Two new international schools will open by the end of next year in Shekou, the area with the largest concentration of foreign residents in Shenzhen.

A Japanese school and British school will increase the number of international schools to four in the area, where more than half of Shenzhen's 13,000 expatriates live.

The Japanese school, to be set up by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in Shenzhen, will recruit children of Japanese parents working in the city, when it opens next spring.

"We had thought about Bao'an District and Overseas Chinese Town for the school site," the school's investors were quoted as saying in yesterday's Southern Metropolis Daily. "But we made Shekou our final choice because the atmosphere here is perfect for the school."

Most of Shenzhen's Japanese-invested companies are located in Bao'an District while Overseas Chinese Town is famous as an affluent area.

The British school is slated to open at the end of next year and will follow the British academic system, according to a source with the leasing center of China Merchants Real Estate (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd. yesterday, who refused to be identified. The company has developed most properties in Shekou.

Currently, Shekou boasts two of Shenzhen's three international schools — Shekou International School (SIS) and QSI International School of Shekou (QSI).

Founded in 1988, SIS is the oldest international school in Shenzhen. It has seen the number of pupils rise to 550, from 34 countries and regions, this year, compared to 12 in 1988.

QSI, operational in 2001, enrolled more than 700 students from 40 countries and regions this year, up from only 21 students when the school opened in August 2001.

ISSC, another international school in Nanshan District, has admitted some 150 students from more than 20 countries and regions this year.

(Shenzhen Daily October 17, 2007)