31.2763°N 120.7261°WSuzhou Dushu Lake Higher Education Town is a university town located in the Southern part of Suzhou Industrial Park, Suzhou, Jiangsu, to the East of Dushu Lake,[1] and to the South of Wusong River. It has a total area of 25 km2, and expects to have around 400,000 people by 2016, 100,000 of whom will be students. Its goal is to offer good education, advanced technology, and a pleasant living environment. The area is home to many universities (undergraduate as well as graduate schools) including local Chinese universities and universities from other countries. This community focuses on producing educated and creative people.[2] The area offers facilities including libraries, entertainment venues, parks, a sports centre and accommodation. Wenxing Plaza and Hanlin Plaza are popular locations of many small restaurants and shops. Dushu Lake Library is an experimental library of the National Digital Library.
See main article: Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. In May 2006, Suzhou Industrial Park's Higher Education Town became the location for the first Sino-British University to be approved by the Chinese Ministry of Education when, in partnership with Xi’an Jiaotong University, the University of Liverpool opened a joint University known as the Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU). This is an independent University, offering degree courses in Architecture, Electronics, Communications, Computer Science, and Management (including Financial Mathematics and E-commerce). When fully operational, this independent university will have a student population of up to ten thousand.