China for me-2

China for me-2
Shanghai
I stand in the Balcony on the 23rd floor of my Hotel. On the left and the right are 2 high-rises above me. In the middle I see the Huangpu River. On it the barges are plying up and down gently ruffling the calm waters.
There are cranes in the distance. A lot more is happening there as I watch sipping my Green Tea.

Shanghai is the “Oriental Paris “. As the largest and most prosperous city in the nation, it is the economic, financial, fashion and cultural glitzy center of China.

We are in newest area of the city, Pudong, which just celebrated its 10th anniversary, the area that has changed most dramatically in the city in recent years.
Pudong was just docks and paddy fields until 1990s. Now it has 200 square miles of offices, malls, tallest buildings and the ‘Maglev’. It is the fastest commercially run train of its kind in the world running by magnetic levitation at 270 miles/hour. It took us 7 minutes instead of an hour to get here from the Airport.

The Oriental Pearl TV Tower is a recent construction, which heralds the beginning of the Special Economic Region over the river. It incorporates eleven spheres (or "pearls") and three gigantic columns linking the green grass below to the blue sky above. It has computer controlled lighting displaying more than 1000 varieties.

The International Conference Center was completed last year, just in time for the Fortune 500 conference which attracted literally thousands of investors to the city. Shanghai's Wall Street is also over here and hundreds of commuters make the trip through a long, long tunnel under the river every day to work.
The Jinmao Tower, the tallest building in China and the third tallest in the world, now soars above, higher than the TV Tower. Skyscrapers are shooting up all over the place.

The famous Bund on the western side of the River was the "British Public Park", reminding of Shanghai's days of the past. The symbol of old and new, the Bund is Shanghai's most famous landmark. In the 1930s, the row of buildings was host to the city's financial and commercial centers and the world's greatest banks and trading empires.
Today, it is still home to many of the city's hotels, bars and banks and a lover’s walkway with the city lights twinkling in the River.
The river twists and turns like an almighty Dragon tumbling from Snowbound Mountains of a land called Shangri-La into a tea cup of Shanghais Café.
Shanghai’s futuristic skyline at Sunset, a sophisticated city sets the pace of China’s urbane coast whether enjoying fine wine at night, neon lights or answering global networks with the latest electronic telecom

Yu Garden

My guide Linda, Ying-Ying, her real name took me to the Old City God's Taoist Temple which is enclosed in Yuyuan Gardens which are also popular for shopping.
She showed me boutiques selling local specialties like Silk garments, Jade jewellery, fancy teacups etc. where bargained prices were 30% of those marked. A special MO-MO place was qued up and mo-mos all gone by the time our turn came.(The inner city still has sitting Indian style loos to my discomfort and Linda’s apology).

It was raining heavily the next day but she turned up at dot 10, (Chinese punctuality was remarkable.)
We decided that the Museum was the best choice. It is the centrepiece of People's Square, a harmonious combination of square shapes and circular ones, the Chinese traditional concept which imagines heaven as round and earth as square. The design is also in keeping with Feng Shui principles with perfect symmetry. Inside is the usual Sculpture, mostly Buddhist, Bronze, ceramics, art and calligraphy etc.

AP was busy with his exhibition / trade fair.
It was HUGE at least 10 times the size of Pragati Madaan in Delhi. Fully covered, air conditioned, carpets rolled, eating joints every nook and corner, Machines galore on ground, cranes fixing stuff above, billboards, Colors, people of all types and kinds, an air of ‘emergence’, scant Indians--- lots happening beyond ME----- so in the evening, we were off to------
Nanjing Road
The cabbie dropped us at the square. Neon as far as the eye can see, more than Piccadilly-London, more than Time square-Manhattan, more than imaginable----
A trackless sightseeing tram provided a comfortable tour of the night-transformed pedestrian street.
Today over 600 businesses on Nanjing road offer countless famous brands, and new fashions. KFC, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and other world-famous food vendors line both sides of the street. Upscale stores include Tiffany, Mont Blanc, and Dunhill. In addition are also, approximately a hundred traditional stores and specialty shops.
Open-air bars, abstract sculptures, and lingering sounds from street musicians are all around. Flashing neon signs illuminate the magnificent buildings and spangle the night skyline.
There is an intangible feel in Shanghai, an urgency, a hope and optimism that hangs in the air all around from the minute you arrive, People are pushing forwards with their feet and in their heads, building a future, a country, moving onwards to some distant unseen goal—
The World Bank says china has lifted 400 million people out of poverty since 1978. China is doing the most extraordinary thing the planet has ever witnessed.
A 5th of humanity is being convulsed every minute, thousands are making millions. ‘Blink’ and you’ll miss plenty in new China. A nation in tumultuous transition

Ordinary Chinese people caught up in an extraordinary moment in time. Millions of people leave their homes in search of jobs in cities. It is the largest migration in History. This army is fuelling the economic boom, putting cheap toys, clothes, flat screen TVs and computers on the shelves of the world’s stores. China has overtaken Britain as the worlds 4th largest economy. It is the workshop of the world. China matters more today than it has ever mattered before. Many take it for granted that it will be the next superpower.
What exactly has it done to the Chinese Psyche and the Chinese soul? The country is turned upside down by development and so is its psychological and moral universe. Our educated guides share in private moments, “this pace is so immense it is rapidly and subtly tearing at the fabric of society even as the new roads and railways knit the country more closely together”.


Veena Kapoor
Sept. 2008
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