I can already tell that this experience will be much different from my last here in Shanghai: my neighborhood could not be more polar opposite from mine last summer. Previously, I had a view overlooking a pristine park, with the large Regency Hotel directly adjacent to my own serviced apartment building. Now, however, our fabulously oversized windows show, in the distance, 4 large skyscrapers being erected, and an even earlier stage of change in the foreground. A large section of “Lao Shanghai,” with at least 100 old Chinese-style homes, is gradually being demolished; I can only imagine in preparation for yet more skyscrapers. Three construction (or destruction, if you will) workers, whom I have come to refer to as “2 reds and a yellow,” given their choice of safety helmet color, demolish on average 75% of a house each day with nothing but brute strength and sledgehammers. They seem to have no real pattern of which building they decide to hack at each day, but perhaps they jump around the points on the grid in order to delay demolishing houses that old Chinese families still inhabit.
I have been fortunate enough to witness part of the rapid growth of this city over the past few years. Since my first visit in 2006, for example, even the highest skyscraper in the city has changed. However, in my neighborhood this time around, it’s interesting to see that there are still thousands of citizens clinging to old ways.
Overall, I think the modernization and globalization of Shanghai is an extremely positive thing, but I hope that there is never a day when I will walk around the city without a reason to chuckle “TIC” to myself. This Is China, and I don’t want the disappearance of street food vendors, shoes for sale on every corner, and horn-happy motorcycle drivers to make me feel otherwise.
