China’s king of clubs to open art centre in disused oil tanks in Shanghai

Qiao Zhibing climbs up to the domed roof of a 15-metre-high oil storage tank with the sure-footedness of a mountain goat. “All mine!”, the 50-year-old says with boyish glee, casting his eyes around the cluster of five oil tanks on the banks of Shanghai’s Huangpu River. The view from the top isn’t much to speak of. The white tanks, which used to store fuel for Hongqiao International Airport, are surrounded by mud and weeds, a couple of nondescript service buildings and a disused pier.

But by next year, the man known as China’s nightclub king plans to have turned these vast containers into Tank Shanghai, an international contemporary art centre which will double as his private museum, with about 10,000 square metres of exhibition space. The tanks, with a number of floors and windows, will be surrounded by a large, green park created by the Shanghai West Bund Development Group, the government entity charged with developing the area.

“It will be buzzing. DreamCenter is expected to open in 2018 right next to us. That’s going to attract a lot of people. We may even have a ferry service linking the galleries in the area, like the Tate Boat in London,” he says.

DreamCenter, an entertainment and business compound to be built by DreamWorks Animation, Hong Kong’s Lan Kwai Fong Group and Shanghai China Media Capital, is one of the planned landmarks of the West Bund – the new name for a long stretch of industrial waterfront in Xuhui district where a number of museums and galleries have already opened.

The transformation of the storage tanks will cost at least 100 million yuan (HK$115 million), Qiao says. Shanghai is relying on private sector support to pursue its dream of turning the West Bund into China’s equivalent of London’s Southbank and the Rive Gauche in Paris. Two other private collectors opened museums in the district in 2014 – Long Museum (West Bund branch) and Yuz Museum.