Shanghai, October 2008
Shanghai, Sunday, October 19. Long flight in, from Toronto via Vancouver (could not get on the direct flight). Door-to-door, close to 24 hours. Arrived on time. New terminal at Pudong airport – Terminal 2, opened this year in April. Very spacious of course, long walk from the gate to the immigration hall though. Half an hour to get through immigration, in a queue of some 150 people; quite efficient. Smiling young immigration officers...with a little electronic pad by the side of the wicket, to indicate how satisfied or dissatisfied you were with the service – I pressed “highly satisfied” as the young smiling officer looked up! All in all, an hour from arrival to the car.
45 minutes drive to the Intercontinental Pudong. Pudong has expanded again, blocs after blocs of modern apartment buildings, still all showing that definitely “Chinese characteristic” of looking old very quickly! Around the hotel, Pudong looks very much like a settled city. The hotel, I am told by the staff, was built 12 years ago and was the first 5-star hotel on Pudong (had never stayed here before, preferring the Hyatt in the wonderful Jingmao Tower.) The Mori building – stripped from the offending open circle at the top, which was associated with the Japanese “rising sun”, symbol of Nippon imperialism, replaced by an open rectangle in its second design – now graces the skyline of Pudong, since my last visit there in 2004 (see for a bit more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_World_Financial_Center).
Typical Shanghai weather – overcast but still warm at this time of the year (20-25 centigrade). Formula One Grand Prix time in Shanghai. I gathered that British Lewis Hamilton of McLaren-Mercedes won today, ahead of the 2 Ferraris. He apparently dominated the event, putting him in reach (2 weeks from now in Brazil) of becoming the youngest F1 world champion, leading in the points after this penultimate race this year – we will wish him better luck than last year... (One thing sure, we won’t see him in Canada next year, as Montreal was skipped in the line-up of F1 Grand Prix tour for 2009 – Montreal and Quebec politicians are trying to wrestle it back: it’s going to cost...) This is the 5th F1 GP in Shanghai, ran on the Shanghai International Circuit, in the south-west of the city, built at the cost of some US$300M in the early 2000’s, as I recall.
Looking at my itinerary for the next 2 days, deciding how to go back and forth between Pudong, where I am staying, and Puxi, the “old” Shanghai; thinking of using the subway to go from one to the other, as it proved on my last visit here, 4 years ago, to be best way to cope with the enormous car traffic in the city, especially crossing the Huangpu river (which reminds me I wrote a piece on Shanghai back then, having spent a month or so with Laurence & Eric during her time at Jiaotung University learning Mandarin – I reproduced it on this blog going back to 2007). Looking at a Metro map, I am struck by the extent of the network now, with some 9 lines and more under construction, and easily more than 100 stations. To think that when I left Shanghai in 1988, they were completing their first ever line (going east-west across old Shanghai; Bombardier had been then amongst the 5 contenders for the job – we lost to the Germans who literally “bought” the project with incredible subsidized government financing; but eventually Bombardier won “the war” when it bought the German company, AdTranz(?), a few years latter!)
Monday, October 20.
Metro ride from Hotel to Nanjing East road/Bund: 10 min walk from Intercontinental Pudong to Century Ave station; train every 4 min.; train ride: 7 min.; walk to Bund: 10 min. Total less than half hour! Peace Hotel closed for major renovations (has been for more than a year, and probably by the look of it another year or so; ownership/management taken over by Fairmont Group). So no lunch on the 8th floor Chinese restaurant – a tradition every time I come to Shanghai. (Had my first Shanghai meal there, in 1979) Had lunch (and xiao lung bao!) at the Tai Wan Lou nearby (at 18 Zhong Shan Dong Yi Road), one of those new chic (Chinese) restaurants in renovated old colonial buildings on the Bund, turned into high temples of “New China” conspicuous consumerism (with their Armani and similar branded stores)! And beggars outside...
Chinese trying to cope with rural/urban divide – major problem and source of serious social tensions. Reading in Shanghai Daily that Communist Party’s Central Committee has announced this weekend what will surely be a landmark change of policy. It will allow farmers to assign their land-lease arrangements, or transfer their land-use rights. This is the other shoe falling, after Deng Xiao Ping’s initial agricultural reform some 30 years ago that de-collectivized land by giving it back in parcels to individual farmers. Along with this, the policy does away with the 50-year old “household-administration system” which tied farmers (and everybody else) to a particular place of residence, thus denying them any kind of social services support were they to move outside of that place of residence. Which meant that farmers seeking or getting work in cities – a phenomenon of large scale since the beginning of modernization – were not entitled to get any social benefits (health; schooling for the kids, etc.) The official number of such displaced farmers: 210 million out of 950 million “registered” farmers! Will obviously be a bonanza for farmers who choose to leave the farm. Good policy move. Much resides though in the execution. The fear is that this opens the door to concentration of agricultural land (a good thing if you see it in terms of economies of scale and increased productivity – this may be a major boost to extensive agro-business in China) and, more threatening, to possible diversion of such land to other uses (e.g. real estate development or industrial use). The Chinese government vows to have “the most stringent farmland-protection system” in place, an ominous pronouncement in itself...
