Shanghai plans to build its own artificial island

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.

'The goal is to make it an advanced city with international standards,' said bureau official Pang Zengdi.

Although the reports said an expert panel had endorsed the plan, they did not outline a timetable for the island.

The Fengxian government and the ocean bureau did not comment.

A Shanghai-based real estate developer bought one of the 300 artificial islands in Dubai's The World property project in October for US$28 million. It was named after Shanghai.

It will build western style villas beside a river the company will create, mimicking Shanghai's Huangpu River - complete with three overpasses that imitate the city's Nanpu, Yangpo and Xupu bridges.