Zhabei District of Shanghai -- A Dream of Its Own

A Twin That Differs

    Not far from the Shibei Park, a cluster of highrises loom above the junction of the elevated north-south Central Axis and Central Ring Road. This is the Oriental Global Headquarters, built on the former site of an electroplating factory.

Shanghai Talents Tower.

    When you enter the park you seem to wander in a fairyland of European castles – Roman, Gothic, Baroque and Renaissance; every one of them invites you to stop and look up.

    The Bund embodies Shanghai's international connections. Its 23 architectural masterpieces sporting Chinese and English signboards remind people of the days when the world's financial movers and shakers congregated in old Shanghai for business and pleasure. Today, the Oriental Global Headquarters has 62 world-class buildings, their facades, gateways and colonnades built of high-quality stone that showcases the best of Chinese masonry and carving. The quarry work for their granite facades lasted ten years, nearly removing a granite mountain in Fujian in its entirety. Such a natural solidity combined with exquisite workmanship has given the headquarters a noble and enduring quality.

    Though designed as another Bund, the Oriental Global tries to transcend it. And surely it has succeeded in comparison to the treeless Bund. The new headquarters zone has recreated a luxury European-style business community wrapped in a pleasant, classic Chinese garden environment.

    What surprises is that these European style buildings are not designed by European architects; they are brainchildren of Zhao Genlong, only 20 years an architect and chairman of the Oriental Global Headquarters.

    The new business community aims to service the world's latest generation of movers and shakers from the information, logistics and creative industries. By May 2010 it had registered over 140 businesses whose registered capital amounted to RMB 2.05 billion, US $150.17 million, and HK $5 million. These businesses had generated an accumulative tax revenue of RMB 810 million, which was 60 times what the electroplating factory generated all its life. The added value that Oriental Global Headquarters created brought it to the attention of the National Development and Reform Commission, which in 2010 declared it one of the industrial parks most worthy of investment capital.

Cultivating an Industry of Tomorrow

    ''Somewhere out there is an unborn, unknown rival who will someday sweep into obsolescence your business pattern and service model.'' This is the prophesy by a human resources expert on the make-or-break might of brilliant minds in an increasingly competitive market, and employers all over the world take this view seriously. More and more transnational companies have realized that human resources are not only a corporate asset that sustains the traction of their growth, but also a potential gold mine in which investment promises significant returns.

    As the world is recalibrating the human resources industry for the future economy and China is increasingly coping with a dire shortage of capable workers in its hectic rush to modernization, business-savvy Zhabei is swiftly opening new fronts in the service industry. The first sign of its ascendancy is the stately Shanghai Talents Tower in the district's Meiyuan Road, the nerve center of the city's human resources public services. Then in November 2010 the Shanghai Human Resources-related Service Industry Park opened in Zhabei, the first of its kind in China. The district is ahead of the pack by a nose.

    As Zhou Ping, the district chief, put it, Zhabei's take on the direction of human resource management is not based on a whimsy nor has it resulted in lip service, but rather a well calculated move toward dual goals. The area needs competent people to man its innovation-driven growth, and what's more, a strong service industry to galvanize its economy.

    As early as 2008 the district government conducted studies to measure the risks and feasibility of a related strategy, and seeded programs to ramp up businesses. Its investment promotion center commenced several training programs that covered the gamut of human resources services such as headhunters, personnel placement firms and HR management proxies, each individually tailored to represent college graduates, professional and executive labor pools to corporations, organizations and institutions.

    Several HR industry enclaves have taken shape in the district. The one centered on the Shanghai Talents Tower is a confluence of businesses providing HR services, including several types of outsourcing and catering predominantly to back office and call center services. The one radiating from the Shanghai Talent Training Square and the Shanghai Juniors' Activities Center is the turf of training providers. The total number of HR service companies has grown to 47 and their arrival has given rise to 20-plus new office buildings in the district.

    Zhabei is planning to further boost its scale advantage by building a 700-meter-long HR Street by the Shanghai Talents Tower between Gonghe New Road and Chang’an Road. It is designed to accommodate more HR businesses of the imported and home-grown varieties, build new muscle in professional HR services so they can compete in the global arena. The district is geared to transform itself into a locomotive of the HR industry in Shanghai, and the nation, by 2015.

Stay in Vogue

    Zhabei is a bastion of creativity and modernity in Shanghai, home to the Shibei Hi-tech Park, the Oriental Global Headquarters, and Suzhou Creek Bend, a sprawling commercial, financial and cultural project. The metropolis has secured its position on the frontlines of China's industrial, commercial and fashion sectors.

    Of the multiple commercial districts in Zhabei, Daning International Plaza stands out for its sophistication in the art world. Buildings in the area are designed to coordinate heights, hues, and spaces in between that refresh its inhabitants and guests with visual variety. Billboards and signs are elaborately assembled to dazzle. Street sculptures are tersely structured but opulent in connotation. When the curtain of night falls, a rainbow of neon lights in a myriad of shapes add to its touches of both romance and super-realism. Retailers in the plaza represent the full commercial scope and their stock is in synch with the latest world trends in their business line. The extra layer added to the visitor's shopping experience here are stage performances of various kinds staged regularly in the plaza, which give it a cultured ambience other commercial districts lack.

    Creative thinking can lift an urban wasteland out of its economic limbo. A good example is SoHo in New York City, the old neighborhood that rose from obscurity to fame after artists flocked in, opening sassy studios, chic bookstores, hip cafes and cool boutiques. Now Zhabei is nudging its Suzhou Creek Bend in this direction. A stagnant swatch that jumbled century-old lane homes, forlorn factory buildings and war ruins together, Suzhou Creek Bend epitomizes Shanghai's glorious last century. Today it resonates with the dynamism of a fledging creative industry, including 30 architectural design and advertising companies. It is said the precursor of the final blueprint for Shanghai Expo Park was born here.

    Zhabei is also the seat of Shanghai Circus City, a fancy theater capped by a huge golden dome. More than 100 juggling, gymnastics and animal acts have graced its stage. Many have tested the nerves of the audience by pushing the limits of the human physique, and others tantalize with mind-boggling displays of animal intelligence and indecipherable sleights of hand. The ERA-Space Travel, a multimedia-enhanced show that premiered in 2005, set regional and national records with its acrobatic feats, technical complexity and commercial success. People in the show business lauded its brilliant new perspective on the traditional arts.

    With its classy shopping malls, too-cool art stores, tranquil teahouses, Peking Opera theaters and restful, leafy parks, Zhabei is embarrassingly rich in all the sophistication, comforts and conveniences necessary to lead the well-rounded and comfortable urban life. Its reputation for perfectly balancing economic development and cultural preservation is well-deserved.