PICTURE CHINA

The Pudong New District is located across the Huangpu River from Shanghai proper and is widely considered to be the financial and commercial center of China. The area is home to thousands of multi-national companies and has come to represent Shanghai’s ascent to the premier business city in China, if not all of Asia.

Until 1990 when it was granted status as a “Special Economic Zone”, the Pudong area was covered by rice patties and farmland and was inhabited mostly by poor immigrant workers. Today it is a maze of skyscrapers and apartment blocks stretching out in all directions. It is home to the world’s third tallest building (the Jin Mao Building), the new Pudong airport and the world’s only commercial maglev train.

This rapid growth has made Shanghai the most modern and wealthy city in China but has created many problems as well. A blanket of smog covers the city on most mornings, the roads are congested with traffic and a housing shortage forces many of Shanghai’s 10 million residents of share very cramped living quarters.

Shanghai’s “Old City” is a four square kilometer section in the south of the metropolis that has yet to succumb to the gentrification and rebuilding which has taken place throughout the rest of the city. This area was the site of the original walled city of the 11th Century and was set-aside as the “Chinese City” when the rest of Shanghai became the base of French and British imperialism in China from the late 19th to mid 20th Centuries.

To walk into this area today is to take a step back in time. In stark contrast to the rest of Shanghai, which in parts could easily be mistaken for London or Tokyo, the old city is a tangled mess of twisting alleyways and dilapidated houses. Still, the area exudes a certain charm and feels more “Chinese” than the rest of the city. Laundry is hung out on telephone wires to dry, children play badminton in the street and everything from live poultry to women’s underwear is sold in impromptu stalls on the side of the road.

If Shanghai represents the direction that China is headed, then the old city may represent the reality of where most of the country remains. While many Shanghai residents have quickly grown accustomed to a more affluent consumer lifestyle, most of the rest of China has seen little of the spoils of this newfound wealth.

A new generation of young Chinese are growing up in a radically different environment than their parents and grandparents. While only a few generations before most people dressed in simple Communist approved attire, young Shanghaiese have taken to the styles of Japan, Korea and the West. In few places are the changes that have transformed Shanghai more apparent than inside one of the city’s huge malls where masses of young people gather to shop for the latest fashions.

The Huangpu River runs through the heart of Shanghai dividing the Pudong New Area from the rest of the city and connecting to the Yangzi 30km upstream as both rivers empty into the East China Sea. The river is one of China’s major shipping arteries and sees a full one-third of the country’s international trade. The water is constantly buzzing with activity as coutless barges compete for space with huge freight ships from places as far away as Panama and the Middle East.

Nanjing Road runs through the center of downtown Shanghai and is one of the world’s busiest shopping streets. At all hours of the day this alter to consumerism is packed shoulder to shoulder with Chinese shoppers at its hundreds of up-market shop and malls.

As Shanghai, and China as a whole, has become wealthier over the past decade, its citizen’s appetite for everything from electronics to clothing to cars has exploded. For the first time in China’s history an emerging upper and middle class has been faced with excess cash and their reaction as been to spend. This phenomenon has not been lost on the business world and more and more international companies are looking to China’s huge consumer market to drive their businesses forward.