Shanghai - Rebuilding from the Ground Up?

---

What the 2008 Olympics are to Beijing, the upcoming 2010 World Expo is to Shanghai. In both cases, the ensuing frenetic building spree is giving new meaning to the old Chinese term "losing face."

Indeed, 'losing face', or more precisely, the cultural character and tradition of the cities, is the unfortunate consequence of China's heaving lunge towards modernity. The New York Times
spoke to the man responsible for the Shanghai World Expo:

"On the one hand you will see something like New York's financial district, and on the other, you will see new industrial infrastructure: one of the biggest ports, one of the biggest automobile factories, the biggest shipyards," said Mr. Wu, who is the project designer for the 2010 World Expo, a vast undertaking that is driving much of the change. "You cannot find these things in New York."

Which New Yorkers are lucky for. Biggest automobile factories? Sounds attractive! "Like Detroit, only much, much bigger!" The article notes that Shanghai already boasts some 4,000 skyscrapers, almost twice as many as New York. OK, you win. It seems that Mr. Wu and the Chinese Authorities forget that what makes Shanghai special is its special mix of traditional Chinese and colonial history: the historic Bund district, the leafy French Concession quarter, and the labyrinthine neighborhoods filled with bicycles, street vendors and open air markets. My personal advice? Go see Shanghai and Beijing now, before they become anonymous megatropolii without soul.

Shanghai's Boom: A Building Frenzy [New York Times]

[Eric Z. Chang]

Previously: Shanghai Shortlist, Measuring Up to the World’s Tallest Skyscrapers, Socialite, Meet Socialism, Equal to Ten Men, Shanghai Starbucks Snatched, Biting It in Shanghai