SOHO China is a Chinese building developer, primarily in the
office
An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a po ...
and commercial sector, with some residential and mixed-use properties in its portfolio. The company, which uses the name "SOHO" in both English and Chinese contexts, was founded in 1995 by Chairman
Pan Shiyi (潘石屹) and CEO
Zhang Xin
Zhang Xin (, also known as Xin Zhang and Xin "Shynn" Zhang, born 1965) is a Chinese billionaire businesswoman, having primarily earned her fortune in the real estate industry. With her husband Pan Shiyi, she is the co-founder and former CEO o ...
(张欣).
The name SOHO comes from the phrase "Smart Office, Home Office" as the company decided to combine office rooms and residential apartments in the same building to facilitate a comfortable and productive environment.
SOHO China focuses on developing properties in the central business districts of
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
and
Shanghai
Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...
. SOHO China developments are known for their modern architecture, with designs from figures such as Iraqi architect
Zaha Hadid
Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid ( ''Zahā Ḥadīd''; 31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016) was an Iraqi-born British architect, artist, and designer. She is recognised as a key figure in the architecture of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Born ...
,
and Japanese architect
Kengo Kuma
is a Japanese architect and emeritus professor in the Department of Architecture (Graduate School of Engineering) at the University of Tokyo. Frequently compared to contemporaries Shigeru Ban and Kazuyo Sejima, Kuma is also noted for his prolif ...
.
The company has developed over five million square meters of commercial properties. Many of its buildings have won awards and other recognition for their design.
''
Fortune
Fortune may refer to:
General
* Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck
* Luck
* Wealth
* Fate
* Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling
* Fortune, in a fortune cookie
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''The Fortune'' (19 ...
'' has described SOHO China as "one of the country's most high-profile real estate firms",
and ''The New York Times'' has described the company as China's only pure prime office developer.
Having shifted from a "build to sell" to "build to hold" strategy in 2012,
the company now holds 1.4 million square meters of office space in Beijing and Shanghai for long-term investment.
Although the company has sold several properties in the late 2010s, Pan Shiyi has said that "Soho will continue to hold and operate its core assets in Beijing and Shanghai".
Pan also noted in 2016 that the transition to "build to hold" was requiring the company to endure some difficult times,
but by the following year rental income had increased by 44%, contributing to a 69% increase in annual net profits for the company.
In June 2021, Pan and Zhang struck a deal to sell a controlling stake to
Blackstone for $3 billion.
History

SOHO China was founded in 1995 by
Zhang Xin
Zhang Xin (, also known as Xin Zhang and Xin "Shynn" Zhang, born 1965) is a Chinese billionaire businesswoman, having primarily earned her fortune in the real estate industry. With her husband Pan Shiyi, she is the co-founder and former CEO o ...
and
Pan Shiyi.
Within 10 years of the company's founding, it became the largest property developer in China. SOHO China found its identity in 2000, with the advent of the Internet and the entrepreneurial excitement that followed. Small scale start-ups formed in abundance around China, and these burgeoning business needed a space to work.
On October 8, 2007, SOHO China had an
IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
in which it was successfully listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (Stock Code: 410), raising proceeds of US$1.9 billion,
the largest ever IPO from a private enterprise in China, after which the company was able to move more aggressively into the prime real estate of Beijing and Shanghai.
[Wenxian Zhang, Huiyao Wang, Ilan Alon, ''Entrepreneurial and Business Elites of China'' (2011), p. 237.] SOHO China retains the distinction of being Asia's largest commercial real estate IPO.
By mid-2013, CNN reported that SOHO China had "18 developments in Beijing, many of them landmark buildings", with an additional 11 properties in Shanghai.
, the company had also been named one of the "Most Admired Companies" in China by ''Fortune'' (China edition) six times since 2006.
Corporate affairs
The headquarters of SOHO China is in the Chaowai SOHO (朝外SOHO) in
Chaoyang District, Beijing
Chaoyang District () is an urban list of administrative divisions of Beijing, district of Beijing. It borders the districts of Shunyi, Beijing, Shunyi to the northeast, Tongzhou, Beijing, Tongzhou to the east and southeast, Daxing, Beijing, Daxin ...
.
