TïnHo District / 天河區


天河区
Tin Ho District
— District —
Chinese transcription(s)
- Chinese 天河区 / 天河區
- Pinyin Tiānhé Qū

Pearl River New City

Tianhe District in Guangzhou
Country China
Region Guangzhou
Area
- Total 141 km2 (54.4 sq mi)
Population (2006)
- Total 645,453
- Density 4,577.7/km2 (11,856.1/sq mi)
Time zone China Standard (UTC+8)
Postal code 510630
Area code(s) 020
Tianhe District (simplified Chinese: 天河区; traditional Chinese: 天河區; pinyin: Tīanhé Qū) is one of the ten districts in Guangzhou, People's Republic of China. In Chinese, the name Tianhe means a river in the sky. It is bordered by Yuexiu District on the west, Baiyun District on the north and Huangpu District on the east. Haizhu District is on its south, though they are separated by the Zhujiang River.

Tianhe became a district in the 1980s as the city expanded its size. Back then, it was east of another district called Dongshan (which was merged into Yuexiu in 2005) and it was more suburban like if not rural like. Despite a majority of colleges and universities in the city are located in the district, the rest of the district were mostly composed of rice fields.

Contents

[hide]
1 Projects
2 Economy
3 Education
4 Transportation
5 Notable buildings
6 References
7 External links
[edit] Projects

The first big project built in the district during the 1980s was the Tianhe Sports Center when the city was selected to host the Sixth National Games in 1986. The complex includes a stadium of 65,000 seats, a gymnasium and an indoor swimming pool. Its construction had a lasting impact on the development of the district. Soon other projects followed and rice fields gave away to residential complexes called "xiaoqu" (meaning "little districts"). The construction of xiaoqu began in the mid and late eighties and most of them had residential buildings of no more than 10 stories. Each floor was kept to no more than four units due to the lack of elevators since they would increase the construction cost. Also, due to the sheer number of residential buildings — some xiaoqu had more than 20 residential buildings — a lot of land was needed and thus converted.

The building of Guangzhou East Railway Station in 1990 further contributed to the growth of the district. The old Guangzhou Railway Station is 10 km to the west and was the terminus for trains to and from Beijing and Hong Kong. To relieve the traffic, the East Railroad Station was built and is now the terminus for trains to and from Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

As the district developed, the size of xiaoqu became smaller since land became more valuable and expensive. Most of the new xiaoqu now only consist of four to six residential buildings but each can contain 30 floors or more since the growth of district attracted big developers where the cost of construction (such as elevators) was no longer an issue. Also, taller residential buildings gave rise to taller office buildings.

South of the Sports Center and north of the Zhujiang River is Zhujiang New Town, an area desolate a decade ago but which is now one of the fastest-developing areas of Guangzhou. Many of Guangzhou's newest and most iconic buildings are found in this part of the district.

Several venues used for the 2010 Asian Games are located in Tianhe District.

[edit] Economy

Guangzhou Science City[1]
Google has an office in Tianhe District.[2]
[edit] Education

Many of the city's colleges and universities are located in the district. They include:

Guangzhou Sports College
Guangzhou Military Sports Academy
Jinan University
Guangdong Industrial University
South China Agricultural University
South China University of Technology
South China Normal University
[edit] Transportation

Besides the Guangzhou East Railway Station (referred to by locals as simply "East Station"), Tianhe is also the terminus for several Guangzhou Metro lines, and one line goes through it:

■ Line 1 (built) connects Tianhe and Liwan via Yuexiu.
■ Line 3 (built) connects Tianhe with Panyu via Haizhu.
■ Line 4 (built partly) connects Tianhe with Panyu, starts at Chebeinan and stops at Jinzhou.
■ Line 5 (built) connects Tianhe, Liwan, and Huangpu via Yuexiu.
■ Line 8 (built) connects Wanshengwei with Changgang
■ APM Line (built) connects central and southern Tianhe
[edit] Notable buildings

CITIC Plaza, is a complex completed in 1997 between Tianhe Sports Center and Gaungzhou East Railroad Station, that has a 80-story, 391 m (1,291 ft) skyscraper of the same name. It was briefly the tallest building in China and now the third tallest in the country and seventh in the world.
Pearl River Tower, a skyscraper under construction at the junction of Jinsui Road/Zhujiang Avenue West. It is due for completion Autumn 2009 and will be occupied by the China National Tobacco Corporation.[3]
Guangzhou International Finance Center, is a tall skyscraper 435m high. It was built between 2005 and 2010.
The famous shopping mall, TeeMall, a very big shopping centre, the Chinese from Guangzhou even call it the biggest shopping mall in Asia (although the biggest mall in Asia is actually the Golden Resources Mall in Beijing).
Shipai Village is a large urban village located in Tianhe District.
[edit] References

^ http://www.lifeofguangzhou.com/node_10/ ... 3196.shtml
^ "Google Offices." Google. Retrieved on July 12, 2009.
^ "The winds of change", World Architecture News

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianhe_District