Shanghai

I met La Bing in Shanghai after 20 years or so without seeing him. We went to the Bund and had lunch at the Astor House. He introduced me to Shanghai cuisine and filled me in with problems in China that the regular tourists do not see.

An obligatory picture of the Bund in Shanghai Pudong district across the Huangpu from the Bund

Shanghai is big, crowded and polluted. Everywhere there is construction. The old buildings are being replaced by high rises. Who can blame them – these old houses has no plumbing and other modern facilities. It looks like that is what China is heading, for better or worse.

Traffic in Shanghai showing extreme air pollution - colors of buildings in background blocked out

Old and new buildings in Shanghai Old buildings in Shanghai rapidly being torn down

I went on a tour of the Shanghai Deep Water Port organized by the conference. It is located on several islands 30 km off the mainland in the East China Sea, The islands and port are reachable via a bridge (30 km long, of course). It took only one and half years to build it. We estimated there are 500 pilings along the bridge. That means one piling was built per day. This project is an indication how an authoritarian government can work wonders, sometimes.