Shanghai: Pearl of the Orient

The Chinese city of Shanghai, after enduring centuries of transformation, is once again poised to reclaim its position as Pearl of the Orient. The city that began as a muddy fishing village on a tidal creek near the mouth of the Huangpu (also known as the Yangzi) river has become a major international trade center and is becoming an attractive investment opportunity in light of the Communist government’s loosening of the restrictions against foreign capitalism.

Located in the Yangtze valley, where agriculture was a primary occupation, Shanghai developed into a center of cotton and silk production as the population swelled in that area. In the late 7th or early 8th century, the Arabs and the Turks introduced the opium poppy into China, and the opium trade ballooned, leading to the Opium War in 1839. Great Britain defeated China and imposed the Treaty of Nanking, which opened five ports, including Shanghai, to British trade and residence. Other treaties soon followed opening trade with the French, Americans, and Japanese. Shanghai, because of its position at the mouth of a major trade route to interior parts of China, was a natural hub for international trade. Provisions of the treaties divided the city into sectors, called concessions, where each country had its own jurisdiction. Self-governing foreign inhabitants established their own laws and customs in their designated neighborhoods. As Western traders and Chinese entrepreneurs converged on the port city to make their fortunes, Shanghai flourished, soon adding industrial and banking bases to the mix. It soon became a city of opulent wealth, mixed cultures, and stark contrasts--a place of plush nightclubs, French villas, and opium dens, where chic bon vivants walked the same streets as prostitutes and beggars. Russian Jews fleeing persecution lived alongside Chinese intellectuals. It was a hybrid society indeed.

In the aftermath of World War II, the Communists ended the period of extraterritoriality for foreigners, eradicated the slums, and eliminated the disparity between the classes. While they achieved tremendous social reform, they also stifled prosperity by implementing repressive trade policies. The Communists distrusted the intellectual class, many of whom were clustered in Shanghai, and considered them to be politically unwholesome. Therefore Shanghai languished in an atmosphere of passivity, if not outright hostility.

In the 1980’s, as the Chinese government started loosening the reins on the economy and eventually completely reversed its earlier policies, changing from stress on collective economic activity to the encouragement of individual initiative, Shanghai began exploring the limits of capitalistic freedom. Today, Shanghai once again is poised to emerge as China’s shining treasure. The city that was once called “Paris of the East” now bills itself as the “Pearl of the Orient.” The people of Shanghai have a reputation for being sharp, open-minded, glamorous, sophisticated, and business-oriented. Supported by state officials, they now have a freedom to grow.

European colonialism is reflected in much of today’s Shanghai, in particular on the Bund, a famous thoroughfare that is bounded by the Huangpu River on one side and a row of colonial buildings on the other. European architects and engineers are also playing a role in various architectural and development projects.

Across the river, the skyline is dominated by modern building projects in the Pudong New Area. There, the 88-story Jin Mao building and the Oriental Pearl TV Tower create an image of modern growth that encompasses a world of banking and finance. The Pudong is home to Shanghai’s stock market building, the city’s international airport, and the world’s first magnetic levitation train system.

Having won the bid for the 2010 World Expo, the Chinese government is pouring the equivalent of 40 billion U.S. dollars into developing new infrastructure that will be the foundation for Shanghai’s emergence as China’s premier financial, economic and commercial center--truly the Pearl of the Orient.