Shanghai I: Modern versus traditional

by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.    

This essay on Shanghai could just as easily be two completely different essays about the same city, because Shanghai is cut in half by the Huangpu River (a tributary of the Yangtze), and on one side is Puxi, the old area lying on the west side, and on the other, Pudong, the new development zone lying on the east side.  The contrast between these two sides is not just a “conversation piece”; it is real, dramatic, and startling — the obviously modern versus the clearly traditional.  (I have written two essays on Shanghai; however, they don’t divide the city into two parts.  The essays simply divide the information on Shanghai into two parts.)
    
Shanghai (with its humid, subtropical climate) is the largest city in China and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world.  It sits on the Yangtze River Delta on China’s eastern coast and is roughly equidistant from Beijing (our next destination) and Hong Kong.  It is 2,401 square miles in land area, and it is flat with an average elevation of only 13 feet.
    
The approximately one-hour bus/shuttle ride to and from the port on the elevated road into the center of the city confirms this observation: the density of the city with apartment buildings everywhere, just seems to go on and on.  There are, after all, over 20 million people.
    
It was in 2005 that Shanghai became the world’s largest cargo port in terms of total cargo tonnage, and our ride through the numerous high stacks of cargo boxes at the port, the more than 30 container ships I could count from the top deck of our ship anchored in the bay area, as well as the number of cargo ships passing us while docked, provide vivid testimony to this.
    
The new financial district, Pudong, competes with Singapore and Hong Kong not just in the numbers of impressive skyscrapers (over 400 and growing), but in the city landscaping and certainly in the many architectural styles.  
    
One of the most impressive buildings is really not a building at all!  It is the Oriental Pearl Tower which is over 1535 feet high.  According to “The Oriental Pearl Tower” website, “It is the highest TV Tower in Asia and is the third highest one in the world. The designers magically set the eleven beautiful spheres of various sizes up from the green grassland to the blue sky with two giant spheres shining like two rubies. The whole design is rich in poetic and pictorial splendor, which gives the tourists the impression that pearls of various sizes are dropping onto the emerald plate.”  
    
Considering the modern aspects of Shanghai, it is the cultural and economic center of East Asia, and according to Wikipedia on “Shanghai,” and under the subheading “Culture,” “it is popularly seen as the birthplace of everything considered modern in China.  It was in Shanghai,” the site says, “that the first motor car was driven and the first train tracks and modern sewers were laid.”  They were but symbols of what was to come.
    
Our best view of the Pearl Tower (we didn’t climb it), was from the 88th floor of the Jin Mao (meaning golden prosperity) Observatory 88, the first stop on our Princess sponsored “Shanghai Sampler” excursion.  According to the See It With Me website, “The Pearl Tower is one of the first things that I noticed from the observation deck.  Behind it is the Huangpu River, which separates Pudong from Puxi.”
    
Incidentally, the Jin Mao building is an exact replica of the “101" which we saw in Taiwan.
    
Just as impressive (if not moreso), than the views from the 88th floor is the ride up and down.  It takes but 45 seconds to go from the ground floor to floor 88, and you cannot feel the elevator begin its ascent or stop.  The elevator travels at 29.86 feet per second or approximately 1,791.6 feet per minute. The speed of the elevator is phenomenal, and you can watch its progress as a red line following up an outline of the building on the back wall of the elevator.
    
Also impressive is that from floor 88 you can look down into the atrium of the Grand Hyatt Hotel.  The Hyatt atrium starts at the 53rd floor and extends upward to the 87th floor; thus, when you look down into the atrium, you see 35 floors of it — a shiny, gold, illuminated column.
    
As an interesting aside, the modern portion of Shanghai, where all the skyscrapers are built (and are being built) is located on a flat alluvial plain recovered from the sea.  This means that new skyscrapers must be built with deep concrete piles to stop them from sinking into the soft ground.
    
There is a long, busy tunnel that connects Pudong with Puxi, and after being dazzled by the colors, shiny surfaces, towering edifices, and cleanliness of the modern Shanghai, when you emerge from the tunnel, the stark reality of Puxi suddenly and dramatically confronts you.
    
What is so dramatic?  There are old, low-rise apartment buildings, small China-town-like shops crowded in side by side, litter, local people on bicycles going about their daily business, motor scooters, laundry hanging outside apartment windows, and an overall look that strikes you as traditional and classic — the very image of China that those in power want to change.  The image is striking because it is sudden, remarkable, and unexpected.
    
Our excursion took us into the heart of the Old City to the Yu Garden (Garden of Peace and Comfort).  Built during the Ming Dynasty, the Yu Garden is over 400 years old and, as a national heritage site, it represents a southern Chinese style garden.   As described at the Frommer’s website, the garden “is a maze of Ming Dynasty pavilions, elaborate rockeries, arched bridges, and goldfish ponds, all encircled by an undulating dragon wall.”  The garden occupies 5 acres, but it appears expansive with its 30 pavilions.
    
Read more about Yu Garden at the Frommers website. When we visited, the place was teeming with visitors — most, it seemed, from other parts of China.  Pressed against each other and shoulder to shoulder, we traversed narrow walkways, small entrances, and saw little viewing areas where many people pushed to see the view.
    
Yu Garden is considered landscape art.  It is meant, throughout, to perfectly balance the yin and the yang.  Each garden within the walls “must have several elements, the main ones being plants, rock, water, and pavillions, in order to make it harmonious,” says our Beijing Encounter guidebook — which includes information on Shanghai.  Our guidebook pointed it out: “To make it harmonious, the gardens are built . . . for promoting the flow of qi [energy flow] as they are to be an aesthetic pleasure.  The hardness of the rock (yang) should balance out the softness of the water (yin)” (p. 124).
    
The gardens within the Yu Garden are stunning in their beauty, and I will continue my discussion of them (briefly) in the second essay on Shanghai.
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At the Destination 360 website there is a complete explanation of the Yu Garden.

At the Shanghai Finder website, its purpose is to help people planning to live in Shanghai find a school, villa, or apartment, and the website offers a realistic view of Pudong as contrasted with Puxi.

“Despite efforts to promote Pudong, Puxi remains the cultural and entertainment center of Shanghai. The two main shopping centers, Huaihai Zhong Lu and Xujiahui, the major bar streets such as Maoming Lu and Julu Lu, and cultural centers such as The Bund, the Shanghai Grand Theatre, and the Shanghai Museum are all located in Puxi. The famous Nanjing Road shopping strip runs through Puxi and the 7 Pu Road Apparel City is located in there as well.”  This quote is from Wikipedia in its essay on Puxi.
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Copyright May, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC.