Tang Lingshen and Yang Di/Shanghai Daily news

Construction began on the northern area of the Shanghai International Home Textile Industrial Park in Yangpu District in early July.
With a total investment of 650 million yuan (US$80.25 million), the northern section will cover an area of 21,227 square meters, and is scheduled to be completed in 2007.
The entire park will cover more than 80,000 square meters, and the floor space of building in the park will be around 330,000 square meters. The entire park will cost 2 billion yuan to build.
Shanghai International Home Textile Industrial Park centers around textile information and consulting, design and exhibition, exploration and promotion, logistics and service, and global trade.
Xu Fengwei, general manger of Shanghai PengXin International Home Textile Development Co Ltd, said that the park is currently concentrating on textile product design and protection, research and development and international shopping as well.
It will cooperate with local textile universities such as Donghua University and the Fuka Economic Forecasting Research Shanghai        to form an effective strategic alliance in the textile industry and turn designs into commodities      with market value.
At the end of August, a home-textile-design contest sponsored by PengXin Co Ltd was held in the park in an aim to further strengthen the quality of home textiles and attract more consumers.
More than 2,900 designs from around the country took part in the contest.
"The park aims at helping enterprises protect innovative achievements, and promote innovation. Activities and lectures will be held to realize this goal" said Xu.
The park also plans to set up a transnational shopping platform and hold regular transnational conferences about purchasing.
"We will take advantage of N&K from the United States and HIPHOP from South Korea, which have set up outlets in the park, and encourage more overseas companies to set up outlets in the park."
Yangpu District is home to China's modern textile industry.
In recent years, the booming textile industry in Yangpu has attracted more enterprises from home and abroad.
The park is home to more than 100 large and medium-sized companies including Shanghai Jiali Textile Corporation, Shangdong Yaguang Textile Corporation, the Chinese Household Textiles Association and the Household Textiles Association of Shanghai. Several textile-related publications such as "Home Textiles Today" and "Cloth Art World" are also located in the park.
The output of the park's different industries reached 2 billion yuan in 2004 and is expected to hit 3 billion yuan by the end of this year.
"Although the China-EU textile friction recently has somewhat affected the clothing trade in the park, the overall situation is promising," said Xu.