In its headlong rush for economic growth, China does not fuss over urban aesthetics. Graceful old buildings are replaced by ugly new ones, and once verdant streets become treeless seas of concrete and dust. But not in Dalian, a port city of 5.3 million people in the northeastern province of Liaoning. There, turn-of-the-century European architecture--a throwback to Dalian's days as a Russian enclave--is lovingly preserved. Streets are planted with flowers and trees, and even new public-housing projects include gardens. Dalian is just as hell-bent for growth as other Chinese metropolises, but Mayor Bo Xilai has some unique ideas about how to attract it. Older-looking cities, he believes, make investors feel more confident. "The European style of architecture belongs to mankind," he says. "China should assimilate all the best of the world's culture and take advantage of it."

Since he became mayor in 1993, Bo, 47, has been taking good advantage of foreign opportunities. Dalian attracted $2.5 billion in overseas investment last year, more than the total for the eight years before he took over. About 1,000 foreign firms are setting up shop there each year. Dalian became an economic-development zone in 1984, a status that allows the city to approve investment projects of up to $30 million without consulting provincial authorities. Bo has seized that freedom with enthusiasm. He offers a $5,000 reward to city officials who bring in contracts with foreign partners worth $500,000 or more; there have been plenty of winners.

The son of Bo Yibo, 88, a Long March veteran and former Vice Premier, the younger Bo spent five years in prison during the Cultural Revolution after his father was jailed as a "capitalist roader." Following that tumultuous time, he earned a master's degree in journalism from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and did agricultural research for the Central Committee. In 1984 he was assigned to serve as party secretary of Jinxian County, which he successfully turned into an upmarket tourist resort. After four years as deputy mayor of nearby Dalian, he was given the city's top job. With his well-tailored suits and fondness for mingling in crowds, shaking hands and signing autographs, Bo could be the bright young mayor of any Western city. "He looks more like he is running a political campaign," says a Chinese official.

His campaign, he says, is to make Dalian the Hong Kong of northeastern China. One of his first major acts as mayor was to visit the British colony; he returned with contracts worth $2.8 billion. He then took off for Japan and South Korea, with similar success. Two years later he led a delegation of 300 Dalian officials and businessmen to the U.S. Some were worried that the expensive mission might come back empty-handed. "I told them it didn't matter if they did business or not, that they could play tourist, look around and taste McDonald's," says Bo. He believed the international exposure and the chance to practice speaking English would be well worth the visit. The mission came away with $1 billion in contracts and a deep fascination for the U.S., "especially," he says with a laugh, for "the large public toilets that were everywhere."

Bo has a fetish for tidiness. He has bulldozed large areas of the city--he thought they looked like slums--and replaced them with well-landscaped apartment blocks. "My slogan is that one should step into a garden as soon as one steps out of one's house," he says. Bo has built parks, beach resorts, a zoo, a U.S.-designed golf course and a large convention center. He visited that project 70 times while it was under construction, designing its bathrooms and choosing the carpeting. "You have to be meticulous in every detail if you want to make a perfect piece of artwork," he says.

The mayor is hardly an impractical, modern-day Louis IV. Bo has closed down more than a dozen bankrupt state-owned firms. The displaced workers have largely been absorbed into Dalian's red-hot job market. His government by fiat controls prices of land, manpower and even the meat and vegetables in local markets. Partly as a result, inflation in Dalian is around 7%, compared with the double-digit rates in the fast-growing southeast. Wage levels are about one-third those in booming Shanghai. "We want incomes to increase step by step every year, but not in great leaps," says the mayor. "In this way, we can keep costs low for foreign investors."

Dalian's success in luring capital and holding down inflation has attracted considerable attention in Beijing, but Bo insists he is not going anywhere. "The stage is already big enough for me," he says. "I feel I need 10 more years to do what I want to do in Dalian. There is a saying, 'It takes 10 years to sharpen a sword.'" Even longer to grow a tree.

--Reported by Mia Turner/Dalian