Wuhan: The Paris of China
February 6th, 2008 | by This is China! |
A disclaimer for you francophones out there: the title is not mine. At least, the idea for the title is not mine. The allusion came from the lips of a Frenchman on the Hubei government’s website:
“Michel, general manager of Alstom, told reporter [sic] that he likes Wuhan and Hubei culture and East Lake is where he likes best.‘Wuhan is like Paris with Yangtze River running across the city. It is romantic,’ Michel said.”
Alex Xiao Hui posted this week on his blog:
“Wuhan has attracted over one third of French investment in China and more than two thirds of European countries’ investment in Hubei. An official with the municipal government said more than 30 Sino-French joint ventures with some 2.2 billion USD total investment had been founded in Wuhan. Among them, the DongFeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile, a joint venture created by PSA and Dong Feng, is the largest project funded by France…”
Other French companies in the area include: Renault, Carrefour, Societe Generale and the Total-Elf Group.
The French are going all out to romance Wuhan. The People’s Daily some time ago reported:
“The Sino-French economic cooperation has also led to increased cultural exchanges between Wuhan and French cities. Wuhan University, for instance, has forged cooperative ties with more than 30 French universities and organizations, carried out more than 30 cooperative research programs, and held 11 international academic meetings in cooperation with French partners.”
But Wuhan isn’t just a French “love child.” Last year China Central government designated the city as one of the ten bases of IT, R&D and BPO industries. IBM has set up there, and EDS is placing one of the four largest facilities the corporation has of its kind in the world in the Wuhan Guanggu Software Park. Philips Electronics, the Dutch company, settled in the Wuhan Optics Valley in 1992. The company has a joint venture with the local government to perform R&D and to produce optical fibre and cable products for the telecommunications industry.
And with Wuhan becoming at the end of 2008 an international air transport hub, I will proffer that busy high-tech executives from the West will frequent the city more often. In 2009, its labor rates and infrastructure costs will still be substantially lower than that of Qingdao and Dalian – and of course, Shanghai and Beijing – and so will become quite a focus of interest for companies That want to establish their own Offshore Development Centers (ODCs) and partnerships in the IT Outsourcing and opto-electronics fields. Chengdu and Chongqing, precisely because of their remoteness and logistics issues, will still remain competitive when Wuhan steps onto the international stage, but only because Wuhan will quickly become as expensive as Dalian in which to do business.
Myself, I look forward soon to sitting at an outdoor café along the Seine (I mean, Yangtze), sipping une petite tasse d’espresso (I mean Starbucks), taking in the view of Notre Dame Cathedral (or any ole’ highrise will do).
Vive le Wuhan.
Bill Dodson
SUZHOU, China
3 Responses to “Wuhan: The Paris of China”
By xiaohuialex on Feb 6, 2008 | Reply
thanks for mention my blog in your article and thanks for your comment of wuhan, i like your city and i hope it will become more famous and international.
if you want to drink a coffee in a stylish shop, you can drink in Starbucks. it just open one shop in china. you can read my article.
By Mark Forman on Feb 6, 2008 | Reply
Umm, didn’t you mean quaffing your coffee?
By This is China! on Feb 7, 2008 | Reply
Mark, man;
One doesn’t quaff espresso, one sips it! Like it was mother’s own milk. But one can certainly quaff a Starbucks!