Projects
Beijing
SOHO's earliest projects were in Beijing, and the company has had a substantial impact on the city, such that Zhang Xin has been referred to as "the woman who built Beijing".
Zhang, with Iraqi architect
Zaha Hadid
Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid ( ''Zahā Ḥadīd''; 31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016) was an Iraqi-born British architect, artist, and designer. She is recognised as a key figure in the architecture of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Born ...
, who designed several of the most striking SOHO buildings, have been described as "the women transforming Beijing's skyline", and as "powerful partners in shaping corporate building design in some of China's biggest cities".
, the company continues to have various additional projects under construction in that city.
Commune by the Great Wall
One of the first major SOHO projects, the
Commune by the Great Wall
The Commune by the Great Wall () is a SOHO China-managed boutique hotel, in Yanqing District, Beijing, China.
Description
The Commune by the Great Wall is near the Badaling section of the Great Wall. The Commune consists of private villas design ...
(
Chinese
Chinese may refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China.
**'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...
: 长城脚下的公社) is a private collection of modern architecture and SOHO China-managed boutique hotel, in Beijing, near the
Badaling
Badaling () is the site of the most visited section of the Great Wall of China, approximately northwest of Beijing's city center, in Badaling Town, Yanqing District, Beijing municipality. The portion of the wall running through the site was ...
section of the
Great Wall
The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand Li (unit), ''li'' long wall") is a series of fortifications in China. They were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection agains ...
, which is one of Beijing's biggest tourist destinations. It was exhibited at
La Biennale di Venezia
The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Architecture Biennale (), which are held in alternating ye ...
in 2002 and was bestowed a special prize, with project mastermind Zhang Xin being recognized for her "bold personal initiative which emphasizes the role of 12 Asian architects in building privately owned houses in a definitively contemporary manner".
The
Centre Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
now houses the exhibited model, made of wood and cardboard, as its first permanent collection from China.
The Commune consists of private villas designed by 12 prominent Asian architects. This project's vision was to encourage creativity to influence a new generation of Asian architects, developers and consumers. At the
Shuiguan section of the Great Wall- the Commune shares the tranquility of the mountains with a
Unesco World Heritage Site
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
. The Commune's clubhouse and 11 villas, which each have a living room, dining room, kitchen, bedrooms and bathrooms are nestled in a valley totaling eight square kilometers. Some of its luxurious villas have sauna rooms, accessible rooftops, terraces or BBQ facilities. Commune by the Great Wall is destination for corporate functions, events, weddings, film shoots and fashion shows. The Commune has furniture and other interior decorations from such distinguished designers as
Serge Mouille,
Thierry Hoppe,
Von Robinson,
Philippe Starck
Philippe Starck (; born 18 January 1949) is a French industrial architect and designer known for his wide range of designs, including interior design, architecture, household objects, furniture, boats and other vehicles. His most popular pieces ...
,
Alex Strub,
Claudio Colucci,
Ross Menuez,
Kaname Okajima
Kaname is a Japanese unisex name, and may refer to the following people:
People
With the given name Kaname
*, Japanese flying ace
*, a Japanese professional golfer
*, a Japanese actor
*, a Japanese speed skater
*, a Japanese civil servant
*, a ...
,
Jonas Damon,
Karim Rashid
Karim Rashid (born 1960) is an Egyptian-born and Canadian-raised American industrial designer. His designs encompass a wide range of products, including luxury goods, furniture, lighting, surface design, brand identity, and packaging. Accordi ...
,
Matthew Hilton,
Marc Newson
Marc Andrew Newson (born 20 October 1963) is an Australian industrial designer, creative director, and artist who has worked in many industry sectors including furniture, product, and transportation design, luxury goods, fashion, and fine art ...
, and Michael Young.
Jianwai SOHO and SOHO Shangdu
By 2004, SOHO was undertaking the construction of additional developments including Jianwai SOHO and SOHO Shangdu, both highly regarded projects.
Jianwai SOHO is a residential and commercial complex of eighteen towers built as part of a larger Soho City project intended to provide housing for 50,000 people.
It was designed by Japanese architect
Riken Yamamoto
(born 1945) is a Japanese architect. In 2024, he received the Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered to be the most prestigious award in architecture, becoming the 9th Japanese architect to receive such honor.
Early life and education
Yamamot ...
