Shanghai residents who want to live on an artificial island will not have to fly all the way to Dubai if the city's plan to build its own version of the Persian Gulf state's Palm and World islands comes to fruition.
Shanghai's Municipal Ocean Bureau plans to build an artificial island shaped like a magnolia - the city's official flower - in Hangzhou Bay to house up to 80,000 people.
Local newspapers quoted a bureau official yesterday as saying the island would be a sustainable community by the sea.
Under the plan jointly worked out by the bureau and the district government of Fengxian, the 65,000 square metre project would be built using construction waste.
The island's electricity would be generated by wind and wave power, and its drinking water provided by desalination technology.
The city produces about 37,000 tonnes of construction waste every day, accounting for 30 per cent of its total solid waste.