Forbes: Why is China building a new city in Georgia?

In an article for Forbes, travel writer Wade Shepard poses an interesting question: "Why would a company from dusty Urumqi, in China’s far western Xinjiang province, have any interest in building a city in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, 3,459 kilometers away?”

The reality is Chinese conglomerate Hualing Group has been building a modern Chinese-style city at Tbilisi Sea, on the outskirts of Georgia’s capital Tbilisi.

In recent years the area has undergone major infrastructural development and works will continue to turn the area into a bustling district with medical centres, schools, trade districts, an ecologically friendly housing area and more.

At the centre of this emerging new urban expanse is the Hotels and Preference hotel, a giant five-star, blue glass monolith which features 250 of the best rooms in Tbilisi and the largest ballroom in the country, writes Shepard.

Rolling, verdant hills abruptly gave way to the tight phalanx of identical ten story apartment blocks that sat on a perfectly aligned street grid, with a sturdy gate surrounding the perimeter… It was the same scene I’ve looked upon thousands of times while wandering through the hinterlands of China’s cities, which wasn’t at all a coincidence: this new city in Georgia is 100% Chinese,” he writes.

The story goes that Mi Enhua, the founder and president of Hualing Group, fell in love with Georgia after visiting in 2007 to the extent that he wanted to help rebuild the country as it emerges from decades of post-Soviet turmoil.”

Read the full article and find out how Hualing Group came to operate in Georgia here: www.forbes.com