Construction wrapped up yesterday at the Pujiang Expo Garden in remote Minhang District - the eventual home for 8,000 Shanghai residents relocated from the site of the 2010 World Expo.

 

Nearly half of the families required to move from the Puxi portion of the future expo grounds have moved in.

 

The others should join them later this year, city officials said yesterday.

 

"We want residents to live a happy and convenient life here," said Gao Yuelong, deputy chief of the Pujiang Expo Garden project.

 

The community holds 10,000 apartments in its 1.5 square kilometers and may eventually be home to 27,600 residents.

 

It was designed solely for people relocated from the expo site, who were allowed to buy the one- to three-bedroom units for the comparatively low price of 4,000 yuan (US$502) a square meter. They are not allowed to sell their homes for at least five years, however.

 

Many of those relocated have moved to larger quarters from their previous address. One family who left Luwan District, for instance, received 600,000 yuan in compensation for a 40-square-meter flat.

 

But the remote location an hour from city center may be an inconvenience for people who work in the downtown.

 

As such, the city is expanding mass transit to the site and surrounding it with a full range of community services.

 

The government has added 10 shuttle buses between Pujiang Expo Garden and the Nanpu Bridge.

 

City planners have also decided to extend Metro Line 8 to the community by 2009.

 

Gao said the new Lotus Flower Pond Expo Kindergarten, Huangpu No. 1 Expo Primary School and Xiangming Expo Junior Middle School have been completed and are ready for the autumn semester.

 

The government has also transplanted some of the old shikumen, or stone-gate house, frames, bricks and road stones from the downtown to a small park at Pujiang.

 

Service facilities including banks, post offices, clinics and community centers are in operation.

 

Most commercial services such as restaurants, hair salons, bookstores, wet markets and shopping malls have opened their doors.

 

"It's very suitable for an older citizen to live in the Expo Garden," said retiree Wang Minglan. "I can find everything I need for daily life."

 

Another 10,000 families relocated from the Pudong portion of the expo site moved earlier to a new residential complex in Sanlin Town, also in Pudong.

 

(Shanghai Daily August 26, 2006)