JING’AN District is calling on international experts to develop an old residential area along Suzhou Creek into an upmarket riverside community.

The district government said yesterday a high-class cultural and recreational complex would be created.

To revamp the riverbank, the government has invited three designing institutes from the United States, United Kingdom and France to produce a redevelopment plan.

“The bay area will include continuous pedestrian paths, preserved historic buildings, arts and cultural landmarks, newly built bridges as well as a central business district,” the government’s blueprint for the area stated.

Suhe Bay area, which covers 4.3 square kilometers on both sides of the creek, was once home to the last remaining shantytown in downtown.

Under the blueprint, large blocks of riverside historic buildings will be preserved and protected.

There are about 500,000 square meters of historic buildings in the east, west and south parts of the area, including lane-style residential neighborhoods, historic warehouses and former bank buildings as well as old railway and traffic facilities.

Seventeen former banks and warehouses in the area were once the cradle of finance and commerce in Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s. Some of those buildings have already been renovated.

The decades-old Sihang Warehouse, for instance, which served as the military headquarters for the Japanese during their occupation of Shanghai during World War II, has been converted into a museum. Chinese and Japanese soldiers engaged in a fierce four-day battle around the warehouse in 1937.

Other historic buildings will be renovated to host arts and cultural exhibitions. The district government has listed 169,000 square meters of historic buildings that will be protected and preserved, officials announced yesterday.

A 6.3-kilometer-long continuous pedestrian path is planned on both sides of the creek. To make it more convenient for both pedestrians and vehicles, 18 new bridges will be built along a 4.7km-long section of the creek. Ten bridges are designed for vehicles and the rest are pedestrian-only crossings, the government said.

Some 210,000 square meters of green areas have also been planned for the bay. Residents can reach a park or greenery within a 500-meter walk, according to the plan.

A core park for the bay area covering 80,000 square meters will be built on the east side of Zhejiang Road Bridge for sightseeing, sports and cultural activities.

As part of the redevelopment plan, 920,000 square meters of old residential buildings in the Suhe bay area have been razed, and by last December, 260,000 families had been relocated.

The last group of about 4,710 families and 143 shops began moving out in early April.