Xujiahui: It keeps growing and growing and growing and ...

On Sunday I bought the last copy of A Changing Shanghai at Garden Books. Definitely worth the money. While the photography is pretty pedestrian, some of the before-and-afters are remarkable. I was disappointed that Luwan and Jingan districts only warranted a combined three photos, though. I'd love to see before pics of the Xintiandi area.

David

the book you mean is Xu Xixian and Xu Jianrong's A Changing Shanghai from Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House - RMB68

looking at then and now pix of shanghai is always bittersweet. the b4 pix always provokes my childhood memories and it saddens me that it's all gone. but the new pix makes me proud of the fact that shanghai's "moving forward"... w/etf that means. at least wut's there now doesnt look bad.......

http://iaodb.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/Shanghai/

There is a picture-book available in most of Shanghai's bookstores... Exactly what you guys are looking for. I forgot the name of it but it's kinda small (yet thick) and rectangular-shaped. Anyway, everytime you turn the pages, on the left page you can see a full-page pic of a place in Shanghai taken before the late 90s, while on the right page you can see a picture taken at exactly the same place, same angle, but more recently (year 2000+). And this goes on for many, many pages (I guess about 100 places).

It is indeed truely amazing to see the difference almost everytime you turn a page. Unbelievable! I remember for example a picture of Pudong taken from the Bund in like the late 80s... It's like... a desert! While on the right you see the actual TV Tower/Jin Mao/Aurora landscape. Incredible.

You GOT to get that book. I bought it as a present for my mom but I actually want to get it again for myself. It's only about 80rmb.

Another way to view how quickly places are changing here: take a look at the satellite pics from google earth... (earth.google.com)

Yes, clearly Xu Jia Hui. Good, old times...

From a reader:

"I think you got it right. Top right on your picture you can see the campus of Jiaotong which is still there on Huashan Lu through the arch off the street. Therefore you identified correctly. It all changed when Grand Gateway was first constructed which cleared the large area between Jiaotong and the circle."