Bridge Opens China's "Last Virgin Island" - But Don't Worry! Nothing Exploitative Will Happen!!

[hatrack]

China on Saturday opens a new bridge over the Yangtze that will pave the way for rapid development of the country's "last virgin island," Chongming -- now just an hour's drive from booming Shanghai. With a surface area 50 percent bigger than Singapore, the island has captured the imagination of developers, who have considered building everything from a Disney theme park to a replica of Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch.

Ed. - emphasis added.

Some fear a parade of eager investors buoyed by the new transport links could ruin the rustic island and its vast wetlands, but officials insist the site will not become a stomping ground for land grabs and overdevelopment. "We believe the negative impact from the bridge will be almost negligible," Zhao Qi, the Shanghai government official in charge of Chongming, told reporters during a visit ahead of Saturday's opening to normal traffic.

Two more bridges are planned that will connect Chongming to eastern Jiangsu province as part of a national highway to central Xi'an, and to Shanghai's Pudong International Airport, city construction commissioner Huang Rong said. Chongming earned global attention in 2005 when then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chinese President Hu Jintao said it would be the site of the world's first so-called "eco-city" Dongtan, designed by a British firm.

The low-carbon, ultra-efficient city of the future was meant to be showcased at next year's World Expo in Shanghai, with 25,000 residents living there, but those plans have been overtaken by more traditional development objectives. Zhao insisted the Dongtan plan had not been shelved for good, saying only it was "still in the planning stages".

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2007/091031011904.h04lhrty.html

[XemaSab]

1. This reminds me of a recent story out of Richmond

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