Wu Jin/Shanghai Daily news

Zhaoxiang Town in Qingpu District wants to build up chain stores to attract more tourists, and is also looking to develop its real estate sector, and research and development centers for toy companies.
The town took its first step toward such development last September when Outlets, a discount chain store featuring the world's top fashion brands, opened. The store is owned by Shanghai Brilliance (Group) Co Ltd and a Hong Kong-based company.
"The district's two tourist spots - Zhujiajiao and Dianshan Lake - can provide sufficient shoppers for our future commercial zone," said Jin Caidi, director of the town's promotion office.
While the tourist industry accounts for only a small part of Zhaoxiang Town's economy at the moment, Jin is optimistic about the commercial zone's future.
"We can contact travel agencies and persuade them to make our future commercial zone one of their tourist stops," said Jin.
The idea is that a large number of tourists will visit the area if it has large chain stores offering cheap prices, and many chain stores will set up if the area can promise a large number of tourists.
According to the current plan, even attracting a few large chain stores won't satisfy the town's leaders. They want to attract research and development centers from the nation's more than 5,000 toy manufacturers with the help of the China Toy Association. They hope to catch up with the Yiwu bazaar in Wenzhou City which features the country's cheapest goods and attracts a great many of tourists looking for bargains.
"We will catch up with Yiwu's retailing market and try to set up the same sort of bazaar focusing on toys in the town," said Jin.
With the country's macro control, each outskirt town is cautious when applying for the usage of land to push forward ambitious urbanization.
Although the town plans to use 5.3 square kilometers of land for its development, it has only applied to use 0.2 square kilometer this year.
"We need to balance the profits between the rich and the poor when pushing forward our development,'' said Jin.
The district has built up communities and educational centers for farmers who have left their fields to take factory or sales jobs.
"But the balance does not mean we will maintain agriculture as our dominant industry," said Jin.
While agricultural land can produce 1.5 million yuan (US$180,000) in output per square kilometer, the district can sell land for more than 1.5 billion per square kilometer.
Zhaoxiang Town is home to the Shanghai Qingpu Industrial Zone.
While the zone has been a success, its taxes go to the city and the district, not the town, so town leaders are hoping to create an area that can generate tax revenues for the township.
"We need to introduce in other industries, like real estate and large-sized retailing to ensure our economic growth," Jin said.