Results tagged “development”

With the Expo approaching, Shanghai is quickly become more and more official, with roads being paved, mandatory uniforms for taxi drivers, and even rules guiding citizens' subway etiquette, just to name a few of the changes. To keep the changes rolling, the names of Shanghai's official top eight scenic spots have been announced by the Shanghai Tourism Administration, selected from over 1500 suggestions from city dwellers.

We were great fans of (now ex-)New York Times Shanghai bureau chief Howard W. French's 2006 photo exhibit in Berlin, which documented "Disappearing Shanghai," the alleys and homes being torn down for redevelopment back then. Now he's ready with a sequel.

One of the most worrisome aspects of the last couple years in China has been its overly rapid development of urban areas - the nonstop construction of skyscrapers, high-rises, highways - and the sometimes careless disregard for its environmental and social impact. At least now it seems like someone in the government is recognizing the problem, to the point of calling the current economic downturn a great opportunity to refocus on other priorities.

A lot of folks on the Chinese Twitter clone Fanfou have been tweeting about an article regarding the Chinese Academy of Sciences' "blueprint" for China's development from now until the year 2050. Here's our very rough translation followed by a typically snide and cynical commentary.

Photo from indrasensi

A few kilometers northeast of Shanghai, developers have been dreaming of a 400,000-citizen sister city. Rapid development is nothing new in China, as this recent cement-production graph shows. And, as the global community is more and more quick to point out, all those new factories, highways and residences do considerable damage to the whole world’s environment. But this new city comes with a catch — it will be powered entirely by renewable energy.

New cement production stats show China far ahead of other nations, evidence of the massive building frenzy sweeping the nation. According to Prof. Goose at The Oil Drum:

Cement is mainly used to make concrete, and is sort of the "active ingredient" in concrete - it is combined with sand and gravel in roughly fixed proportions. So cement production can be considered a rough proxy for the total amount of construction going on in a country.

     

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.

Jake Newby's recent post on Shanghaiist hinted at the erosion of Moganshan Lu's art district by new development. Following up, we bring you images from the area and can only hope that the 'development' is to put in riverside parkland around the then preserved heritage architecture, taking the arts district to the next level. And letting Island6 back in once the new gardens are done. We can dream, can't we?

We've been somewhat faithful readers of Foreign Policy for awhile and noticed that they had a couple of articles that either mention or focus on China in their recent issue. Jeff Chang has written an article called It's a Hip-Hop World where he talks about how globalized hip hop has become, and, in this context, mentions Shanghai. More worrisome than a bunch of seventeen-year-olds in baggy pants is information we found in the article on...