emerging industries such as bio-pharmaceuticals, medical apparatus, and electronic components.

In recent years, reconstruction in the old areas and around the Haihe River has improved the look of Nankai District and upgraded its residents’ living conditions. The average living space per capita now stands at 17.7 square meters. In 2003 the Tianjin municipal government decided to invest RMB 2.529 billion in reconstructing the old area. This enabled more than 70,000 residents of 28,000 households to move from unsanitary tenements in perilously bad repair to spacious homes in new residential areas. Tianjin’s tenements were demolished and replaced in record time, and the old area has been transformed into a commercial center with fully equipped office buildings and top grade plazas.

. Nankai District is Tianjin’s first non coal-burning zone. The area is surrounded with greenbelts, and there are large green areas at its center. There are 14 parks in Nankai, of which Water Park is the biggest in Tianjin.

Tianjin’s Cultural District

Laochengxiang, the oldest residential district in Tianjin, was established 600 years ago. The district has a wealth of cultural relics and historic sites, in particular the Palace of Tianhou (Goddess of the Sea), Jade Emperor Pavilion, the Confucian Temple, and the Guangdong Guildhall. The Palace of Tianhou was first built during the Yuan Dynasty, when it was named one of China’s three Mazu temples,” the other two being that on Meizhou Island in Putian City, Fujian Province and in Beigang Town, Yunlin County, Taiwan Province. Temple was built in 1436, the first year of Zhengtong Reign of the Ming Dynasty, and is the largest and best preserved among the ancient architectural groups in any of China’s combined prefecture/county. The Guangdong Guildhall was built in 1907, the 133rd year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It consists of a siheyuan buildings around a courtyard and one of China’s tallest and best preserved stage towers. Tianjin’s Drum Tower was built in 1493. The Drum Tower Commercial Street completed refurbishment in September 2003.

Nankai is also a district with a glorious revolutionary tradition, having been the residence of many revered revolutionaries and thinkers, including the late China Today Editor-in-chief Emeritus Israel Epstein. The Nankai Revolutionary Activities Memorial commemorates, among others, young Zhou Enlai when he was in Tianjin, and his wife Deng Yingchao.

In recent years one of Nankai District’s most popular tours has been the folklore tour, which presents Nankai as the cradle of Tianjin’s civilization. It is a comprehensive tour program that offers shopping, dining, fitness training and entertainment in addition to an insight into Tianjin’s folk customs. The second phase of the Ancient Cultural Street Project is currently under construction, along with that of Drum Tower West Street. The new Ancient Cultural Street and Haihe Tower Commercial and Trade Zone will take the Palace of Tianhou as its center and the Cultural Street as its keystone.

Nankai District is the starting point of Tianjin’s 600-year history. Its reconstruction combines city development and cultural conservation, and will showcase Tianjin’s history and folklore in addition to its contemporary commercial dynamism.

Leading Regional Economy

An auto outlet in Tianjin recently applied for urgent extension of its business scope in order to be able to sign contracts. The matter was dealt with by the Nankai District Administrative Licensing Service Center Industry and Commerce Administration window, which immediately issued a new license, thereby enabling the enterprise to take on more businesses. The company concerned speaks highly of the center’s increased efficiency since initiation of its “overtime implicit consent” (computer software used to strictly regulate administrative licensing working systems and time limits) mechanism in 2004.

When Ms Zhou came to the center to register her company she said, “I never expected such efficiency. It took 20 minutes to submit the application documents, and just two to three days for a new license to be issued.”

The Nankai Administrative Licensing Service Center went into operation on June 6, 2004. Its “overtime implicit consent” and other administrative measures have been hailed by the 40 or more domestic and overseas organizations that have benefited from it. Noted domestic media, including CCTV, the People’s Daily and Xinhua News Agency, have been to the center to report on the mechanism. On July 1 the Administrative Licensing Law took effect, and banners declaring it “A constructive effort by an efficient, honest, trustworthy and down-to-earth government concerned with people” hung in the Nankai District Government Administrative Licensing Service Center lobby.

