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A TALE OF TWO CITIES (part II)
October 21, 2001
Shanghai was looked on by the old China hands as the most comfortable city to live in. In brief, they could enjoy whatever luxuries at home plus oriental pleasures. All new fashions started in Shanghai and then expanded into the hinterland of the fertile Yangtse River provinces.
This small place came into being in the time of Sung Dynasty (760-1279 AD). First as a small village and, hundreds years later, made into a special municipal district in 1930. Inside the muncipality, there were foreign settlements created by western powers, including British, French, Japanese and other western powers, excluding Americans. As those foreigners enjoyed extraterritoriality, many westerners could make easy money, either by legal or be illegal means. That was the theme of G E Miller's book, "Shanghai, the Paradise of Adventurers", which detailed the many sins- smuggling, prostitution, fogeries, opinium trading, fraud, etc.. committed by THE BABARIANS. Since the book was a sort of "ugly aliens", the author, a diplomat, afraid of retaliation, used a seudonym.
The retrocession of Hongkong and Kowloon to China in 1997, had made that city the most brilliant and prosperous city of whole mainland. But that role is not unchallenged.
The double-digit economic growth rate of the mainland, and especially Shanghai, has allowed Shanghai to come up fast to Hongkong's level, causing serious concern by Hongkong lou (Hongkong People). It has been a matter of daily discussion recently in Hongkong, including the release of a report by the "Industry and Commerce Faculty of the Chinese University" in Hongkong. The "comparison of competitiveness between Hongkong and Shanghai" shows Hongkong has considerable competiveness over Shanghai; equally the report is evidence of Hongkong's concern over the sharply rising economic develoopment of Shanghai. Certain columnist even doubted that Hongkong lou's uneasy attitude could meet the challenge of Shanghai.
As a matter of fact, Hongkong's worry is not groundless. According to statistics released, the average purchasing power of Shanghainese has reached 60% of that of Hongkong while per capita productiveness during the last 10 years was 300% over Hongkong. With infrastructures built or being built to serve Shanghai and the development of its satellite cities, this city of 16,700,00+ populations is growing faster beyond Hongkong's imagination. It is also interesting to note that the educational level of the Shanghai population has been greatly improved. Recently figures show Shanghai has college and university graduates 5,247 persons among 100 k; illiteracy dropped to 5.4% from 11.1% of previous survey two years ago.
to be continued in part III
E-mail: VJCHANG@hotmail.com
Tel/Fax USA : (301) 438-7439
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