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Shanghaiist has been living in this town for five years now, and while we often get the "哇！你是老上海了！“ ("Wow, you're an old Shanghai hand") remark, there are days when we think we actually moved here too late (sadistic thought, some might say). Although we have witnessed some pretty breathtaking changes ourselves, we have to defer to the experience of Chris Devonshire-Ellis of China Briefing who founded his own law firm 15 years ago in his spare bedroom. Here is how he described China then:
... Deng Xiaoping was China’s Premier, George H.W. Bush the U.S. president, while Chris Patten had just arrived in Hong Kong as Governor. U.S. trade with China at the time was US$33.15 billion while the RMB traded at 5.436 to the U.S. dollar. Foreigners in China were not allowed to use RMB. Foreign Exchange Certificates were the currency for all visitors, and China’s “Friendship Stores” carried the only available luxury goods – Johnnie Walker Red Label, and Marlboro cigarettes. Shanghai was closed by 9pm, and a fax machine arriving at Beijing’s Jianguo Hotel business centre was a major communications event. All international flights to Shanghai arrived at Hongqiao, and the only snacks on offer at Beijing’s airport consisted of dried noodles, made edible by using boiling hot water from a Russian silver plated samovar at the end of the only terminal. Bicycles ruled the road, and donkeys and carts were often seen trotting along the road to the Beijing airport.
Wow, the RMB at 5.436 to the dollar! We would love to see that happen again sometime! But apart from that, can you not help but marvel at how fast China has changed?
Photo taken in 1992 by Yimou
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This alley could pass for any that exist in China today, even in SH or BJ once you get a few blocks away from the "miracle miles".
They haven't modernized the whole country in 15 years? C'mon, its only 1.3 billion people fer chrissake! What a bunch a pikers these Chinese are...
I remember using RMB when I was here in 1991 (as a visitor). We were also able to stock up pretty decently for our train journeys at the Beijing Friendship store. Not great . . but decently.
The whole country hasn't modernised, just a small part of it. Hopelessness has been supplanted by greed; a hungry, gnawing greed whose purpose has yet to unfold. So few people have convictions other than money, morals aside from business.
I was amazed to read that foreigners were not allowed to use RMB. That would seem to require around-the-clock handlers or guides. And it seems extremely unlikely that a merchant would turn down legitimate money even if it came from a foreigner. Could it be that foreigners were just not allowed to change their currency themselves?
well at least it was easier to buy genuine Marlboro cigs and Johnnie Walker back then!
Cool photo
I remember arriving in 1984. The streets looked much like the stereotypical "communist" China that the Western press likes to portray to this day. The people were mostly dressed in green or blue, the streets were filled with bikes, and nothing was available for sale by cash...almost, as everything was sold by government allocation. Other than the Government guest house we were allowed to stay and eat at, there literally were few places a non-chinese could eat, EVEN WITH CASH as EVERYTHING was State Run.
Foreign currency was converted into FEC (foreign Exchange currency) that could only be used and accepted at the Guesthouses, tourist locations, and the Friendship stores. The prices were different for FEC use vs RMB use, and imported items such as TV's required FEC payment so some enterprising locals began black marketing the currency in exchange for luxury goods. Back then, a TV or refigerator was a great gift to present someone as most households didnt have one, heck many villages didnt.
Those who cannot understand how things were back then really should do some research into how state planned economies work. Taxi drivers would not take us anywhere as they got paid regardless of whether they drove or not. It was not until we gave them a government letter of introduction that they suddenly were motivated to take us anywhere we wanted.
By the 1990's, it became strangely less civilised and started to become a frontier where anything an everything can happen. While Shanghai has barely made it past that phase, many second tier cities (fiefdoms more or less) still retain much of the wilderness frontier feel.