The venerable Hongqi Sugar Refinery and environs will soon be transformed into a resplendent Fishpond & Sugar Small Town Cultural & Creative Park designed by one of the world's top 10 architectural design offices.

Project designer Woods Bagot Asia Ltd presented the concept at a conference in Hongqi Town of Jinwan District on March 27. Woods Bagot employs some 850 experts in 15 studios in Australia, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. It has much experience in large-scale international projects such as the renovation of Sydney Metro Central Station.

Named after the many fishponds in the area as well as former sugar refinery itself, the park will integrate modern culture, tourism, leisure, and commerce.

Rendering of Fishpond & Sugar Small Town Cultural & Creative Park

The proposal is to retain red bricks of well-preserved facilities for an old industrial style. The project will also make the most of original rooftops, beams, and interior layouts to constitute modernized boutique hotels.

Costing 350 million yuan ($56 million), the park will have museum, cultural-creative, and candy-tasting zones. Within each area will be sections for sugar refining history, machines, techniques, DIY candy, and world candies exhibitions. Planned are leisure and creative office areas, maker space dedicated to college students, featured catering, and a sugar-themed hotel. Visitors will experience and learn about sugar culture across the world.

The initial undertaking is to refine the townscape, promote new lifestyle, and remake Hongqi Town into a tourist destination for leisure and entertainment. Nearby hillsides will be landscaped and a chocolate factory will be built.

The second stage is to balance work, living, and entertainment with retail streets and entrepreneurial projects related to photography. A relaxed lifestyle will emerge amid waterfront catering and sports facilities.

Site of Hongqi Sugar Refinery [Photos by Zhang Zhou / Zhujiang Evening Post]

The third phase is to expand the retail streets and construct pedestrian overpasses connected to offices and forming a unique spatial structure. A tour route will access organic food markets, workshops, and a tourist center.

The site encompasses a 58,839-sq-m (14.5-acre) refinery covered with 34,127 sq m (10.1 acres) of plants, 3,252-sq-m (almost 1 acre) of built-up area, 5,697 sq m (1.4 acres) of open space, and 3.6-hectare (8.9-acre) fishponds.

Hongqi Town will also preserve a 22-sq-km (8.5-sq-mile) ecological wetland within the villages of Sanban, Shaji, Guangfa, Guangyi and Xiaolin to display the natural scenery and unique farm culture.

In February, Hongqi Town invited Zhuhai Shili Lianjiang Agricultural Tourism Development Co to oversee construction of the sugar-themed cultural-creative park.