Results tagged “construction”

Oh hurrah, with just about 200-some days left to go, the main pavilion for the Shanghai Expo - that red one that looks kind of like a square temple - was finished yesterday, making it the first out of the four central pavilions to be ready for interior design work, according to Shanghai Daily. The pavilion highlights Shanghai's various eco-friendly initatives (solar energy, plant walls, and the like) spans a whopping area of 11.5 hectares - the size of 21 American football fields - and will house exhibitions highlighting the link between humans, cities, and the Earth. We can't wait to wander around inside it!

The Global Post is currently featuring an interactive online exhibit that portrays an "intimate look at China's migrant workers." Besides stories and pictures, they also have video slideshows and audio translations of actual migrant workers' thoughts.

What is it with buildings in Minhang? First that notorious Minhang building collapse happened, and now it seems like another building in the district has serious construction problems too.

As Shanghai prepares for the 2010 World Expo at a frighteningly fast pace, one aspect of urban development is being overlooked: emergency shelters. Currently, should any sort of natural disaster befall the city, Shanghai's almost 19 million citizens would have only one (still unfinished) public emergency shelter to turn to.

Another day, another real estate dispute in Shanghai. This time around, it's residents in the Dong Cheng Community in Pudong fighting against the company that built their compound, according to this BBS thread on Sohu.

Around 6:40 this morning, the scaffolding of the elevated on Huaxiang Lu near Beiqing Lu in the Minhang District collapsed in the construction area. More than 10 construction workers had been standing on the scaffolding before it suddenly crashed down. Immediately after the collapse, 120 emergency technicians rushed to the scene and brought the injured people to Qu Jing Hospital. According to Xinmin, one construction worker had died and another six have suffered injuries.

Thinking of buying that swank new apartment in the French Concession? Now's probably not the time.

• Construction starts on rail link [Shanghai Daily] "Construction on the 29.68-billion-yuan (US$4.34 billion) Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed railway started yesterday at Fengjing area in Shanghai. The project, which is expected to be completed before the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, will cut the journey between the two cities to 38 minutes from the current one hour or more and is part of a plan to cut travel time between any two cities in the Yangtze River Delta Region to within one hour."
• Has Western Fast Food Hit a Wall in China? [Mark's China Blog] "I can't say that I'm that surprised that Chinese people may move away from eating western fast food as much as they have been. First, western fast food joints in China aren't cheap. In America, when you eat the crap that fast food places serve up you at least don't have to spend much money. That can't be said for China."
• China: ‘Can I supersize my stimulus?’ [FT Alphaville] "Expectations are growing China could super-size its stimulus package when it votes on the budget next week, especially since the draft currently being considered already foresees a record-breaking fiscal deficit for the country in 2009 of some 950bn yuan (higher than previously expected)."

Construction on the new rail line between Shanghai and Hangzhou will start by late March, officials said. The line will be 159km long with trains that run up to 350kmph, shortening the trip between the two cities to 28 minutes. Altogether, the project is expected to cost 29.68 billion yuan. Source: Xinhua

Apropos of nothing, the previously scrapped maglev train line that would have linked the Pudong and Hongqiao airports together is suddenly being dusted off again. Construction on the proposed 31.8-km train line was shelved in 2007, after everybody realized that it was a terrible idea. Well, at least we thought everybody realized it was a terrible idea.

2012 could be your special year. Construction began yesterday on metro Line 12, which will connect Minhang district with northern Pudong, passing through Xuhui, Luwan, Jing'an, Zhabei, Hongkou and Yangpu along the way. Most eye-popping line: "Nineteen stations on Line 12 will connect with 16 other Metro lines." Line 19 (still in planning stage) being one of them. It doesn't seem too long ago that there were only two metro lines and there would be a mad dash for open seats at Shanghai Railway Station, because that is where Line 1 began. It doesn't seem too long ago, because it wasn't. By 2012, Shanghai is supposed to have 13 metro lines covering 500 kilometers. [Shanghai Daily]

The Explore blog notes that a shuttle bus transfer is no longer required when traveling from Yishan Lu (Lines 3/4) to Guilin Lu (Line 9), or vice-versa. The best Shanghai metro map around has been updated to reflect this change. Have fun on Line 9!

By 2015 it could happen, GoKunming reports. The journey currently takes 37 hours. According to GoKunming, "the Shanghai-Kunming passenger line (沪昆客运专线) will connect Shanghai and Kunming via the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan, passing through the major cities of Hangzhou, Nanchang and Changsha. Its target speed is reportedly 350 km/hr."

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More photos on the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site (and here).

Share with us how you see Shanghai, or China! Post your photos on Flickr, tag them with "shanghaiist", and we'll select one favorite image per day. Or you can simply email your photos to photos at shanghaiist.com.

