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A Commercial Community Dedicated to Cultural Promotion

      The Beijing Upper East Side International Culture Year opened at the Traders Upper East Hotel on March 29, 2009. This cultural exchange project, sponsored by Beijing Foreign Cultural Exchanges Center and Yang Guang Company Limited, vividly portrays life in Beijing’s international community via various cultural activities. This project aims to promote multicultural communities and international cultural exchanges and to create harmonious and prosperous international families.

      During the opening ceremony, Spanish flamenco and bop dances, a drum performance by children from the Beijing Beanstalk International School, contemporary sculptural works, a world photography exhibition, magic and other performances were presented.

      The Beijing Upper East Side International Culture Year focuses on Beijing’s international-community culture and will become a multicultural platform for exchange. At the same time, it will showcase the contemporary internationalization of Beijing and serve as an example for and as encouragement for other communities to create their own multicultural and harmonious international homes.

      The Beijing Upper East Side International Culture Year will feature an international wedding festival in May, an international jazz festival and beer festival in August and an international drama festival in October.

      The Upper East Side community provides homes for nearly 2,000 families from 42 countries and will become a colourful international cultural exchange place with the opening of the Beijing Upper East Side International Culture Year. These international families brought their special lifestyles and cultures from every corner of the world, and they have also experienced Beijing’s many positive changes. More importantly, they thoroughly enjoy the high-quality lifestyle provided by this mature international community. To connect the architectural arts with daily life, the Upper East Side provides an exceptional international environment and vigorous life for the residents. As the slogan of the culture year, “We Are Family” indicates, residents and visitors to the Upper East Side will enjoy a happy life while making new friends with people from around the world and from different cultures.

      Clemens Von Treskow, a resident of this community, said he has lived in this community for more than one year; he thinks it’s a good thing to organize this kind of cultural events to know each others in the neighbourhood.

      For this Culture Year launched by a commercial real estate company, Wang Lei, the general manager of Beijing City Development Company of Yang Guang Company Limited, developer of Beijing Upper East Side, said, “It is a cultural show that aims to stimulate real estate development of the Upper East Side.

      “Beijing is not just for Beijingers; it’s also not the exclusive property of the Chinese people; it belongs to the world. The construction of our international community is filled with potential and is necessary. So we created the Upper East Side project and promote it.”

      The strategy seems to be working. Despite a downturn in the real estate market during the financial crisis, the community realized a sales volume of 400 million yuan (US$58.6 million) in March.

      He also shared his opinion that financial crisis and downturn in China has not reached its bottom; the real estate market has to prepare to deal with the changing situation. For this reason, his company is getting more involved in the management of the community. Still, he said, “The current real estate market is the consumer’s market; it’s not like it was before.” 

阳光上东：致力于文化推广的商业社区

        2009年3月29日，“北京阳光上东国际文化年”（以下简称文化年）在北京上东盛贸饭店拉开帷幕。本次活动是由北京对外文化交流中心与阳光新业地产股份有限公司（以下简称阳光新业）共同筹建策划的文化交流项目。

        在文化年开幕式上，充满异域风情的西班牙弗拉明哥舞蹈、爵士乐表演、青苗双语国际学校的小朋友们的精彩的击鼓表演、世界风情图片展、当代雕塑艺术作品展、魔术互动及行为艺术等多姿多彩的节目和活动，将不同国家的精彩文化全情呈现。

        阳光上东作为阳光新业投资建设的国际化社区，目前已经吸引了来自世界42个国家的近2000个家庭定居于此，这些国际家庭都有着不同的生活方式和居住文化。为传达国际化社区的文化精髓，搭建社区多元文化的交流平台，文化年将以形式多样的文化活动展示北京国际化社区形象和北京作为国际化城市的瑰丽风景，使社区居民更好的感受国际化成熟社区的高品质生活。根据2009年的文化年活动计划，此后还将举办包括5月的国际婚礼、8月的国际爵士音乐节及啤酒节、10月的国际戏剧节等活动，都将成为北京国际化社区多元文化及国际文化交流与传播的亮点。

        在全球金融危机的大背景下，阳光上东地产项目却保持平稳发展态势，仅2009年3月就实现了总额达4亿元的房地产成交量。作为一家商业地产公司，阳光新业始终致力于文化的推广，阳光新业北京城市开发公司总经理王雷对此表示，北京不仅仅是中国的北京，更应该是世界的北京。打造国际化的社区是潜在趋势，也是必须的。因此，企业开发了阳光上东项目，并尽力推动其更好的发展，而多元文化的和谐共融有助于刺激阳光上东的市场发展。

        对于未来房产市场的预测，王雷认为，金融危机的冲击在中国大陆还未见底，但是房产市场需要做好准备应对更大的冲击。因此，虽然阳光新业属于房地产开发商，但也会相应涉足一些社区管理等领域，扮演一个监督者的角色。毕竟现在的市场是买方市场，而不再如同此前一样的以卖方市场为主。