Originally Posted by
kevin
I was in Shanghai in 1981 and saw a crowd outside a store - looking at a fridge in the window. It was clearly something they hadn't seen before. Thirty years on the city is dominated by neon signs.
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Took photographs of The Bund and about three years ago I showed them to a student from Shanghai - the change was so great she initially didn't recognise her own city.
I have been going to Shanghai regularly for the past 15 years ,
Kevin the change has been so fast and dramatic that if you go back after six months whole swathes of the place are totally different. What they do while all the rebuilding is going on is plant any waste areas with trees and plants so there is plenty of greenery around. Also young rich Chinese, and there are plenty of them, are buying up the old merchant houses for homes , galleries and restaurants which mix well with the new builds.Yes the air quality is questionable but they plant the top edges of flyovers with green plants to clean the air.
They all have fridges, watercoolers/heaters huge sound systems even in the tiniest apartments Maserati showrooms and high end designer stores abound . Ikea was like a football stadium with over 40 checkout tills all in action.Yes the old streets and neigbourhoods are fast disappearing but the new regeneration is happening real fast no dithering allowed.
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