The smart city of Shanghai

The smart city of Shanghai

As our Cathay Pacific jet touched down at the Pudong International airport, the Shanghainese were returning from their Chinese New Year holidays and the mood was upbeat. 2014 is the year of the ‘Horse’. Bright red and gold lanterns were dangling from every perch available. Little orange trees were decorated with red envelops. The scent of citrus and bright colors added a promise of spring to the air. 

The horse in all its majestic glory promises optimism, energy, and beauty. The dragon and horse are auspicious Chinese symbols. Symbols of leadership and outstanding individuals. So 2014 is expected to be a good year and like a swift, galloping, horse, things will happen fast in 2014. But more specifically, the future depends on what animal you are, which depends on your birth year. I’m a pig so 2014 will be a good year for me. Apparently my relatives and cooperators will help me and I will have great achievements in career. I will have to work hard, but will get praise and will be promoted in position and capability. Time will tell I guess…

Whereas Beijing comes across as a typical traditional political capital, Shanghai, the economic capital of China is certainly a lot more cosmopolitan, modern and much more Westernised. Located in the delta of the mighty Yangtze River, roughly equidistant to Beijing and Hong Kong, Shanghai has grown from a small market town in imperial China to a 21^st century megalopolis. Shanghai has an amazing number of skyways to avoid traffic congestion. It is eye opening to see the infrastructure that operates a city of 24 million residents.

From the airport, I took the famous Maglev train to Langyong Road station which is effectively downtown Pudong. The train goes at 430 Kilometers per hour and the journey of 30 kilometers is covered in less than 8 minutes. Back in London, our BR (British Rail) including the Eurostar doesn’t go anywhere near that speed, our British weather problems notwithstanding. And I thought I was coming from one of the developed countries...

    

From Langyong, with a brief ‘ni hao’ and a Mandarin address of the JW Marriott printed on a piece of paper, I got into my taxi. Keeping an eye on the JW Marriott tower which I had located beforehand, I got in. As a typical foreigner who doesn’t speak the local language, I was insecure about the taxi giving me a ride longer than necessary. So as we drew close, I uttered one of the very few Chinese sentences I knew, “women yijing dadao” which meant “we have reached.” Surprisingly, my taxi driver actually understood what I said, but to my dismay started a conversation in Mandarin. I had no clue what he said for another 10 minutes before we actually reached the building. I exited with a sheepish “xie xie” taking the “fapiao” (i.e. the receipt).

Now that I was in familiar territory, I walked in with the confidence of a seasoned international traveler, expecting to be in the lobby where I would stand in the queue to check into my room. Instead, a Chinese lady politely told me to take the lift to the 38^th floor where the lobby was. On the 38^th, a concierge was waiting for me to show me to my room on the 54^th floor with an amazing view of the Shanghai skyline. After we got in the room, I was still wondering as to how and when I would actually check in. Once she made sure I was happy and comfortable with the room, the concierge asked for my passport and credit card. Then she simply took a pen out of her breast pocket, scanned both, (obviously with an OCR) and declared I was checked-in! In any European city, the whole process including standing in a queue would have easily taken 20 minutes?

Huang Pu river runs north to south dividing Shanghai into Pudong (Dong means East) and Puxi (Xi means West) and then meanders west. In the early 20^th century, thousands of lǎowài (foreigners) were working in Shanghai controlled by colonial powers. Today, as Shanghai spearheads China’s rapidly growing and expanding economy, once again, it is attracting foreigners, who want to move their career forward. The entire district of Pudong, where over a million expats work, was declared a Special Economic Region in 1993. The Lùjiāzuǐ Finance and Trade Zone and the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park are located in Pudong. The traditional industries of Shanghai were ship building, steel and auto manufacturing. However, increasingly, new investors are focusing on growth in financial services and high tech industry. It suddenly occurred to me that the appeal that Shanghai represents today was probably what attracted foreigners to New York or LA 30 years ago. The famous American dream is now being replaced by the Chinese dream! That's what these guys are here for…

Shanghai’s status as a boomtown is now so powerful that in 2010, Hong Kong, its biggest rival, began working on an updated image campaign. Hong Kong promotes its reputation as a financial center that focuses on international asset management and offshore trading. From this “location branding”, it is evident Hong Kong is concerned enough with Shanghai’s development to consider the expense and effort worth it.

