2024 Dialogue with the District Party Secretary | Shanghai Lego Land to Open Next Summer, How Will Jinshan Attract Visitors?
As a major agricultural and manufacturing district in Shanghai, how can Jinshan ensure that elderly residents in rural areas enjoy a good quality of life while attracting young people to return to their hometowns for entrepreneurship and drawing tourists from afar? The Shanghai LEGO Resort, set to officially open in the summer of next year, is expected to empower Jinshan’s development. How will Jinshan accommodate this influx of visitors?
Recently, several organizations, including Shanghai’s major research initiative, The Paper, and Shanghai People’s Broadcasting Station, launched a series of multimedia interviews titled “2024 Dialogue with District Party Secretaries.”
On December 11, Liu Jian, Secretary of the Jinshan District Committee, appeared on the program and visited Shuikou Village in Caojing Town. He discussed the district’s innovative measures to enhance living standards, optimize the ecological environment, and strengthen governance efficiency from the perspectives of rural beautification, developing specialty industries, and constructing major cultural and tourism projects.
In response to a question from Shanghai’s major research initiative and The Paper regarding the construction of the Shanghai LEGO Resort, Liu Jian revealed that as a highly anticipated major cultural and tourism project, the resort has completed its main construction and is now fully launching themed packaging and amusement equipment installation, with accompanying commercial streets, surrounding roads, parking lots, and hotels also progressing rapidly.
With the LEGO Resort set to open next summer, will transportation be more convenient? The first themed area of the LEGO Resort has been unveiled, and many are concerned about the accessibility and future public transport options to the resort. How will it contribute to Jinshan’s development after its completion?
In response to questions from Shanghai’s major research initiative and The Paper, Liu Jian stated that the focus of Jinshan’s work next year will be to accelerate a number of major engineering projects that impact the quality of life for residents. As a significant cultural and tourism project and a popular IP, the Shanghai LEGO Resort is expected to become an international-level theme park, marking its debut in China and serving as a global flagship.
The first themed area of the Shanghai LEGO Resort, the LEGO City area, has been revealed. The resort is currently fully launching themed packaging and amusement equipment installation.
Liu Jian disclosed that in addition to featuring classic and popular LEGO attractions, the Shanghai LEGO Resort will also debut the Wukong Xiaoxia scenic area, integrating Shanghai-style culture and elements of the Jiangnan water town, providing a unique family-friendly travel experience for visitors.
To enhance transportation convenience, infrastructure such as commercial streets, seven surrounding roads, two parking lots, one bus hub, and five high-end hotels are being rapidly developed alongside the LEGO Resort. The construction of the Tinglin Station on the South Feng Line of the regional railway is also accelerating, with the main structure expected to be completed by the end of next year.
Building on the consumption potential of the LEGO Resort, Jinshan will also connect attractions like Fengjing Ancient Town and Huakai Haishang, speeding up the creation of the G320 cultural and tourism corridor to attract more visitors to Jinshan for leisure and vacation, establishing a new destination for recreational consumption in the Yangtze River Delta region.
Currently, Jinshan has formed a highway network of “three vertical and three horizontal” expressways and “five vertical and five horizontal” trunk roads, increasing the number of connecting passages to neighboring regions to 24. Moving forward, Jinshan will actively promote the public transport operation of the Jinshan Railway and accelerate the construction of major transportation projects such as the Huzha Hangzhou Railway and the Jinping Line.
The “Oriental Sheep Horn Village” features 70 small islands and receives over 400,000 visitors annually. Located on the northern shore of Hangzhou Bay, Jinshan is the earliest land to emerge, the first place for human habitation, and the first area to establish administrative structures in Shanghai. It is home to the region’s only remaining ancient coastline, the Gangshen site, which dates back 6,400 years, with civilization traceable to the Majiabang culture period 6,000 years ago.
Shuikou Village in Caojing Town is situated on this ancient coastline, formerly known as “Shuike (pronounced: Ke) Li,” named for its dense water network and wide rivers. The village covers a total area of 3.66 square kilometers, with water bodies accounting for 40% of the total area, featuring over 40 rivers and more than 70 small islands.
