Accounting for 40 p.c. of container traffic channelled from city, the port is a gateway for Shanghai’s outreach to the world.

Atop a hill — a part of the Yangshan islands in the East China Sea — a panoramic view of a vast deep water port opens out, which serves as gateway for Shanghai’s outreach to the rest of the world.

“The Yangshan deep water port is the core of the larger Shanghai international shipping center. It accounts for 40 per cent of container traffic channelled from the city,” says Huang Mingyi chief engineer of the Third Harbour Consultants, a part of the giant China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) flagship. Mr. Huang’s words as barely audible because of blustery winds that frequently batter the island.

Visual treat

Within the port complex, a large space is reserved for containers, which are lifted from ships by a string of giant cranes that loom over the muddy waters of the East China Sea. Further ahead, a group of islands, rise out of the sea, enhancing the port’s visual appeal.

Building the Yangshan deep water port, in the Hangzhou Bay, has not been easy. But Shanghai’s soaring ambition to maintain its status as a premier international port, which could out-compete other harbours such as Busan in South Korea and Singapore, persuaded a group of determined planners and designers to delve into deep out-of-the-box thinking.

“You would notice that the sea here is yellowish in colour. That is because the Yangtze river that merges with the East China Sea brings in loads of mud and sand with it. That means that we need to dredge the navigation channels to ensure that shipping remains uninterrupted,”says Mr. Huang.

Building artificial islands

Officials say that the port developers have also acquired an expertise in building artificial islands as large parts of the port have been built on reclaimed land.

Linking Shanghai’s Pudong New Area with the Yangshan islands — a part of the Zhoushan archipelago — was another Herculean undertaking. The problem was resolved though a pioneering effort of linking the city with a 32.5-kilometre sea bridge. After a three- year effort, the six-lane Donghai bridge was completed in 2005. As a result Shanghai’s shackles were broken, for it no longer had to depend on its shallow silt-prone ports along the Yangtze and Huangpu Rivers, with a maximum depth of only about 7 meters. Without a deep water port, Shanghai would have been unable to accommodate the heaviest of ships, which, undoubtedly would have undermined the city’s status as a world-class trading and financial hub.

Harnessing clean energy

Today, the grey towers of an off-shore wind farm in the East China Sea are visible from the Donghai bridge, signaling China’s growing inclination to harness clean energy. “This is a pilot project of 34 single wind turbines which can generate 102 megawatts of power. Another 26 turbines would be added in the second phase,” says Li Meng, Business manager at CCCC International.

Officials in at the Shanghai municipality take pride in describing their city as “the cradle of China’s national industry.” But times are changing, and with manufacturing dropping, Shanghai has already realigned itself as a top service industry centre.

The industrial slowdown has, so far, not impacted Yangshan port, where phase-4 of construction is already in full swing. Once completed, the Yangshan Deep water port’s 23 berths will comfortably accommodate the world’s largest ships.

Linking with hinterland cities

The emergence of Yangshan port is part of a concerted effort of backward integration with hinterland cities and towns in the prosperous Yangtze Delta zone, enabled by construction of new highways, roads, bridges, railroads, airports and industrial parks.

For instance, a over 11-kilometre bridge over the Yangtze is currently under construction. The two-tier Hutong Yangtze River bridge will host a four-lane high speed rail track and a six lane road link, connecting Nantong on the north bank of the river with Zhangjiagang in the south.

“This is largest rail cum road bridge in the world which will reduce travel time between cities such as Nanjing, Suzhou, Shanghai and Hangzhou to less than an hour,” says Yang Zhide, senior adviser of the CCCC Second Harbour Engineering Company that is undertaking the project.