, at the invitation of Pan Shiyi, who stated that "Beijing is not a testing ground for foreign architectural works. It is a place where their masterpieces can be brewed".
During the same period, SOHO brought in Australian company
Lab Architecture Studio
LAB Architecture Studio was a firm of architects and urban designers based in Melbourne, Australia with international offices in London and Shanghai.
Directors
Peter Davidson after graduating from Bachelor of Architecture in 1980 from the NSW In ...
to design SOHO Shangdu, a shopping and residential complex in Beijing's central business district. Following Lab Architecture's avant-garde style, SOHO Shangdu was designed as "a combination of irregular and upside-down triangles".
Pan noted that despite the increased cost of such designs, "they are well accepted by the market".
Zhang Xin characterized the construction boom during which SOHO was building these projects as part of the release of an "incredibly repressed energy" for construction in China.
Sanlitun SOHO
Sanlitun Soho opened in the Chaoyang District of Beijing in 2010, and was designed by Japanese architect
Kengo Kuma
is a Japanese architect and emeritus professor in the Department of Architecture (Graduate School of Engineering) at the University of Tokyo. Frequently compared to contemporaries Shigeru Ban and Kazuyo Sejima, Kuma is also noted for his prolif ...
, with 465,680 square meters of space distributed between five shopping malls and nine mixed-use office and apartment buildings which "cluster around an outdoor waterscaped courtyard".
''
Architectural Record
''Architectural Record'' is a US-based monthly magazine dedicated to architecture and interior design. Its editor in chief is Josephine Minutillo. ''The Record'', as it is sometimes colloquially referred to, is widely-recognized as an important ...
'' gave the project a merit award for Best Commercial Project in 2012, writing that "by clustering its buildings along a curving, mid-block passageway, it creates the sense of a compact neighborhood with its own architectural identity".
Galaxy SOHO
Galaxy SOHO is a group of four dome-shaped fourteen-story towers in close proximity to the
Forbidden City
The Forbidden City () is the Chinese Empire, imperial Chinese palace, palace complex in the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City in Beijing, China. It was the residence of 24 Ming dynasty, Ming and Qing dynasty, Qing dynasty L ...
, with open interiors and a combination of shopping mall and office space,
with 330,000 square meters of space.
The building was designed by
Zaha Hadid
Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid ( ''Zahā Ḥadīd''; 31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016) was an Iraqi-born British architect, artist, and designer. She is recognised as a key figure in the architecture of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Born ...
and opened in 2012, receiving an award the following year from the
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...
.
A review in ''The New York Times'' said of the complex, "
gargantuan structure of white curved orbs connected by sky-bridges, it towered over the squat, Soviet-style buildings nearby — like a spaceship just landed in downtown Beijing".
''Fortune'' magazine stated that "its futuristic shape changed an otherwise rectangular skyline".
Aaron Betsky
Aaron Betsky (born 1958 in Missoula, Montana) is an American critic of art, architecture, and design. He was the director of Virginia Tech's School of Architecture + Design until early 2022.
Trained as an architect and in the humanities at Yale ...
, writing for ''
Architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
'' magazine, said of the complex that "everything flows, curves, slides, and piles up in a manner that leads both your body and your eye on through the complex". He found the public and semi-public spaces to be "particularly successful, as their fluidity draws you in and around, while never overwhelming or intimidating you".
Wangjing SOHO
Wangjing SOHO (望京SOHO) is a complex of three curvilinear asymmetric skyscrapers, also designed by Zaha Hadid,
opened in 2014 in
Wangjing, a suburb of
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
, between central Beijing and
Beijing Capital International Airport
Beijing Capital International Airport is the busier of the two international airports serving Beijing, the capital city of China (the other one being Beijing Daxing International Airport). The airport is located northeast of downtown Beijing ...
.
The towers contain both office and retail space. Originally it was designed as a two-tower complex but due to height concerns it was redesigned as a three-tower project featuring towers of lower maximum height.
One of the more than a dozen properties developed by SOHO China, the complex officially opened on 20 September 2014.
The structure has curvilinear tower walls "designed to look like fluid mountains",
and evoking "dancing Chinese fans",
and including the
third-tallest woman-designed building in the world. In 2015, it received the 2014
Emporis Skyscraper Award
The Emporis Skyscraper Award was an award for architectural excellence regarding the design of buildings and their functionality.
