Changsha's Mawangdui wholesale vegetable market will move from the increasingly crowded downtown area to a new home five times larger, in the suburbs of Huangxing town by the end of April this year.

The new "food basket", located in Dagualing village, will be renamed the Changsha Huangxing Haijixing Agricultural Products Logistics Park and upon completion is set to become the largest agricultural products logistics center in central-south China.

The park sits next to the Huangjiang Road and covers an area of 500 mu (33 hectares). The first phase of the project includes 14 buildings, with a total construction area of 170,000 square meters. Its parking area reaches a further 100,000 sq m, and is able to accommodate 2,000 freight cars at any one time.

The entire park is designed with a floor area of more than 1,000 mu and construction area of 643,000 sq m. When complete it will be five times the size of the current Mawangdui wholesale vegetable market downtown.

It will also feature much faster freight loading and unloading and be more convenient for electronic transactions. The daily volume of business to flow through the park is expected to rise by more than 65 percent to 15,000 metric tons upon opening.

The Mawangdui Market opened for business in May, 1991, covering an area of just 28 mu at that time. Since then it has grown into a much bigger market covering an area more than 200 mu. But with the rapid expansion and urban development in Changsha, the market has become overloaded and a move to larger premises is urgently needed.

Source: China daily.com