Shanghai will build a gigantic astronautics park in its southwestern suburbs in an effort to combine the metropolis' space industrial and technological resources for future development, local authorities have revealed.

The park, with a planned coverage of over 70 hectares, will be located in Zhuanqiao in Shanghai's Minhang District and hold more than 20,000 staff members from over 40 military and civil space factories and research institutions, which are now dispersed around the city, according to the Shanghai Bureau of Astronautics.

And the complex will be responsible for relevant spaceflight research and development and manufacturing in line with the country's overall space programmes, the bureau says.

"We plan to complete the construction of the park by the end of 2005,'' said Chen Xingquan, a senior engineer and bureau vice-director.

So far, the site has been selected but the design and construction processes have been delayed, according to Chen.

He said: "The bureau is accelerating its efforts to further assemble its resources for a new round of development.''

Engineers with the Shanghai bureau have helped design part of the inside cabin of China's spaceships as well as rocket engines. China plans to establish a space station and send a robot probe to the moon in the future.

Chen gave no details of the design of the park but said part of the facilities will remain secret.

Although the cost of the park was not available, bureau sources say the Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defence will cover part of the construction fee.

Meanwhile, the new park is also expected to become a national demonstration platform for China's space industries and technologies.

Zhang Qiujun, an exhibition official under the bureau, said the park will include a 5,000-square-metre exhibition hall, one the largest of its kind in the country, with the main categories of rockets, satellites, spacecraft and missiles.

Visitors will be able to watch mimic rocket blast-offs and the operations of spacecraft models, according to Zhang.

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