I went to see Old Shanghai this weekend. The weather was overcast as it has been, but cleared by later in the day. It takes about an hour to get to the nearest subway and then ride the eleven stops to People’s Square, the big subway interchange and starting point for the Nanjing Road pedestrian mall which runs from People’s Square for nearly a mile to The Bund, along the river.
There are few if any westerners in the suburbs, but in People’s Square and on the mall there are many more and by the time you get to the river, there are more still, littered with them, from all over the world.
- Pedestrian Mall, East Nanjing Road
The old part of Shanghai is along the Huangpu River. Facing the river is a long curved boulevard lined with European style buildings built at the end of the 19th Century and the early part of the 20th when the west, principally European powers dominated the coastal regions of China winning territorial concessions. Parts of Shanghai are still known as the French Concession area among others.
- European architecture along The Bund…………….
From the mid-nineteenth century, Britain ran a drug trade in China making fortunes for it’s merchants who imported opium from other British colonies to Chinese coastal cities where big segments of the Chinese populace became addicted and useless. When Chinese authorities objected, forcibly, the Opium Wars began and western powers prevailed giving way to enormous concessions on the part of the Chinese. Think of the upper East Side of Manhatten or Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco as sovereign territory of Columbia because the US objected to Columbian drug cartels selling crack and lost a coastal war Columbia waged to enforce their drug trade and protect their drug merchants.
Hong Kong, under British control until the end of the last Century, was an Opium War concession.
It’s a wonder the Chinese have anything to do with the West.
Now the only remnants of European concessions is the wide boulevard and buildings that line it and some beautiful neighborhoods nearby. Across the boulevard is a broad walkway along the river, opposite Pudong, the new skyline of modern buildings, sky scrapers and “the needle,” which was about the only significant structure on the Pudong side ten years ago. The Pudong skyline dwarfs “The Bund,” a German name for the sweeping boulevard area and European architecture on the near side, opposite Pudong.
The river banks are a mecca for tourists on both sides. And there’s a ferry and lots of river traffic including barges of all types, tour boats and the rest. I saw one floating billboard, an all electronic video screen on a boat, advertising the latest movies for some cinema complex.
Huge Floating Billboard
Tour groups are easy to spot, grouped together in baseball caps of the same color or snaking around behind a leader holding up a small flag or banner, wearing a small amplifier and headset. I met a group of Russians, they all looked like they came from somewhere in Kansas.
By the end of the afternoon, the sun was out and it was a beautiful day……easy to forget the tragedy of this city and enjoy the weather.
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