The award was presented annually by Emporis, a real estate data mining company with headquarters in Hamburg, Germany. ...
, the first skyscraper in China to be selected for this honor.
In 2016, it was one of four buildings to receive awards determined by the China International Exchange Committee for Tall Buildings (CITAB) and the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) in their inaugural China Tall Building Awards.
Leeza SOHO
Leeza SOHO
Leeza SOHO (), also known as Li Ze Tower, is a tall commercial skyscraper located in the Lize Financial Business District in Beijing, China. SOHO China acquired land use rights in 2013 for ¥1.922 billion RMB (US$288 million). The construction ...
(also known as Li Ze Tower) is a
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...
located in the Lize Financial Business District in
Beijing, China
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
. SOHO acquired land use rights for the cite in 2013 for ¥1.922 billion RMB (US$288 million). The building was designed be
Zaha Hadid
Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid ( ''Zahā Ḥadīd''; 31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016) was an Iraqi-born British architect, artist, and designer. She is recognised as a key figure in the architecture of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Born ...
and
Patrik Schumacher
Patrik Schumacher (born 1961, Bonn, Germany) is a German architect and architectural theorist. He is the principal architect of Zaha Hadid Architects. His works includes The Opus Tower in Dubai, the Morpheus Hotel in Macau, and the Beijing Da ...
,
with construction beginning in 2015 and set to be completed in 2019.
The Leeza SOHO features a huge tall twisting
atrium
Atrium may refer to:
Anatomy
* Atrium (heart), an anatomical structure of the heart
* Atrium, the genital structure next to the genital aperture in the reproductive system of gastropods
* Atrium of the ventricular system of the brain
* Pulmona ...
at its center, which when completed will be the tallest in the world,
surpassing the title currently held by the
Burj Al Arab
The Jumeirah Burj Al Arab (, ), commonly known as Burj Al Arab, is a luxury hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Developed and managed by Jumeirah, it is one of the tallest hotels in the world, although 39% of its total height is made up of ...
hotel in
Dubai
Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...
. The atrium 'twists' 45° over the length of the building to allow natural light to all floors. Structural rings at each level, four sky bridges, and a double-insulated glass facade unite the two halves of the tower together. It is located at the intersection of Lines 14 and 16 currently under-construction for the
Beijing Subway
The Beijing Subway is the rapid transit system of Beijing Direct-controlled municipality, Municipality that consists of 29 lines including 24 rapid transit lines, two airport rail links, one maglev line and two light rail, light rail tram line ...
rail network.
Shanghai
Shanghai is SOHO China's other main area of development, beginning with the completion of The Exchange-SOHO in Shanghai's affluent Nanjing West Road area in 2008, and the acquisition of land for development in the Bund region in 2010.
In August 2018, SOHO China announced the sale of three of its Shanghai properties, Hongkou SOHO, north of the city's Bund area, SOHO Tianshan Plaza, and Lingkong SOHO, in the Changning district.
Prominent Shanghai projects include:
* SOHO Century Plaza, a 24-story high-rise building in the Pudong commercial district of Shanghai. It was sold by SOHO in July 2016 for 3.22 billion yuan, or 76,700 yuan per square metre, a price described as "a 21 per cent premium on its book value".
* SOHO Fuxing Plaza, a mixed-use development with retail and offices, opened in 2014 in Shanghai, developed by SOHO and designed by firms gmp Architects (Germany) and Aim Architecture (China).
* Bund SOHO, a development of classical European-style buildings in Shanghai designed by Chinese firm Aim Architecture. In 2016, it was one of four buildings to receive awards determined by the China International Exchange Committee for Tall Buildings (CITAB) and the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) in their inaugural China Tall Building Awards.
As of 2017, it was reported to have an occupancy rate of 96%.
* Hongkou SOHO, which has 95,000 square meters of space, and "is enveloped in a pattern of pleated aluminum mesh measuring 18mm in width and as a whole, visualizes like a woven lace".
As of 2017, it was reported to have an occupancy rate of 96%.
