Shanghai strives to build world-class science hub

Imaginechina

Zhangjiang Science City is set to kick off all its 73 key projects this year as part of its effort to eventually become a leading global hub of science and innovation, said Hang Yingwei, head of the Pudong New Area, on Saturday.

So far 38 of these key projects have started construction, while the rest have won approval and begun preliminary preparation work, Hang said in Beijing during a live online interview, arranged as part of the events at the annual sessions of the 13th National People’s Congress and the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

The completion of these and other related projects will help form the basic framework of Zhangjiang Comprehensive National Science and Technology Center, which is set to become a photon science complex with the largest scale, greatest variety and strongest comprehensive ability in the world, according to Hang. The Zhangjiang area will also transform itself from a high-tech park to a high-tech urban area with improved education, culture and residential environment.

Wang Jianyu, head of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Shanghai branch, said during the interview that the setup of Zhangjiang Lab last year gathered high-quality resources for preparing the first sets of national labs.

According to Wang, they plan to construct a group of world-class science facilities. For example, the hard X Ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) facility to be built will be one of the world’s best.