Han Ximin

    ximhan@126.com

    MAJOR construction on a new Huaqiangbei underground shopping center, said to be the largest in China, has finished. Interior decoration will begin later this month, a seminar was told yesterday.

    The shopping center, which runs about 830 meters underground and parallel with Huaqiang Road North between Shennan Road Central and Hongli Road, will be put into operation at the end of 2016. Metro Line 7, which is currently under construction, will open at the same time. The shopping center will have a floor space of more than 28,000 square meters and will be a transit place for five different stations on four Metro lines.

    “The construction of Line 7 provided a rare chance for renovation of Huaqiangbei, which is often jammed with vehicles and crowded with shops and shoppers,” said Liu Gang, chief architect with Guangdong Company of China Rail No. 3 Survey and Design Institute Group Corp.

    The 26-meter-deep and 28-meter-wide underground space includes a shopping mall on the underground first floor, a Metro hall on the second floor and train platforms on the third floor.

    The shopping street will be accessible from Huaqiang Road Station on the Luobao Line, Huaqiang North Station on the Shekou Line and Huaxin Station on the Longgang Line. It will also serve as an interchange station for the Shekou and Longgang lines.

    The shopping center has 14 exits to connect with Huaqiang Road North, which will be renovated into a pedestrian street.

    As the city’s most well-known business center, the daily number of visitors to Huaqiangbei reaches 500,000.

    Line 7 will have 28 stations spanning from the Xili Reservoir in Nanshan to Tai’an in Luohu.

    In another development, the major parts of the structures of 11 stations on Metro Line 11 have been completed. The line, which links Futian with Songgang in Bao’an District, is scheduled to be put into operation in June next year. Residents can get to the airport from Futian CBD in about 29 minutes.