old meets new

"If the old doesn't go, the new won't come" Chinese Proverb

i've heard about the concrete jungle
but never fully experienced it until i went to shanghai.

my eyes burned and the term acid rain hit home
something you try not to think about when the winter season means seattle weather.

shanghai is intense.

in the last 20 years the city has sprouted concrete: concrete economic high rises, concrete western businesses, and concrete goals of becoming the finance capital of china. the city is trying to become the next hong kong by 2010, so it has been working hard to become bigger and better and more industrialized at the speed of what has taken other countries several decades of gradually planned infrastructure renovations (can you say competition?) shanghai is all about fast forward drive. and they are definitely getting there, in techno speed style. "she's always buzzing just like, neon, neon..." john mayer


in the 90's shanghai was doing so much construction it hoarded all the cranes in China. the shanghai subway is one of the nicest subways i have ever been in. there are flat screens on the interior walls of the train. everyone literally runs in to get a sit or a standing spot and runs out as if resuming a marathon. the computers, signs, and information is all in english and chinese with destinations mapped out articulately. shanghai built the Pearl Tower the tallest building in China and the third tallest building in the world. amidst the rapid growth is a culture and people whose neighborhoods are being transformed before their eyes. the city wants to move homes and old ways of life to prepare the way for a successful

finacial future. so people are being displaced and shooed behind buildings. but there are so many people, too many people. so you end up with a modern island with people swimming around, some ready for island hopping, others keeping pace the way they always have. a giant skyscraper, the bund water front business strip, elegant colonialism constructed western high rises, and surrounding it all, tiny little alley ways...streets behind the glitz, housing families, rickshaws, small shops, eateries, bikes, and simple carts selling food. remnants of another time merging into the future of shanghai.

it feels like a whirlwind to take in, an environmentalists disaster for sure. many of the cars use diesel fuel because it is cheaper and most factories use coal one of the dirtiest forms of energy. the tobacco industries have been targeting asian women for the last ten years and it has sure worked. cigarettes are ultra chic and practially everyone smokes. the pollution alone affected me physically. let alone the fusion of technology and ancient ways.

before we arrived in shanghai we were told, "it is like vegas on steroids." something i couldn't understand having never experienced vegas or shanghai. but, i think shanghai development is something like concrete growing in monstrous jungle sized portions uprooting a city of more people than i have ever experienced before-over 20 million in the surrounding shanghai areas-as i was told. people crawling around in a real live concrete jungle exploding with an adolescent growth spurt all trying to find a place, a way to live.