Monday, October 20.
Metro ride from Hotel to Nanjing East road/Bund: 10 min walk from Intercontinental Pudong to Century Ave station; train every 4 min.; train ride: 7 min.; walk to Bund: 10 min. Total less than half hour! Peace Hotel closed for major renovations (has been for more than a year, and probably by the look of it another year or so; ownership/management taken over by Fairmont Group). So no lunch on the 8th floor Chinese restaurant – a tradition every time I come to Shanghai. (Had my first Shanghai meal there, in 1979) Had lunch (and xiao lung bao!) at the Tai Wan Lou nearby (at 18 Zhong Shan Dong Yi Road), one of those new chic (Chinese) restaurants in renovated old colonial buildings on the Bund, turned into high temples of “New China” conspicuous consumerism (with their Armani and similar branded stores)! And beggars outside...
Chinese trying to cope with rural/urban divide – major problem and source of serious social tensions. Reading in Shanghai Daily that Communist Party’s Central Committee has announced this weekend what will surely be a landmark change of policy. It will allow farmers to assign their land-lease arrangements, or transfer their land-use rights. This is the other shoe falling, after Deng Xiao Ping’s initial agricultural reform some 30 years ago that de-collectivized land by giving it back in parcels to individual farmers. Along with this, the policy does away with the 50-year old “household-administration system” which tied farmers (and everybody else) to a particular place of residence, thus denying them any kind of social services support were they to move outside of that place of residence. Which meant that farmers seeking or getting work in cities – a phenomenon of large scale since the beginning of modernization – were not entitled to get any social benefits (health; schooling for the kids, etc.) The official number of such displaced farmers: 210 million out of 950 million “registered” farmers! Will obviously be a bonanza for farmers who choose to leave the farm. Good policy move. Much resides though in the execution. The fear is that this opens the door to concentration of agricultural land (a good thing if you see it in terms of economies of scale and increased productivity – this may be a major boost to extensive agro-business in China) and, more threatening, to possible diversion of such land to other uses (e.g. real estate development or industrial use). The Chinese government vows to have “the most stringent farmland-protection system” in place, an ominous pronouncement in itself...
Concerns about the financial crisis in the west and the looming recession also abound in the local press. As China becomes more integrated to the world economy, fear is that the slowing down is going to affect exports and FDI. Growth in China has come down from a high of 10%, to (Oh my god!) a mere 9%! Even at that, as pointed out by one of the people I met, exports do not account for much still in the Chinese economy, and therefore the country remains pretty insular. May be true generally, but still, trade does account for anywhere between 12% to 20% of GNP. The trend of greater integration is there and cannot be without some consequences...What is remarkable though, comparing to only a decade or ago, is the position that China is now in as a prime engine of the global economy, and how pretty it is sitting with its high growth, trade surplus, and record high-level foreign exchange reserves!
Visited the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center on the People’s Square, between 2 meetings nearby. Big splash illustrating preparation under way for the 2010 International Expo (“The Path to World Expo”; site on both sides of the Huangpu further up the river). One of the incredible sights: a huge scaled model of the whole city of Shanghai filling the entire floor - the Bund is lost across the towering skyscrapers in Pudong! (Picked up Lynn Pan’s latest book, Shanghai Style, Art and Design Between the Wars, 2008)
Private dinner with the Canadian Consul General at the Official Residence. Nice flat at the top of Grosvernor House, a tastefully renovated art deco apartment building part of the Jin Jiang Hotel complex – I wish I had those gigs during my time...My old cook (Xiao Zhao) still around and very happy to prepare some of my favourite dishes (including chocolate chip cookies for desert – I think that was more for the kids but anyway they were good!)
Tuesday October 21, 2008
Took the Maglev to the airport, the magnetic levitation train sensation (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Transrapid) . Intercontinental Pudong to station by cab: 25 min. A train every 15 min. 50RMB. Travel time to Airport: 7min 10 sec. Reached speed of 431km/h in 3 min 15 sec. Total time hotel to airport: 45 min. Equal or better than a cab from the hotel by about 15 min depending on traffic...
Private dinner with the Canadian Consul General at the Official Residence. Nice flat at the top of Grosvernor House, a tastefully renovated art deco apartment building part of the Jin Jiang Hotel complex – I wish I had those gigs during my time...My old cook (Xiao Zhao) still around and very happy to prepare some of my favourite dishes (including chocolate chip cookies for desert – I think that was more for the kids but anyway they were good!)
Tuesday October 21, 2008
Took the Maglev to the airport, the magnetic levitation train sensation (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Transrapid) . Intercontinental Pudong to station by cab: 25 min. A train every 15 min. 50RMB. Travel time to Airport: 7min 10 sec. Reached speed of 431km/h in 3 min 15 sec. Total time hotel to airport: 45 min. Equal or better than a cab from the hotel by about 15 min depending on traffic...