After a long and sometimes chaotic winter, the recent heatwave has been much celebrated around the city. Outdoor dining is back, the windows are open, and the locals are sporting this season's hottest pajama fashion. But with all the good weather there's a silver lining or, perhaps more accurately, a poisonous death haze. This is that magical time of year where all the tiny particles in the air heat up and you start feeling like you're living in a toaster over. If you can't see across the street, you probably won't enjoy walking there.

     

Taikang Lu has developed rapidly in the last few months — expanding from the original alleyway into a sprawling collection of labyrinthine lanes populated by galleries, arty shops, and some great restaurants. However, the revitalisation of Taikang Lu hasn't been welcomed by everyone. Yesterday, on a gloriously sunny afternoon that saw large numbers of people flock to the area, some local residents decided to voice their dissent against the ongoing development.

During his discussion with Kerry Brown and Duncan Hewitt at the recently held Shanghai International Literary Festival, Paul French quoted British environmentalist Jonathon Porritt as saying that "the biggest problem with the environment in China is that nobody in China could care less about it".

Not too surprising, we suppose. They broke ground on this at the expo site today, More from the Shanghai Daily:

Time to top-out your public transport cards, all RMB 999 folks, Opening Day is upon us! The Shanghai metro system will soon be welcoming into the family "three lines and two segments," as the opening as been nicknamed, consisting of new Lines 6/8/9, the 2nd northern extension of Line 1 and the final stretch of the Line 4 loop line. Thanks to "planning with Chinese characteristics" it is still unclear whether the first day of operation will remain on the original 28 of December, or be pushed back to December 29. Whenever it is, on that day Line 6 will begin shuttling Pudong'ers up and down their side of the river, Line 8 will bring civilization to the northern boonies we call Yangpu, Line 9 will make quarantining those rowdy university students out in Songjiang that much easier, Line 1 will become twice as crowded as it already is, and Line 4 will mess with our sense of direction by abandoning the concept of terminal stations.

The state media had reported around May of this year that the proposed Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev was canceled. In the report just linked to, it says that the official reason why the thing was canceled was because of health and environmental concerns, while the supposed "real reason" was that residents in the maglev's path were starting a petition. Reading over this report reminds of how this issue has been ping-ponging back and forth for years. We thought perhaps that the ginormous cost of the thing, including some behind-the-scenes bickering between Zhejiang province and Shanghai regarding the division of construction costs, was the final nail in the coffin, but if you think about it, since when can a few petitioners writing letters to their National People's Congress "reps" can hardly hold back the ineluctable forces of progress?

Where to go, where to go: Shanghaiist is still trying to figure out where to carb up for our big dodgeball game tonight (that's right, patches, dodgeball). Pure, the fancy new Japanese restaurant that is part of The Collection at Xintiandi, has been offering their new sushi menu for 50% off since last Thursday. The special ends tomorrow night, however, so if we enjoy ourselves tonight we may find ourselves there tomorrow as well. On...

It may only be a spit away by plane, but for those of us too cheap environmentally concerned to fly, getting up to Beijing for the weekend is a bitch (despite our love of munching through a bottomless nosebag of sunflower seeds to looped pan-pipe renditions of Celine Dion songs). Which is why we don't go. So the proposed high-speed line between Shanghai and BJ, which will reportedly cane it along at 350km/h and take...

For those of you that haven't been able to pluck yourself out of that sinking feeling, Xinhua has a scientific explanation for it — our city has been sinking! In fact, geologists say it's sunk 7.5 millimetres this year, with "severe subsidence" of 8.3 millimetres detected in downtown areas. The sinking's been caused by heavy construction as well as water being pumped out of underground aquifers for "industrial and agricutural purposes" which has now been...

PLUS LEE KUAN YEW AND HIS ROLE IN SINO-SINGAPORE RELATIONS The last week has seen top leaders zipping between China and Singapore to cement ties and sign new deals. Let's take you through the high-profile visits one by one before diving deeper into more detail (Warning: Long article!): Goh Chok Tong visits new Shanghai party chief and the Singapore-Suzhou Industrial Park Last week, Singapore's Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong swung by Shanghai to visit her...

The International Olympic Committee has called on Beijing Games organisers to release detailed information about air quality gathered during an August trial when 1.3million cars were taken off the Chinese capital's roads.

The propaganda department is definitely going into overdrive this week. First, if you still didn't know that China has political parties other than the CCP, the People's Daily has an interesting backgrounder of the eight parties, with short descriptions of the history of the parties and their membership size and make-up. These parties are namely: the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang (RCCK), China Democratic League (CDL), China National Democratic Construction Association (CNDCA), China Association...

Metro news from the local press:

On Saturday, Oct. 27, the same night as our Halloween extravaganza, police raided and shut down Shanghai's popular gay club, Club Deep (commonly called "Deep"). Word on the street is that some Deep patrons were indulging in some not-so-legal substances during Deep's "Decadent Halloween" party, sponsored by i-Candy. According to our sources, between 20-30 police officers (initially mistaken for costumed go-go dancers, it was a Halloween party after all) arrested around 10 people, all suspected...