the campus is situated in 111 renai road, suzhou dushu lake science and education innovation district in suzhou industrial park, 12 km east of the historic center of suzhou, and 90 km west of shanghai. with 2,500 years of rich history and culture, suzhou has sustained an average annual economic growth-rate of more than 15 per cent since the beginning of china's "reform and opening up" period, its local gdp being ranked as the fourth largest in china, just after beijing, shanghai and guangzhou. suzhou industrial park is the location for more than 2,100 international companies, more than 100 of which are fortune 500 companies, including siemens, samsung and nokia. suzhou industrial park is home to more than 20,000 expatriate workers. situated in the heart of the complex, xi’an jiaotong-liverpool university forms part of that international community. the new xjtlu campus, to be constructed in the city of taicang, is proposed that it will open in 2020.