A groundbreaking ceremony for Fettes College Guangzhou is held in Guangzhou's Zengcheng district on Sept 24. [Photo by Bi Zhiyi/xkb.com.cn]

A groundbreaking ceremony for Fettes College Guangzhou was held in Guangzhou's Zengcheng district on Sept 24. The new school aims to bring the world's top education resources to Guangzhou and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Fettes College, founded in 1870 in the United Kingdom, is known as "the Eton of the North" and is one of the best private schools in the UK.

Fettes College Guangzhou was co-built by Fettes College and Bright Scholar Education Group, the largest operator of international and bilingual schools in China. Covering a total area of about 200 mu (13.33 hectares), the school is expected to finish construction in 2020 and receive a total of 2 billion yuan ($280.71 million) in investment.

The school will offer 15-years of British boarding education for more than 2,000 students. The school will use the Ministry of Education's textbooks and curriculum and establish distinctive programs integrating Chinese and Western culture.

Lin Yihui, deputy head of Zengcheng district, said the district government is in full support of building the school. Li said that he hoped the school would create new opportunities in the district and attract families from throughout Guangzhou and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

In recent years, Zengcheng district has been devoting great effort to developing education. The district's education expenditures have been on the rise since 2015, and it has spent more money on education than any other district in Guangzhou for the past four years.