almost eliminated. Almost.
The New Asia hotel is close to the Bund and Nanjing Lu, so we headed out for a walk after checking-in. It was hard to miss the significant increase in high-rises on the PuDong side of the river. Sure, the landmarks like the Pearl of the Orient and Grand Hyatt towers are still there, but there are many more, maybe not quite as tall buildings around both. Nanjing Lu was full of people walking around, carrying full shopping bags and filling most restaurants along this stretch of
road. It’s hard to walk around Shanghai these days (at least if you look like a tourist) without getting 5 offers per block: “Rolexes, Gucci, DVD, looky looky”. At the beginning I tried to refuse politely (in Chinese, English, Spanish even Hebrew ;-), but that turned to be a fatal mistake. As soon as you engage them in any sort of
conversation, they keep following you for blocks. The best recourse was to ignore
them. They usually didn’t pursue further if you did that. Some are rather aggressive, they will grab you by the arm and pull you. Most of the girls in our group found this to be a little intimidating, most are not used to such aggressive vendors. Rather unpleasant, as sometimes it really ruins the experience wandering around Shanghai.
Interestingly enough, the further away from the tourist places you got, the better the experience of wandering through the streets of Shanghai is. For starters, there are no fake goods vendors. Most people look at the big-nosed or white ghost person as the Chinese often refer to white people, with curiosity but with respect. I wandered down the streets, trying my broken Chinese on the innocent bystanders. It usually took several tries to get them to understand my mispronounced tones. 😉
I walked down some markets over the weekend that were so busy you could not make progress at any normal walking pace. The busiest one was XiangYang Market, home the largest collection of IP infringement stalls I have ever seen. Callaway golf clubs, Nike shoes and clothing, Louis Vitton, Rolexes, CDs, DVDs, software. You name it, they had it. And they had it really cheap. But, since this place didn’t have anything I couldn’t live without (other than my wallet, seemed like fertile grounds for pick-pockets) I decided to not waste my time there and went to see Fuxing Park instead. It was a much better choice. Fuxing Park is a place people gather on sunny Sundays like this to enjoy some time away from the big city. Kids were playing, older people too, lots of tables to play cards, chess and maijan.
If you are starting to get the idea that I am in Shanghai on vacation, you’d be wrong, of course. Well, at least TMSAISTI. 😉
We actually went on several very interesting factory visits. On Tuesday we went to Bao Steel (~5 largest steel manufacturer in the world). Their site is like a city. And that doesn’t include the real city that grew around the plant to support the needs of the workers. They are pioneers in China is employing modern (read western) style management, i.e. merit based promotions rather than through party affiliation and seniority, despite being a State Owned Enterprise. China is full of contradictions. We also visited the Shanghai VW plant. The VW part was rather lame, they did not send a person with the right knowledge to answer any interesting questions, but the petrol-head here had a really good time wandering around the assembly line for Passats and Tourans. An interesting observation I made there was that all the Passats were black. Turns out 70% of the orders in China are for black sedans. I can only guess that since black is often an official’s car color, people find it a status symbol to drive (or rather be driven) around in a black sedan. There are a lot of black cars on the streets of Shanghai.
This week was Karen’s birthday, so we went to celebrate. The place that was recommended to us goes by they name of Park 97 and is a hangout for the rich and beautiful Chinese as well as lots of ex-pats. The collection of Benzes, Porsches and other luxury cars would have not shamed a decent Roponggi establishment. The restaurant/club was packed with people, it was loud and it was smoky. The only thing I got out of this escapade was a sore throat and a lingering cough. Certainly, I am getting too old for this type of nightlife. 😉
Shanghai is China’s most prosperous city. As a result, it has the largest number of cars, scooters, busses and vans fighting for that premium piece of asphalt ten feet away. And I thought the drivers in Beijing were nuts. I have officially seen it all now. Cars driving down the wrong side of the highway because the missed their exit, cars and scooters driving on the sidewalk or in the opposite lane to cut
around traffic. After the lights turn green you can usually expect another ten cars, busses, vans and bicycles to make a run from the side that just turned red. And, there are a lot more accidents than I saw previously. I started seeing one or two daily. They are easy to spot because they usually draw large crowds who are looking for free entertainment. Everybody stands in the middle of the street, blocking most traffic through that intersection, and traffic comes to a
standstill. Unbelievable.
On Friday afternoon, as I was leading an “expedition” to the Yu Yuan classical Chinese garden I ran into a friend from work standing in line for dumplings. He was here on vacation, and had also met with our friend Bob (in Shanghai for SemiCon China) who I had not seen in about 10 months since he retired from Intel. You don’t need too many excuses in China to go to a feast, but this really was a good one, and on the recommendation of Gary (ex-pat living in Shanghai) we went to a Manchurian restaurant. It was very interesting food, as they had
several dishes I had never tried before.
OK, so why 3 Chinas? I have been thinking about this almost since our first visit with a government official in Beijing. Some figures I have seen on this trip indicate that the average per capita income in Shanghai is over $4500/year. Obviously, a few people have managed to make a lot more than that. Compare this to the average in other (mostly on the east coast) cities where the income is $1300/year and to the rural areas where it only averages $360/year (yes, that’s less than a
dollar a day). “Only” 450 million Chinese live in the larger cities, the rest, about 850 million people, fall under the less than $1 income level. In Shanghai, people live like they were in any modern, western city. Cost of living is very high, apartments now costing about the same as they do in many large US cities.
Our new friend in Nanjing comes from a small village out side of Shanghai. He didn’t have money to go to college, so he was drafted to the army. He learned construction techniques there, and after a few years working for other people he is now a real estate developer. Ten years ago he couldn’t imagine driving, let alone owning, a car. Today he lives in a nice apartment and drives an Audi A8 that costs a small fortune in China. He made it through very hard work and some good Guanxi. Not everybody is smart enough to go it the right way. Despite harsh laws
against crime, I hear about increases in thefts and break-ins in the big cities (getting caught can send you to prison until you are a very old man). Some people are desperate enough to risk it for a scooter or some cash.
There has been unrest in several interior provinces. I don’t think most of this makes the world media, but Chinese people are talking about it.
Even the government officials we have talked to mentioned changes in economic and growth policies, targeting more equal distribution of the economic boom in China.
It was obvious that many people from the interior are not waiting for the government actions. The amount of migrant workers at the train stations was staggering. Much more so in light of the draconian enforcement policies against population movement in China without the government’s permission (all Chinese are restricted to 3 day travel outside their residence area without applying for a special pass or moving permit I am told). It’s easy to forget that when you are wandering around Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou or Shanghai. To me this is like a live thriller. Will they make the changes in time or will the economic boom blowup in their face (sorry for the pun)? You can feel the energy in the big cities. Young (educated) people come here looking for good jobs and a better future (it’s easy to get a residence permit if you have a job offer). So do the migrant workers, they just don’t work in nice offices of multinational corporations.
I wonder if anybody is taking odds in Vagas or London for another revolution…
Zaijian,
Gustavo