Yujiapu is a peninsula located in the core area of the Tianjin Binhai New Area; it covers the entire block east, west and south facing the Hai River, an area totaling 3.86 square kilometers (1.49 sq mi). The area is located 40 kilometers (25 mi) from the Tianjin city center and 150 kilometers (93 mi) from Beijing. The site is 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) from the core district of the Tianjin Binhai New Area (TBNA), with the southern tip of the site only a 10-minute drive from the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA). From the air, the whole Yujiapu region is shaped like a "pocketbook", is the upper hand in Sheung Shui land. It is already under construction on the west side of Xiangluowan business district, south of the future will be planning the construction of ecological residential area, east of the island shaped like a whale. To the west there is the Hai Kaiqi Bridge, with the Yongtai Rd traveling east–west in the north, and Sanhuai Rd traversing the peninsula from the north to the south.
The district was expected to open in June 2014,[4] but has suffered from a construction slowdown.
One local was quoted as saying “All of these tall buildings just appeared.” In addition the "area is prone to flooding from storm surges and heavy rain" as it is “built on coastal salt flats just a few inches above sea level.. as a local resident told the Times in 2012, after nasty weather… “you had to roll up your pants and take off your shoes to walk across the street.” [5] As of 2015, construction was halted on many projects as the builders packed up and left the city, as the $50 billion project was heavily in debt.[6][7]
Around 2016, property buyers started moving into the district. In 2019, some government functional agencies of the Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Zone Administrative Committee moved to Baoxin Building in Yujiapu.
As of 2015[update], of the nearly 41 projects that can be seen in Xiangluo Bay, nearly 22 buildings are still in an unfinished state.
There are a number of substantial buildings under construction on the peninsula,[citation needed] including:
^Henry Sanderson, Michael Forsythe China's Superbank: Debt, Oil and Influence 2012 -- Page 24 "Yet there's a point where ambition and enthusiasm becomes recklessness and hubris, and Tianjin may have crossed that line. There's no better place to witness the physical manifestation of hubris than Yujiapu, Tianjin's planned Manhattan."
^APEC Low Carbon Model Town (LCMT) Project: Tianjin Yujiapu Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Organization), Nikken Sekkei Research Institute - 2011
