Shanghai -Chinas rapidly growing economical metropolis
After my trip to the countryside of China I visited Shanghai -the fastest growing city in whole Asia! What a big change after the visit of poor rural provinces where people earn around one Dollar per day to this modern city where the money seems like existing in raw masses! China again and again makes me astonished and head shaking at the same tim. I haven't seen such big contrasts in all the countries I'v been before on my trip as I see it here in China!
Here you see the Oriental TV Tower and on the right in the background you can see the Jin Mao Tower which with its 421 metres is the biggest building in China and the thirth biggest constuction in the world. Beside a hotel it also contains the World Finance Center (WFC) where the big flow of the goods from whole China is distributed to the rest of the world.
But very soon the building is going to be much bigger because they build a big spoiler on the top to reduce the big wind pressure on the upper floors. After the construction the building will be around 492 metres high!
Shanghai attracts the world most famous architects because it's not only growing very fast but also it gives the architects a extremly big creative freedom. Here everthing seems to be possible -and the Chinese seem to pay even the craziest projects. No wonder that Shanghai is the dream of every modern architect!
The phantasy has no limits...
Here the view from a restaurant in the 46th floor of the building in the picture above.
Shanghai seems to be very modern and international and one almost forgets that he's in China if there were not a few details which after a closer view remind to the Chinese lifestyle. For example the nomerous bicycles on the roadside -still Chinas transport system No.1.
And on a few places you still can find the typical Chinese small alley...
Due to the optimal location Shanghai has been a important trading place for hundreds of years. Here the Jangzhe River flows into the sea on which goods from Inner China are brought to Shanghai and centuries ago the Chinese constructed a 1200 km long channel from Beijing to Shanghai to relieve the trade between the two big cities. In the 18th century the British focused their interest in the stragetically perfect located trade place and brought the in India gained opium to China and made the Chinese addicted to the new drug. In the Opium War 1841 the British took over Shanghai and Hong Kong and from 1989 they were "renting" the two important metropolis for about 100 years. So the big city started to flourish and attracted a lot of traders from all over the world which gave the city already at that time a international character.
The big boom came to a abrupt end when 1937 Japanese invasion troops took over the control of the city for eight years. After another four years of civil war the city fell into the hands of the communists who established a rigid regime over the city because in their opinion due to the foreign influence Shanghai had grown to a immoral metropolis. This sanction stopped the former rapid development of the city for decades.
After the economical opening of China to the west since 1990 the city has boomed again and today it is going to be the most important trade and finance place of Asia.
Shanghai by night...
Very modern and impressive this rapid growing city which doesn't have any examples. Fast as the wind it grows up to a world city and according to experts it's absolutely comparable with New York and Tokyo...
Crazy, a few days ago I was in the poorest provinces of China and now I'm in one of the most modern cities of the world -such big changes you can find only in China!
Nihao from Shanghai
Andy
25.06.04, Shanghai, China