The underground ways of Hongqiao CBD connects office buildings, shopping malls and the Hongqiao transportation hub. [Photo/provided to China Daily]

Located in the western part of Shanghai, the Shanghai Hongqiao central business district (CBD) is a popular business destination for companies who are keen to seize more opportunities in the Yangtze River Delta region and in China.

The CBD is a strategic development region in Shanghai that supports national strategies such as the Yangtze River Delta city cluster construction plan. The zone occupies an area of 86.6 square kilometers and its core area spans 4.7 sq km.

As of June 2016, more than 700 companies, including Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, multinational oil and gas company Shell and compression technology company Hoerbiger, decided to set up their offices in the core area within the Hongqiao CBD, according to the Shanghai Hongqiao CBD Administrative Committee.

Hans-Georg Frey, Jungheinrich AG's chairman, decided to apply and push the process of basing the company's China headquarters in the CBD after he took a short walk and discovered how close the zone was to Hongqiao Airport and Hongqiao High-speed Railway Station.

The time required to travel on foot from the Hongqiao CBD to Hongqiao High-speed Railway Station and Hongqiao Airport is between 7 and 15 minutes. The travel time by rail from the Hongqiao transportation hub to 16 Yangtze River Delta cities, such as Hangzhou and Suzhou, takes less than an hour.

"I often visit clients in Hangzhou of Zhejiang province in the morning before meeting another client in Shanghai in the afternoon. I can do all this just by taking the train from Hongqiao CBD," said Wang Zhao, an employee of a trading company in Shanghai.