ASIANOVERLAND.NET SYDNEY TO LONDON DAY 70: HONG KONG TO SHANGHAI, CHINA

My first impression of China in 1985 was that the country was far worse than India in 1980 and 1981 – filthy polluted rivers, sewerage everywhere, unsafe food and hygiene, and polluted drinking water. The people in both India and China were wonderful, but no-one seemed to have any pride in their local or regional environment. Pollution, sewerage and garbage was dropped everywhere, and usually ended up in the rivers, which were also used for drinking and washing clothes,

This first impressions of China were reinforced during my visits to Shanghai in the early 2000’s, where the polluted rivers had to be seen to be believed. Shanghai is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowing through Shanghai, and the Suzhou Creek running into the Huangpu in the centre of town, at the northern edge of the Bund. The Suzhou Creek in Shanghai was my benchmark for the dirtiest, most polluted river in the world. It even surpassed the Ganges in Varanasi (Benares), where funeral pyres were blamed, but that only explained the human bodies, not the dead cows, raw sewerage and plastic bags we were bathing in.

My first visits to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre in People's Square, Shanghai, reinforced my impression that there was a huge gap between what the Chinese Government was apparently planning, and what was actually happening. However, I visited Shanghai nearly every year for the next decade, including the Shanghai World Expo in 2010, and couldn’t believe my eyes as the city of Shanghai transformed from a third world backwater into “The Most Happening City in the World”. And the decrepit Suzhou Creek transformed from the dirtiest, most polluted river in the world, into a beautiful river full of live fish, with manicured Chinese gardens on both riverbanks.

The Planning Exhibition Centre is a six-story building which displays Shanghai's urban planning and development. The exhibit includes a large-scale model of urban Shanghai, showing existing buildings and approved future buildings, and smaller scaled models of particular areas such as the Bund. Well worth a visit, or in my case, many visits.

My second impression of China concerns language. In 1985, it seemed that no-one spoke English. Same in the early 2000’s. It was so bad, I had to bring my Malaysian Chinese employees as translators to Shanghai. Even worse, most Shanghainese people didn’t speak or want to speak Mandarin in Shanghai, so I was lucky one of my employees spoke Shanghainese. However, just as the rivers and environment improved over time, so did the language, with English language signs popping up everywhere, road signs, underground railway station signs, menus …. all in time for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai (which was a wonderful experience).

Deng Xiaoping said after meeting Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore, that China should learn from Singapore because, ‘society in Singapore is quite orderly. They managed things very strictly. We ought to use their experience as a model. And we ought to manage things even better than they do’.

Lee Kuan Yew apparently told Deng Xiaoping that one of the secrets of Singapore's success was the English language, and in 2013 published his book, One Man's View of the World,

"In time, I see the Chinese striving to keep their eastern seaboard free from American spying. At the moment, Americans are able to come as close as 12 miles from the Chinese coast and look in. Now, just imagine the reverse. If the Chinese navy and airforce - its aircraft carriers - were to come that close to the American coast, the Americans would find it intolerable. They would never allow it. So you can imagine how the Chinese feel."

My third impression of China concerns accommodation, which dramatically transformed from third world housing worse than India’s, to some of the best accommodation in the world. Same with transport. We seem to have been fortunate to literally witness China lifting more than one billion people out of poverty into the middle class since 1985.

The western part of modern-day Shanghai was inhabited 6000 years ago. During the Spring and Autumn period (771 to 476 BC), it belonged to the Kingdom of Wu, which was conquered by the Kingdom of Yue, which in turn was conquered by the Kingdom of Chu. During the Warring States period (475 BC), Shanghai was part of the fief of Lord Chunshen of Chu, one of the Four Lords of the Warring States. He ordered the excavation of the Huangpu River. Its former name, the Chunshen River, gave Shanghai its nickname of "Shēn". Fishermen living in the Shanghai area then created a fish tool called the hù, which lent its name to the outlet of Suzhou Creek north of the Old City and became a common nickname for Shanghai.

The Old City is well worth a visit at any time, as is Suzhou Creek.

After the Opium War ended with Chinese humiliation in 1842, various foreign concessions were established in Shanghai. The Old City remained under Chinese control, while the foreign concessions to its north and west quickly developed into new urban areas of Shanghai.  Initially, only foreigners could settle in the concessions (although the concessions always had pre-existing Chinese residents), while newly arrived Chinese migrants lived in packed conditions in the Old City, which functioned as a sort of ghetto. My favourite concession is the French Concession, which includes buildings, gardens and streetscapes very similar to Paris.

But if you want to visit “real China”, the Old City is a compulsory visit.

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