China's urban population is experiencing almost unimaginable growth. Its two largest cities, Shanghai and Beijing, are home to 18 million and 14 million inhabitants respectively, and the third, Guangzhou (formerly Canton), boasts more than 10 million. Located on the Pearl River Delta, in China's south-eastern Guangdong Province, Guangzhou is close to Hong Kong and Macao, bordering the South China Sea. The Guangzhou region is an economically (hyper)active one, with the Special Economic Zones of Shenzhen and Zhuhai as neighbours. These factors, together with the looming 2010 Asian Games - to be hosted by Guangzhou - have made the city a huge and frenetic construction site. Rising systematically from east to west is a mix of office and residential towers, none less than 40 storeys high. The first line has been completed; the next is in scaffolding; and a third is still on the drawingboard. When completed, these projects will comprise Guangzhou's new city centre, a vast district built from scratch and in a very short time.
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