Shanghai / Guangzhou - Asian Games: New ingredients in the Cantonese ring

Establishing itself as the new economic centre of southern China is one thing. Establishing this new prestige with dignity is quite another. And one that requires a real helping hand to turn some very exotic ingredients to good account. Three in all: an international event, a new business district and, in the process, an iconic monument. Canton, which was awarded the 'City of Civilisation' label in 2008, has done it all. Starting with the 16th Asian Games, to be held from 12 to 27 November. The programme includes 42 competitions and 28 Olympic disciplines in which 14,000 athletes from 45 delegations will shine.

To mark the occasion, a dozen sports facilities were built and around fifty renovated, at a cost of more than a billion euros. An almost insignificant sum compared with the 15 to 20 billion invested in infrastructure in general. There is no doubt that the Games will serve above all as a springboard. A springboard that will propel Canton towards the status of a service metropolis. That's why the new airport, which opened in 2004, will be getting an extra terminal before November, in time for the Games. There will also be the new university campus, which will be able to accommodate up to 200,000 students, and the Green Landscape, Blue Sky and Blue Water programme, a revolution encouraging the creation of green spaces in the heart of the city and the reforestation of the suburbs. What's more, the Panyu high-speed train station will soon make it possible to reach Hong Kong in 40 minutes. And above all, the ultimate project, the Tianhe district business district.

Twin 100-storey towers

This "New Pearl River City" will be the next address for the headquarters of major companies. With a total area of more than six square kilometres, this veritable city within a city, where 380,000 residents and professionals are expected to meet, will be anchored by twin towers over 100 storeys high, as well as the 70-storey Pearl River Tower. The first skyscraper in the world to generate electricity using wind technology, the tower will also be equipped with photovoltaic panels. Other totems include the new Guangzhou Opera House, designed by the famous Anglo-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid and inspired by the shape of a pebble in the Pearl River; it will stand alongside the "lacquered wooden jewellery box set with jade stones", aka the future museum of Guangdong province. The municipal library, meanwhile, will resemble a gigantic open book.

This world of urban enchantment, where pebbles rub shoulders with gems in a nursery of towers, will of course be drenched in a shower of hotel stars. Some people are surprised that since 2007, international five-star hotels have suddenly sprung up," explains Aaron Loy, representative of the Four Points by Sheraton in Guangzhou, "but there is a story behind this phenomenon." It's a simple story: at the end of the 1980s, when the major Chinese hotels in Guangzhou opened, such as the White Swan, the Garden Hotel, the China and the Baiyun, the city assured them that no international brand would compete with them for fifteen years. When the agreement expired in 2005, the competition immediately attacked its works. The Shangri-La, then the Westin, the Ritz-Carlton and the Grand Hyatt. All of this in the centre of a hyperactive city. From the Grand Hyatt's panoramic restaurant, the view from the 22nd floor is criss-crossed by vast areas of construction and unfinished towers that leave it to the imagination to glimpse the next face of this strange place. A district that will soon boast a Four Seasons, in one of the twin towers, and also a Sheraton, scheduled for September - in time for the Games - complemented by a W, due to open in December. The years 2010-2012 should see the birth of a Mandarin Oriental, and perhaps a Pullman, a Sofitel, a Jumeirah, an Intercontinental... The list is long and no doubt far from exhaustive.

Among all these architectural and hotel projects, it is the Guangzhou new TV Tower that will be the emblem of Canton in the 21st century. Located on the other side of the water, in the axis of the Pearl River city, it will symbolise the starting point of the new era... Regardless of the aquatic boundary between it and the business district, a truly modern world will live there, with a TV Tower featuring a shopping plaza, a 2,400 m2 conference room, two revolving restaurants on the 82nd and 83rd floors, an observatory and a turbo drop for fans of safe scares. It remains to be seen - it's still a secret - what extravagant festivities will be served up at the opening ceremony of the Asian Games to be held in this new Cantonese Babel.