*Hongqiao SOHO, also known as Sky Soho, designed by
Zaha Hadid
Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid ( ''Zahā Ḥadīd''; 31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016) was an Iraqi-born British architect, artist, and designer. She is recognised as a key figure in the architecture of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Born ...
and completed in 2014.
Due to its proximity to a nearby transportation hub, the building is designed to evoke high-speed rail cars.
* Gubei SOHO, the seventh Shanghai property to be built by SOHO China. It is a 38-storey tower at the intersection of
Hongqiao Road and
Yan'an Road
Yan'an Road ( zh, c=延安路, ; Shanghainese: ) is a road in Shanghai, a major east–west thoroughfare through the centre of the city. The modern Yan'an Road is in three sections, reflecting three connected streets which existed pre-1945: Ave ...
designed by architect
James von Klemperer of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, drawing inspiration from the
Endless Column by Romanian sculptor
Constantin Brâncuși
Constantin Brâncuși (; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian sculptor, painter, and photographer who made his career in France. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th century and a pioneer of modernism ...
. The project begin with the acquisition of the site by SOHO in 2013 for RMB 3.19 billion, and was completed in March 2019, with construction costs of RMB 1.7 billion. The building is
LEED gold-certified, and includes over 52,738 square meters of office space, and over 60,000 square meters of retail space. It is located near Tianshan Plaza, and will be linked with the Shanghai metro via
Yili Road Station.
SOHO 3Q
In 2015, the company launched its shared-office product, SOHO 3Q, which provides business community and office space to entrepreneurs in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Chongqing.
Headquartered at Chaowai SOHO in Beijing, by July 2016, the
coworking
Coworking is an arrangement in which workers for different companies share an office space. It allows cost savings and convenience through the use of common infrastructures, such as equipment, utilities and receptionist and custodial services, a ...
space had 12 spaces in China, five in Beijing and seven in Shanghai. SOHO China first contemplated the idea of a co-working space in August 2014 in line with other companies taking part in the
sharing economy
The sharing economy is a socio-economic system whereby consumers share in the creation, production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods, and services. These systems take a variety of forms, often leveraging information technology and the ...
, such as
Airbnb
Airbnb, Inc. ( , an abbreviation of its original name, "Air Bed and Breakfast") is an American company operating an online marketplace for short-and-long-term homestays, experiences and services in various countries and regions. It acts as a ...
and
Uber
Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation company that provides Ridesharing company, ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, a ...
. After detailed research on 30 internet companies, real estate tycoon and company chairman,
Pan Shiyi announced the 3Q project in January 2015. Considered to be "Act 3" for the company, the initiative is meant to also cater to a large number of
small- and medium-sized companies that no longer rent long-term office space and instead prefer to rent for a week, a month or half a year.
The first two spaces–Wangjing 3Q in Beijing and Fuxing 3Q in Shanghai–opened on February 1, 2016. At that time, 3Q become the largest coworking space in China with about 1500 seats and spurred the subsequent growth of a range of local coworking spaces and options. In April 2016, Guanghualu II 3Q opened in
CBD Beijing with more than 3000 seats and Guanghualu II is the largest space of 3Q as the brand's flagship store.
Table of tall buildings
SOHO China buildings reported in the Skyscraper Center database of the
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is an international body in the field of tall buildings, including skyscrapers, and Sustainable design, sustainable urban design. A non-profit organization based at the Monroe Building in ...
:
Philanthropy
Founded in 2005, the SOHO China Foundation oversees all of the philanthropic activity on behalf of SOHO China. The Foundation's mission is to fund education initiatives that support Chinese students from underserved communities. The Foundation's primary project is the SOHO China Scholarships, a US$100 million initiative to endow financial aid scholarships for Chinese students at top international universities, including Harvard University (July 2014) and Yale University (October 2014). The SOHO China Foundation, through its "Teach for China" program, has previously funded education programs in poor rural areas in China.
See also
*
Real estate in China
Real estate in the People's Republic of China is developed and managed by public, private, and state-owned red chip enterprises.
In the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, the real estate sector in the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
References
External links
SOHO China Official Site
{{Real estate companies of China
Chinese companies established in 1995
Real estate companies established in 1995
Companies based in Beijing
Real estate companies of China
Civilian-run enterprises of China
Offshore companies of the Cayman Islands
Companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
2007 initial public offerings