Named the "Canal Bund", the factory site now has a modern and cultural atmosphere. It is home to six old buildings and five new ones, as well as an art gallery. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Helie street, a patch of land on the west bank of the Grand Canal in Wuxi, has made a sea of changes after years of development and is becoming a new sub-center of the city.

The street occupies only 8.95 square kilometers in Binhu district. It is the place where Kaiyuan Machine Factory was founded by the entrepreneurs Rong Songjing and Rong Desheng in 1940s. The factory witnessed the development of Wuxi city over the past century.

Though original factory plants can still be found as industrial building heritages, their functions have totally changed. Named the "Canal Bund", the factory site now has a modern and cultural atmosphere. It is home to six old buildings and five new ones, as well as an art gallery. The first phase of Canal Bund opened to the public in May, 2014. The second phase started construction in January, 2018. The whole project is expected to be finished by the end of 2019 and the total cost will reach 500 million yuan ($72.52 million).

Parts of the former industrial building heritages can still be found. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Another signature zone in the street is Yunshu Culture Industrial Innovation Park. It occupies about 7,500 square meters and is comprised of nine office buildings and a landscape belt. As of now, 15 enterprises have settled in the park and mainly engage in the cultural industries, such as education, training, and photography. There is also an activity center covering about 1,000 sq m.

People can also enjoy the Shanghai-style buildings of Xi'nan Mansion on Helie street. There are boutique hotels, themed restaurants, cinemas, cafes and institutions for parent-children education. Since it opened in April 2018, it has played host to about 20 activities, such as Miss Tourism International and Tencent Super Star, making a turnover of 50 million yuan and receiving 500,000 visitors. Based on its advantages and characteristic industries, Helie street strives to develop six clusters of service industries, covering the aspects of trade, industry incubation, entertainment, business offices, cultural media and sports exhibition. Through years of industrial adjustment, the proportion of service industry businesses has reached 90 percent in the area.