Increased efficiency has brought about rapid economic development. In 2004, Nankai’s GDP increased by 23.94 percent and the retail value of its consumer goods increased by 20 percent over the previous year.

Nankai is opening in an all-round way with the aim of attracting investment, strengthening coordinated services and implementing key projects. Companies come here from Singapore, Hong Kong and further west to invest.

In 2004, 1,809 private companies registered in Nankai, 122 of which had a registered capital in excess of RMB 10 million (US $1.2 million). Sino-foreign joint ventures, cooperative businesses and exclusively foreign-owned enterprises have generated a sales revenue of RMB 2.194 billion (US $265 million) in one year, and earned foreign exchange of US $68.58 million from exports while simultaneously propelling Nankai’s development.

Well-known Chinese and foreign companies are attracted to Nankai by its advantageous conditions. The Zhejiang Yankon Group has signed a contract with Nankai to build the Beifang Hardware, Mechanical and Electrical Products City in western Tianjin, covering an area of 40 hectares that will integrate wholesale, retail, freight transport and storage. It will deal in nationally and internationally famous hardware brandnames. Tianjin combines barter trade and e-commerce, and provides a huge logistics-, cash- and information flow for Tianjin Municipality, further consolidating Tianjin’s status as northern China’s key economic and logistics center.

Nankai boasts northern China’s biggest specialized stainless steel wholesale market whose brandname has been established in surrounding provinces, regions, and the Three-North area (the Northwest, northern part of North China and western part of the Northeast). Nankai District is also planning construction of a cryo-freezing logistics center and development of a series of characteristic markets such as specialized auto chain shops auto and trade markets.

Nankai has recently named its overall goal of forging a “golden science and trade street,” which is expected to attract numerous renowned IT companies. The Street’s 1,000 hi-tech enterprises make it the Tianjin and Bohai Sea Rim Area hi-tech showcase for science, technology, trade and service. Traditional brand names such as the Zhengxingde Tea Shop, Siyuanxiang Pastry Company and Xiangdezhai Pastry Company coexist in harmony with the Tongluowan Plaza, auxiliary district of the Olympic Sports Center and other modern business and trade facilities. The well-known Traditional Culture Street, Garment Street and Yangtze River Auto Trade Street professional markets play key distributing roles.

Advanced Science, Technology and Education

Nankai District is also famous for its 16 institutions of higher education, in particular Nankai and Tianjin universities that are attended by more than half of the total number of college students in Tianjin. Nankai District is home to 19 academicians, and 21 percent of the district’s population has been through college or higher education.

Nankai Middle School is one of China’s most famous schools, having been attended by two primiers of China: Zhou Enlai and Wen Jiabao, 43 academicians and four overseas academicians. Nankai is site of the No.43 Middle School and the exemplary Zhongying Elementary School. General education in the whole district has achieved the “Chinese Educational Reform and Development Program” standard eight years in advance.

Nankai has a high concentration of scientific research institutions, science and technology corporations and sources of scientific instruments and equipment. Numerous scientific and technical service institutions have gathered in the district by virtue of its integrated science and technology development facilities. The Beifang Technology Transaction Market, Tianjin Library, the Archives, Production Force Promoting Center and Pioneering Center are all in Nankai. Known as the model science popularization district of China, Nankai has won the National Youth Scientific and Technical Innovation Competition gold medal on several occasions.

In utilizing the development space left when SOEs (state-owned enterprises) relocated from the west to the east, Nankai has focused on development of bio-pharmaceutical, medical equipment and electrical devices. It gives priority to developing manufacturing industry and high technology, and encourages development of economical and environmentally friendly industrial blocks.

Nankai Hi-tech Park is the policy area of Tianjin Hi-tech Industrial Zone and covers an area of 12.22 square kilometers. The Hi-tech Park now has more than 2,000 hi-tech enterprises, forming an integrated system based on scienctific research and development, technical information research, results, technical personnel exchanges and technical product processing.

Nankai residents are by no means complacent about their achievements. The development goal of Nankai District is to make itself an important commercial center, a hi-tech industrial base, an attractive cultural touring base and Tianjin’s most advanced cultural district.