The centre of Shanghai is filled with acres of tall
structures, mostly built in the last 20 years as older buildings were
demolished to make way for the new.
This has allowed for
the development of an amazing array of unusually shaped sky scrapers with wide
multi-level roadways and careful inclusion of parks and trees, which the
farmers are paid to grow and plant.
People whose homes have been demolished compulsorarily are offered alternative high rise
accommodation. Access to international TV channels is forbidden, but satellite
dishes for this purpose are visible everywhere, with little evidence of
prosecution. I have no idea how spacious these apartments are, and they vary
enormously in their visual impact.
Our tour guide talks about the country’s new ‘capitalist’
endeavours. He sells his nation with enthusiasm. He does not mention
‘democracy’ .The reality is far too complex to untangle in a short one day
visit, and our instincts prevent us from asking too many probing questions.
After a drive around the financial sector of Shanghai we are
taken to the Jin Mao Tower, which houses the biggest tall sightseeing
observatory in China. The lift travels smoothly
at 9 metres per second and we step out on the 88th floor to
view an amazing landscape of breathtaking architecture.
We have 2 more visits to China in this trip, once to a rural
seaside port, and also to the historic ‘Great Wall’. Hopefully, these
additional stops will help to give a fuller picture of this massively
developing and complex society.
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