The Shanghai regional plan called for a satellite new town in Jiading, northwest of Shanghai and historically an economic pillar in the automobile manufacturing industry in China. Seeking to attract international companies to locate their Chinese headquarters there, as well as domestic businesses from the Yangtze River Delta region, Jiading New Town is envisioned to be ‘an international headquarters office campus’ with a mixed-use town center. Assuming the Shanghai region will continue to expand, the Jiading New Town will be expected to absorb ‘back-of-the-house’ corporate users as well as headquarters for small multinational companies.

The plan for the headquarters campus proposes an ‘Informational City,’ a dense urban core for a knowledge-based economy. The Informational City can be described as a ‘space of flows,’ electronic communication that is predominantly non-spatial. But it is, in addition, a ‘space of place’ that draws upon social, cultural, and political references. The Informational City is planned to accommodate both a 24/7 dense urban center with mixed land uses and building design to provide a vibrant amenity-rich and hyper-active streetscape. An active public pedestrian environment helps to facilitate communication and frequent encounters. Informal and formal discourse helps to encourage collaborative work environments that promote entrepreneurship and creativity. The plan emphasizes the importance of establishing world class educational institutions for all educational levels, and requires that urban infrastructure, buildings, and the extensive open space system be designed and developed under the most rigorous principles of environmental sustainability.