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June 12

« second tier-cities » in North China

Reproduced with kind permission of China Briefing magazine

Shenyang

Construction cranes tower over the city, a gleaming new development zone is filling up beside the Hun river, and the hotels are bustling with foreign business people. Texi district is being redeveloped as the city’s centre for tertiary industry, and many old “rustbelt” factories are gone. A metro is coming, and Shenyang is to become a “regional hub” airport. But it is no Shanghai - as expats put it, it is “a frontier town”.

There are a number of major manufacturers here including BASF, Bekaert, BMW, Coca Cola, GE, Johnson, Lear, Michelin, and Toshiba. But it is not all heavy industry. Last month the Shenyang International Horticultural Exposition opened, to take advantage of the region’s expertise in horticulture. This also has the objective of providing a spur to regenerate parts of the city, in the same way as Shanghai’s World Expo 2010, and is expected to attract 5m visitors annually.

Dalian

This is a modern, well run city – clean streets and top-class facilities, with an educated and reasonably affluent young population supporting international shops. Thirty minutes from the station on a new light rail system takes you to Dalian Development Area – not just a DZ, but a whole new town built in 20 years. And the city has friends in high places - the Minister of Commerce, Bo Xi Lai, was Dalian’s mayor and Liaoning’s provincial governor before going to MOC.

Dalian is an excellent location for businesses involved in metal and lumber processing, component parts consolidation and distribution. The quality of life here is excellent according to both locals and expats, and in the Cendant study on expectations for expat assignments, 29% of companies expected it to be a destination in three years, compared to 15% now.