Night view of The Bund
Shanghai - the economic center of China and a focus of world attention
"The Atmosphere of Shanghai"
Perfumes launched by companies across the globe to commemorate the Shanghai Expo (France, Japan)
Shanghai - the year the socialist market economy was introduced
In October, 1992, the morning breeze that flowed through The Bund was refreshing, sweeping across the Huangpu River. A fantasy landscape amid the autumn breeze and scented morning haze, the rising sun shined brilliantly from the crevices of giant cranes, illuminating sailboats drifting on the waves. Whoever could have predicted the scenery of some twenty years into the future?
The scene visible from the pedestrian overpass at the Nanjing Road intersection was large crowds of people making their way to work. Waves of bikes, cars, buses and trucks together with urgently reverberating car horns and the shrieking noises of bicycle brakes and chains and so on - this blast was a telling eye-opener.
This pearl of the orient, overflowing with vitality, was quite simply a wonderland, and in this year when the socialist market economy was introduced, one began to feel that Shanghai had started its ascent to the global stage.
The view of The Bund from the Huangpu River in October, 1992 (fishing boat and the Pudong District Development Zone)
Shanghai - 2010
Almost 20 years later, the Pudong District now has a new airport; the scenery is dominated by the Oriental Pearl Tower and is bristling with clusters of high-rise buildings. As China continues to make great economic progress, Shanghai has become a highly developed city acting as the driving force behind this progress. Today's growth, foretold by the energetic power of those people in the Nanjing Road back then, has now become reality.
Pudong District of 1992 / 2010
The Shanghai World Exposition start - May 2010
A lavish global festival, the scale of which is the largest seen to date. As might be expected, effort poured into the Chinese pavilion outstrips those of other countries. Throughout the nation, a wave of people from all ethnic groups has flocked into Shanghai. Whatever the pavilion, visitors are lining up around the block. For the long wait in the line, people are taking bites out of whole cucumbers to keep up their energy and beat dehydration, and are bringing makeshift chairs. Turning one's attention to elsewhere, some in the lines are eating gyoza for breakfast - delicious-looking gyoza that one could only find in the "home" of this food.
The giant China pavilion / Long lines of people waiting to enter the China pavilion / Gyoza for breakfast
"Déjà vu" Shanghai Expo
The atmosphere and scenery of the Shanghai Expo overlap with the emotions and atmospheres that filled the air in Shanghai at the early nineties, reminding us of the Nanjing Road the year the socialist market economy was introduced. The power of the people is universal.
Roughly 4 months remain before the curtain is brought down at the end of October, but what kind of discussion topics will it leave us? Chinese ideologies that one could say lie at the center of the world. The eyes of the world are certainly fixed on China in the year, 2010. Companies from all corners of the globe are unraveling a variety of attractions and products (perfume, toys and goods).
The mirage witnessed some 20 years ago from the Nanjing Road has become reality. "Wonderland Shanghai" - a part of the "Atmosphere of Shanghai" for the last 20 years.
