China: Building for Joint Ventures (Second edition)

Foreword

foreword III 1979. one year aller the introduction of the open door policy by the People's Republic of China. LevclI and Bailey was appointed to act as quantity survcyors for thc 800-room Jinling Hotel in Nanjing. thc first high-risc intcrnational class hotel to be constructed in China. Since then. the practice has been continuously cngaged on many projects in China and. together with its colleagues in the design and management disciplines. it has accumulated a great deal of knowledge of the proccdures involvcd in building in China from the early feasibility study through to the design and construction stages. The idca to write the book 'China: Building for Joint Vcntures' to share Ihis knowledge emerged in 1986 during a discussion between Tony Walker. Roger Flanagan and Denis Lcven about Levcn and Bailey's c:'I;pcrience of working in China over the previous cight years. The sltldy was carried out jointly by the Univcrsity of I-Iong Kong and the University of Reading under thc sponsorship of Levctt and Bai lcy and thc book was published in 1987. Since thcn. China has madc enormous progrcss in its modernisation programme and in strcngthening its economy. Resulting from this. the procedurcs involvcd in building in China havc changed substantially in a continuing process of evolution. ercating thc need to updlllc much of the infonnation in the first book. To mllrk the fomlation of the Global Allillllee of the three praelices. Rider Hunt (Asill Pacific) :lIld Gardiner and Theobald ha\'e joined wilh Levell and Bailey in sponsoring the new study thllt has been carried out by Ihe two Universities to enable this second edition of the book to be published. V" The Alliance brings together three of the largest timlS in the profession, each with a long and Sllccessful professional history and a premier position and market share in its own geographic region. It establishes a global building cost and project management consultancy with a combined staff of over 1600 and more than 80 offices around the world, thereby creating an international network that covers every comer of the globe and provides a true world capacily for each of the practices to serve its clients. The style of this edition of the book follows that of the previous edition which was designed by the late Jon Prescott, a dear friend and colleague whosc contribution to this book will be remcmbered together with his friendship and kindness. Our thanks to Tony Walker and Roger Flanagan for their dedication in revising and updating this study which we hope will continue 10 provoke interest and help those who arc contemplating building in China. Denis Levell - Levell and Gailey Michael Coates - Gardiner and Theobald Dennis Corke - Rider Hunt (Asia Pacific) August 1998 VIII ...