Liu Jian stated that Shuikou Village has shed its label as a weak village and transformed into the picturesque and prosperous “Oriental Sheep Horn Village” by exploring a path of “water system restoration—environmental improvement—rural revitalization.”
In 2015, Shuikou Village significantly improved its water environment through measures such as connecting water systems, opening blocked waterways, and maintaining river channels, earning the title of “Shanghai Beautiful Village Demonstration Village.” In 2018, Jinshan initiated the construction of the Caojing Urban Park centered around Shuikou Village, preserving elements of Jiangnan water town architecture, such as white walls, black tiles, and small courtyards, while creating unique landscapes that integrate flower seas, academies, and viewing platforms.
As one of the first rural revitalization demonstration villages in the city, Shuikou Village has established a 3-kilometer waterway tour route through a model of “government-led + social capital + villagers’ autonomy,” creating ideal meeting halls, boutique homestays, and a water sports base, attracting approximately 400,000 visitors annually. In 2023, the village’s collective economic income increased by 120% compared to the pre-demonstration period in 2018, successfully transforming the “good looks” of green mountains and clear waters into “good value” for Jinshan.
In October 2021, Caojing Town was named Shanghai’s first national “Green Water and Green Mountains are Golden Mountains and Silver Mountains” practice innovation base, making Jinshan the only district in the city to simultaneously possess a national ecological civilization construction demonstration zone and a “Green Water and Green Mountains are Golden Mountains and Silver Mountains” practice innovation base.
The digital nomad base attracts outsiders to experience and encourages locals to return home. Liu Jian mentioned that Jinshan has been exploring how to better integrate urban living with rural revitalization, paving a path for rural revitalization within the context of an international metropolis, with Shuikou Village serving as a typical example.
For instance, the comprehensive elderly service center in Shuikou Village, which officially opened in September 2019, is the first comprehensive elderly service platform in Jinshan managed by a non-profit organization commissioned by the village committee, specifically designed to provide elderly care services for local farmers.
The center is equipped with 33 beds, a complete medical team, elderly care consultants, a monitoring system, an emergency call system, and a dining point for seniors, allowing those who find it inconvenient to cook to come here for meals (including breakfast, lunch, and dinner). The center also features a one-acre “small three gardens” (small flower garden, small vegetable garden, herbal garden) where seasonal vegetables like greens, celery, and lettuce, as well as flowers and herbs like roses and mint, are grown, providing a space for the elderly to garden, socialize, and enjoy the sun.
The rural market in Shuikou Village is also distinctive. Locally produced bananas come from the nearby Taihe Water Purification Breeding Base, where a banana tree can yield about 100 pounds of bananas, generating an economic value of approximately 300,000 yuan from 100 trees. The local ecological black fish breeding base has a daily output of 30,000 pounds, making it the largest black fish distribution base in Shanghai. The village has adopted a “linking farmers with farmers” approach, where Shuikou Village invests land to co-develop the ecological black fish project with market entities, with 5% of the profits distributed to villagers, enhancing their income and wealth. Currently, Shuikou Village has successfully become a national demonstration village for “one village, one product” in freshwater aquaculture and is accelerating the establishment of a modern aquaculture industrial park.
Interestingly, as the rural landscape has changed and rural industries have improved, an increasing number of young people have returned to start businesses in recent years. The international digital nomad base established in Shuikou Village not only attracts local young people from Shanghai but also draws digital nomads from across the country and around the world, allowing them to experience a new lifestyle of “six dimensions” (working, living, learning, socializing, traveling, and entrepreneurship).
Liu Jian emphasized that in the context of digitalization and networking, the forms of entrepreneurship and employment are changing, and it is crucial to provide an environment where new employment groups can settle and establish themselves in Jinshan. In recent years, Jinshan has formulated a “1+X+Y” talent policy and introduced specific measures to encourage Jinshan-born university students to return for entrepreneurship and employment.
