Shanghai: The Old in the Midst of the New
The name Shanghai means “on the sea”. Up until the 7th century AD Shanghai, then known as Shen or Hu Tu after the local bamboo fishing traps, was a barely developed marshland. By the 11th Century Shanghai was a small fishing village. Even so, most of modern Shanghair did not exist until the 17th Century when a complex system of canals were dug to drain the marshes.
An ideal port, Shanghai is the gateway to the mighty Yangzi River. But when the British opened their first concession in the city in 1842, after the first Opium War, it was still little more than a small town supported by fishing and weaving. The French turned up in 1847 and then the Americans in 1862. By the time the Japanese rocked up in 1895 the city was being parceled up into settlements, all autonomous and immune from Chinese law. The settlements had their own police force, court system, and armed forces. The ensuing western influence launched Shanghai into a period of phenomenal economic growth.
By the 1930s the world’s greatest houses of finance and commerce descended on Shanghai. The place had the
tallest buildings in Asia, and more motor vehicles on its streets than the rest of China put together. The situation had a dark side, however, because Shanghai had became a byword for exploitation and vice, with its countless opium dens,
gambling joints and brothels. Guarding it all were the American, French and Italian marines, British and Japanese soldiers.
The Japanese Imperial Army attacked Shanghai several times in the 1930s, finally capturing it in late 1941. By 1943, the
allied powers, including the United States, Britain, and, in 1946, France renounced all claims to the city. In 1949, the city fell to the Communists. The new rulers of Shanghai began eradicating slums, rehabilitating hundreds of thousands of opium addicts and stamping out child and slave labor.
In the 1960s, Shanghai was a center of the “cultural revolution”, an attempt by Chinese dictator Chairman Mao to impose a “purer form” of Communism in China. The campaign resulted in civil turmoil, death, and millions of lives uprooted and ruined.
By the 1990s, however, capitalism had returned to Shanghai. The eastern part of the city was declared a special economic development zone. Western businesses and venture capitalists were invited to invest in Shanghai. The resulting economic boom was so great that, by the mid-1990s, more than half the world’s high-rise cranes were looming over Shanghai. The city is now an international center of trade and finance.
The Bund
The Bund is the famous area of Shanghai where foreign business interest made their headquarters before the Second World War. The word “bund” is derived from an Anglo-Indian term meaning “muddy embankment.” After the 1920’s the area became a showcase for foreign enterprises, with impressive Western-style banks, trading houses, hotels, consulates, and clubs filling the shore, with promenade along the river. British, French, American, German, Japanese, and Russian facilities were built here, in styles ranging from Neo-Classical to Renaissance, to Art Deco, giving the area a
pronounced European flavor. Walking along the Bund at night is a fascinating site, as the entire PuDong skyline across the river is illuminated, including the Oriental Pearl TV Tower and Jim Mao Tower, the 2nd tallest building in
the world. It provides a fascinating contrast between old and new Shanghai. The Bund History Museum provides a
photographic insight into the area’s role in the development of Shanghai.
Shanghai Museum
The Shanghai museum, opened in the mid 1990s, is a four story building filled with rooms and rooms full of paintings, sculptures, ceramics, furniture, regional costumes, coins, seals, bronzes, jade, and calligraphy. Altogether, there are eleven special galleries and three exhibition halls in the Shanghai Museum. These include the Ancient Chinese Bronze Gallery, the Ancient Chinese Sculpture Gallery, the Ancient Chinese Ceramics Gallery, Zande Lou Ceramics Gallery, the Chinese Painting Gallery, the Chinese Calligraphy Gallery, the Chinese Seal Gallery, the Ancient Chinese Jade Gallery, the Chinese Ming and Qing Furniture Gallery, the Chinese Coin Gallery, and the Chinese Minority Nationalities’ Art
Gallery. It is considered the best museum in China and an excellent place to learn about that country’s history and culture.
Yuyuan Gardens
Yuyuan is possibly the only place in Shanghai’s city center to find a hint of ancient China. It was built by the Pun family in 1559. It is now a major shopping bazaar of Shanghai and is therefore considered by some to be a tourist trap. Yet it is a great example of a Ming style garden and is worth a visit just to wander about. Divided into two parts, the outer garden contains pavilions, rock gardens, ponds and a traditional theatre. The inner garden consists of many pavilions. The garden and bazaar faces a Ming era temple known as the Cheng Huang Miao or Temple of the City’s Gods.
Jade Buddha Temple
The temple is built in the style of the Song Dynasty, with symmetrical halls and courtyards, upturned eaves, and bright yellow walls. The temple is famous for its two statues of the Buddha, one seated, the other reclining which were
brought from Burma. The seated Buddha, about six and a half feet high and four hundred and fifty five pounds, is carved entirely of white jade and is ornamented with jewels. The reclining Buddha is also made from jade. The temple contains a number of ancient carvings, paintings, and Buddhist relics.
Visiting Shanghai
Shanghai is China’s third largest international air hub after Beijing and Hong Kong. Shanghai also has rail and air connections to places all over China, as well as ferries traveling up the Yangzi River.
While there are some fascinating places to stroll around on foot, Shanghai can be a nightmare to get around on foot with all of the new construction. The bus system is little better, packed at rush hour, with routes not easy to figure out. The metro and light rail systems, on the other hand, are first rate. Taxis can also be gotten easily and cheaply, outside of rush hour.
