A surveyor works on a construction site of Zhengzhou Eastern District, which will be completed between 2015 and 2020. [China Daily]

Seven years ago a tycoon of international finance descended on China and asked, while pointing at a map, where the north-south Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway met the east-west Longhai Railway.

He was told the two major transport routes intersected in the eastern suburb of Zhengzhou, capital of the relatively poor Henan Province.

"How can a place of such strategic significance be poor?" the famous venture capitalist is reported to have asked in disbelief. "It should be the richest in China."

Although it's never been verified whether American George Soros ever actually spoke those words, the story has evolved into an urban myth.

Regardless, the area is undergoing a rapid transformation on the back of his alleged query.

Now it would be an understatement to call the vicinity the "Eastern District" because, by its scheduled completion between 2015 and 2020, it will almost rival the existing city in terms of both size and population.

In this sense, it'll be the new Zhengzhou, separated from the current downtown by the 107 Highway.

The district is zoned to encompass 150 sq km and to house 1.5 million people.

By the end of 2007, a total of 50 sq km will have been developed, with a combined investment of 50 billion yuan ($6.66 billion).

Some 200,000 people have already made their home here.

"Housing prices in the new district are higher than in the old downtown, but it's worth it because the units are centered around the future central business district and just a stone's throw from the old town," said Lu Xiansheng, a resident who moved in two years ago.

So what makes the Eastern District different from many mushrooming towns across the country?

In a nutshell, speed and planning.

In early 2003, the new convention center, one of the new district's landmarks, broke ground by converting the runway of a military airfield.

"The analogy is inevitable: we're ready for takeoff," said Fan Qiang, director of the new CBD construction and part-time photographer who has recorded the dramatic evolution through his lens.

And take off it did.

A glance from a nearby high-rise reveals the main building of the convention center like an open umbrella aside a cobweb of elevated driveways.

Opposite lies a formation resembling five giant eggshells - the newly completed arts center built at a cost of 700 million yuan ($93 million).

The buildings are shaped like the ancient musical instrument of "xun".

Curved around the outlying strips are impressive arrays of skyscrapers, home for the emerging metropolis's movers and shakers. (See last quarter of the scroll at the top for a night view)

Jiang Yong's office building is among them.

"When we first came here in 2004, it was a sight of wilderness," said the president of G&Y Real Estate Co.

At the time, his business was based in Qingdao, a coastal city in the more developed Shandong Province.

But he and his partners took the plunge by building the "first purely steel-structured office tower in the whole province" - with a rooftop helicopter pad to boot.

Now in the fit-out phase, the edifice is ready for sale.

"We target listed companies, and you'll have to buy at least one floor as a minimum," said Jiang.

When presales began in 2005, the building set a record high price at 6,000 yuan ($800) per square meter.

It has since soared to 9,000 yuan ($1,200).

Jiang credits "good government service" for his investment choice in Zhengzhou.

Li Yan concurs.

The president of Maple Real Estate is essentially replicating part of Vancouver in the new district.

"We surveyed Shanghai, Jiangsu and Shandong before settling down here," she said.

Her Vancouver Plaza, due for completion in 2008, will include 300,000 sq m of office, residential and commercial space.

"We chose the Eastern District because it is meticulously designed and represents a plan for the future," said Li, who majored in architecture and lived in Canada for many years.

While the district's rapid construction jogs memories of Shenzhen in the 1980s, its comprehensive planning is truly unique to China.

"We may not have the most perfect urbanization plan, but we sure have the most methodical and distinctive one," said Li Ke, a city official.

When the district was conceived in 2002, six international design firms bid for the job before a Japanese firm prevailed.

The master plan incorporates many lakes and meandering canals, combining big-city functionality with small-town charm.

"As property prices soar, many have called for raising the height limit for upcoming buildings or reduce the acreage of green belt," said Wang Guangguo, an official in charge of the new district.

"We said no. If a plan can be modified at will, what's the purpose of having a plan in the first place?"

What makes the planners beam with pride is the vote of confidence their project has received from business communities outside the province.

Of the 192 projects in progress, 70 percent of the capital came from the private sector and one-third from other provinces or other countries.

If George Soros had invested money when he reportedly pointed out the value of the land, his stake would have increased exponentially by now.

(China Daily 10/19/2007 page25)