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 Australian Design - Eastern Daily Shanghai First: The World's Biggest Extreme Sports Park Will Be Completed By The End Of The Month Located in New Jiangwan City, it will be opened to the public in October. Many of the design features are unique in the world. Walking in the shade along a lake with young skateboarders skating in the park, the sport in its most free form creates the most relaxed mood. All this will be the urban leisure fashion of 2005 in New Jiangwan City. At the end of this month, New Jiangwan City, located in the north east part of Shanghai, will be the birthplace of the biggest skate park of the extreme sports in the world- New Jiangwan City SMP Skate Park. This skate park will take up 12 000 square meters, which will surpass in areas the current world biggest theme park located in America. According to the head designer of the park, Simon Oxenham, this park will be open to the public in October this year. Simon has indicated that after completion, New Jiangwan City SMP Skate Park will not only be the biggest one in the world, but also the best one in the world because many of its design features are unique and can only be seen in Shanghai. Other parks might even copy from it after its completion. According to Simon, most of the skate parks for extreme sports are located in North America and Australia. The United States has about 2800 parks and Australia has about 1000 parks. Simon's favourite design feature is the 360 degree full pipe. At both ends of this pipe, there will be a bowl of 5 meters in depth. The skater needs to enter from one bowl to the pipe and skate for 360 degree to enter into the other bowl. Less than 10 people can complete this in the world. Simon also said that as the level of the world athletes are improving every year, many old skate parks are in danger of being out of date and that is why he has designed many difficult features in this Shanghai Park. Pointing at the Vert Ramp not far from the big bowl, Simon said proudly "this ramp will be a challenge for the world's top athletes for at least the next two years". This Vert Ramp, 42 meters in length and 6 meters in height, is unique in the world as well. "With these difficult features, we have sent out a challenge to the top athletes of extreme sports," said Simon. He also said that many top athletes have expressed their interests to come after learning that this park will soon be completed in Shanghai. Mr Wei Xing, the Secretary General of China Extreme Sports Association, said that as extreme sports like skateboarding, surfing etc were not very familiar to the people of Shanghai, the arrival of the world top athletes will promote the extreme sports in Shanghai. Mr Wei Xing also said that the prospect of the extreme sports in Shanghai is good because the features of these sports match with the urban qualities of Shanghai. At the same time, the fans love these sports because of their qualities of freedom and leisure. Simon mentioned that Shanghai will hold a world class competition in the extreme sports theme park in October. The world top athletes will gather in Shanghai and the park will open to the public after the event as well. "Like the F1 race course in the Northwest of Shanghai, the extreme sports skate park in the Northeast of Shanghai will lead the next run of Shanghai sports fashion" Simon said with full confidence. This park has beginner's area, intermediary area and competition area. It can meet the different requirements of people from beginners to the world's top athletes. The competition area has 2400 square meters, which is mainly for holding competitions for top athletes of the world. The practice area has 9600 square meters, which is formed by a Vert Ramp and numerous Bowls. Anyone who comes to the park can find the place that is suitable for them. A Sports Centre of 7500 square meters is constructed next to the park to provide people with other facilities for leisure and other activities. 
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