Shanghai - Better City, Better Life

The theme of the largest world exhibition to date, in which 242 countries and international organizations have already confirmed their participation, is "Better City, Better Life", and the mascot, called Haibao, represents humanity, which plays a major role in the development and observance of the slogan of the exhibition.

And indeed, the once polluted industrial city in the Yangtze River Delta, about 40 kilometers away from the sea, in which today as many as 19 million inhabitants live, has fundamentally changed its image in the last twenty years. Even twenty years ago, there was only 10 percent of green areas in Shanghai, but today 25 to 30 % cities are green, and the textile, automobile, electrical and shipbuilding industries have also been withdrawn from the city. As Shanghai has become China's number one trade and business center and is becoming an increasingly important global financial center, the city naturally also faces the negative consequences of development. One of the most pressing issues is, of course, space and real estate prices, which, despite the global recession, are rising to heights inaccessible to the Chinese. As long as there is interest in buying apartments and office space, construction in Shanghai will continue. Currently, more than 6,000 buildings are under construction in the city, according to data from real estate agencies, as many as 2.1 million square meters of living space were sold in June this year. In the first half of the year, real estate agencies in the city sold 138,400 used (mainly residential) units.

sky is the limit
The city, which the Chinese were the first to open to foreign investors, has become an international metropolis that can shamelessly compete with Tokyo or New York with its skyscrapers. all world cuisines and of course all Chinese regional specialties. The only thing that reminds us of the decadent atmosphere at the beginning of the twentieth century is the Shanghai museum, which is located under the famous TV tower Oriental Pearl Tower, and the addresses of some of the most prestigious financial institutions that still reign in the early 20th century buildings on Bundu. In addition to the bank headquarters, the Bund is also known for its stylish bar scene and some of Shanghai's best restaurants, with clubs and restaurants offering stunning views of the Pudong Peninsula, on which some of the tallest buildings in the world soar high into the sky. It is currently the second tallest building in the world Shanghai World Financial Center with 492 meters and the highest observation terrace in the world, because from the hundredth floor of the building you can observe the city and the other buildings below. But the competition in high-rise construction is not over yet, as a new high-rise is already being built in the immediate vicinity, rising even higher than the center of Shanghai. Guests who love heights can spend the night literally among the clouds, as the upper floors, specifically floors 79 to 93 belong at the Park Hyatt Shanghai hotel, which is thus the highest hotel in the world. If all 174 rooms in the hotel are occupied, we can try our luck in the neighboring tower block Jin Mao, which was Shanghai's tallest building until last year when the Shanghai World Financial Center opened. The upper floors of the building, ruled by the Chinese lucky number eight (88 floors), are the address of the Grand Hyatt Hotel, which boasts the highest reception in the world, and on the top floor, lovers of heights can have a drink in the highest bar in the world, called Cloud 9. The interior of the bar is almost completely unlit, which becomes clear after the initial astonishment, because this is the only way visitors can enjoy an unobstructed view of the neighboring high-rise buildings and the city that lies below them.

The Shanghai World Financial Center is the most beautiful example of the incredible transformation that China is undergoing. According to the decision of the Chinese government, in the early 1990s, the trade and financial zone Lujiazui in the new area of Pudong was chosen as an emerging economic center. The photos showing Lujiazui in 1990 and just nineteen years later are incredible. From an industrial area with low-rise buildings, the most recognizable part of Shanghai has turned into a collection of high-rise buildings, limited only by the sky.

A consumer paradise
It is impossible to determine where the center of China's largest city is. For businessmen, the most important part of the city is, of course, the financial district along the Huangpu River, which is most often visited by tourists Yuyuan with a beautiful park and alleys that try to represent the China of a few centuries ago, but apart from the central Taoist temple that is in the center of the alleys, they hardly succeed. The alleys are dedicated only to small shops, where visitors can buy souvenirs "made in China": from matches with Mao's image, to fake original handbags or rolling pins with flashing lights, and while shopping they can treat themselves to a McDonald's burger or a coffee at an American Starbucks.

If we still imagine China as a country run by old men in gray uniforms, and millions of cyclists in workers' uniforms ride the city streets, a walk down the shopping street will Nanjing, which is intended only for pedestrians, completely stunned. A little more than a kilometer long street has hundreds of shops that can be found in every major European city, and the real surprise is a walk through the streets West Nanjing Road and Huaihai Road, which are surrounded only by the stores of the most prestigious fashion designers, jewelers and car dealers. Visitors to these exclusive shops, where prices are no lower than in Europe, are mainly foreigners who visit or live and work in Shanghai, and a new class of wealthy Chinese, who represent a negligible proportion of the total population, and in a country of 1.3 billion people Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, Dior and others are promising a big piece of the cake.

Show what you know
The organization of the World Expo in Shanghai is proof that China wants to show its new image to the world, and that is why next year's Expo will be the largest world exhibition ever, with an area twice as large as the Principality of Monaco. The exhibition spaces will extend to as much as 5.28 square kilometers on the banks of the Huangpu River, and there will be more than three square kilometers of covered exhibition spaces. The investment will cost the Chinese government 28.6 billion yuan, which is 4.18 billion in US dollars. The exhibition, which will open its doors on May 1 next year and will run until the end of October 2010, according to organizers, will attract as many as 70 million visitors to Shanghai. Currently, the exhibition space is still a large construction site, where more than 15,000 workers are working. Their task is to transform the former industrial area, where more than 200 factories operated and more than 18,000 households lived, into an exhibition space where 42 countries will build their own pavilions, which they will mostly transfer to their countries after the exhibition. A few buildings, including the Chinese pavilion, which is already becoming a new symbol of Shanghai, the exhibition boulevard, the theater and the themed pavilion, will remain and serve as an international conference center, exhibition galleries and cultural institutions. When asked what happened to the residents who lived here before the start of construction, the organizers assure that they were moved to new apartments that are much better and more spacious, but we will probably never hear about the change of these people. Shanghai is the pearl of Chinese development, and people are just tools that lead to it.