China city planning experts meet with Torres, Hocog

Acting governor Ralph DLG Torres, center, welcomes Dr. Hu Bo, second from right, to the Office of the Governor. Others in the photo are, from left, Qingyu Liu, Kevin Lee, and Jia Yu. (Contributed Photo)

Four of China’s expert city planners and architects met with acting governor Ralph DLG Torres and Senate President Victor B. Hocog yesterday to share ideas about their “GreenStay” Project, which aims to help rebuild homes that were destroyed by Typhoon Soudelor.

The four city planners—Kevin Lee, Crystal Wang, Qingyu Liu, and Jia Yu—were accompanied by Skywalker Communications Group managing director Dr. Hu Bo during their meeting at the Office of the Governor on Capital Hill.

Lee is currently the acting director of the Shanghai Jiaotong University’s Advanced Institute of Finance Wang has 15 years of experience in the field of real estate, marketing, and urban/rural development. Liu is an architecture who is currently the co-partner and architectural design director for YanHuang International Architecture & Engineering Co. Ltd., one the biggest architectural design firms in Beijing that is overseeing the architectural planning for the city, landscaping, and interior design, to name a few.

During yesterday’s meeting, Bo explained that the new technology for GreenStay will provide an affordable way to rebuild homes that were destroyed by the typhoon.

“It has several important features. It is innovative, economical, environmentally sustainable, convenient, and nature friendly,” Bo said.

“This is our first time to visit Saipan and we all really like it here: comfortable weather, friendly people, and delicious local food.  However, at the same time, we feel really devastated when we saw a lot fallen trees and destroyed houses around the island,” said Wang. “When Dr. Bo of Skywalker approached us with the GreenStay idea and the reason for his desire to take on such a project, I was more than willing to do my part to assist with this mission.  Everyone, all families, deserved to have a safe place to live.”

Li said: “It’s our honor to meet the lieutenant governor and Senate president to talk about the GreenStay project and we really appreciated all the valuable information and support provide by them.

“We will try our best to upgrade the house designs to be more suitable for local people and to ensure that it is acceptable to the local market.”

The same group also met with Saipan Mayor David Apatang last week. (Skywalker)