In my office the next day, I was given a warm welcome. Our General Managers Bo Chen and George Wong were Shanghainese with local political connections. This is very important for a multinational to do business locally. Overseeing the GMs though were some British and European execs though, which is typical of most multinationals.

I sat in a conference room looking through the glass, watching over a hundred software developers frozen in front of their computers. They were furiously typing at their keyboards, engrossed in their work. Their little eyelids looked almost closed as they stared their monitors. There were no heated debates, no exciting arguments, no visible brainstorming that you’d see in a typical IT development shop. Then all of a sudden, a lovely girl in her early twenties got up from her seat. She did that famous "Shanghai ki angdai" and then switched on some music. It sounded like pop music of the eighties but with Chinese lyrics. The whole crowd relaxed, got up, some poured tea and coffee, some took a comfort break, some started dancing by their desks.

Now I felt normal. Now they were just another bunch of engineers enjoying themselves in a nice corporate office having a break. About ten minutes later, the music stopped and within the next minute, all of them froze in front of their computers, their eyelids almost shut. I couldn't believe such discipline existed in an IT shop. I noticed that there was a good gender balance, certainly better than the UK or USA.

After work, with the help of my colleagues I picked up some instrumental “Erhu” Chinese music from the local street shops.

Although people living in Shanghai benefit from an extensive and fairly cheap public transport system, I found it confusing, particularly since all the documentation is in Chinese. Shanghai has over 1,000 different bus lines run by several companies. They are extremely crowded especially during rush hour. However, you soon get the hang of the mostly numerical bus system. Lines 300-399, are all night buses and 700-799 have their routes in suburban areas. Buses are air-conditioned and a ticket costs just 2 Yuan.

Later in the evening we went for dinner in the business district of Luziahui area to the 88 storied Jin Mao tower overlooking the Huang Pu river. We were on level 55 at the Canton restaurant, which offers traditional Cantonese cuisine and 360 degree views of the impressive city skyline. The dining area is contemporary, featuring gold leaf glass dividers etched with Chinese. The flooring is designed in a Chinese pattern, combining granite, wood and brass. Authentic Chinese food was served in silver bowls, chinaware and cherry wood silver-tipped chopsticks and silver spoons. Tea was served in the traditional ceremony, in porcelain glasses with brown porcelain teapots.

Jin Mao tower out-talled the iconic Oriental Pearl tower redefining Shanghai's skyline. But her triumph didn’t last long. The Shanghai World financial center, 100 storied with a giant window in the sky soaring 474 meters, now looks down on Jin Mao. Of course that feat did not last long either, since the new Shanghai Tower under construction is already taller. Upon its completion later this year, it will stand 632 metres with 121 stories. Its now the 2^nd tallest building in the world, surpassed only by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Of course that will change too when Changsha's planned Sky City, is complete it will reach 838m overtaking the Burj Khalifa in height!

Amidst all this mind boggling growth of 'mine is taller than yours', as China’s industrial and financial center, Shanghai is struggling with the problems, typical of other Chinese megacities – smog, water pollution, noise, over population, traffic jams and a housing shortage. The city glow in Pudong is so high, that sometimes the sky looks a yellowish orange. I felt like I was on Mars like in the Schwarzenegger science fiction movie ‘Total Recall’. The other problem of course is stress. Its more than the usual stress of working in a highly competitive, busy city. Its exacerbated by the fact that China strictly follows the single child rule. That means there are six elders (parents and two sets of grandparents) in the family who have their hopes pinned on a single kid. It is quite stressful. Kids mature too quickly under that stress. And the environment is very competitive. The biggest crime in China, is apparently kidnapping of babies

On the last day, I took some time off to see an amazing glimpse into the future of Shanghai in the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum. On level 3, there is an awe-inspiring scale model of urban Shanghai as it will look in 2020. This giant replica of the city is observed from a large platform around and above the model.  It is full of skyscrapers that appear to stretch for miles and miles in all directions.  There are patches of green throughout symbolizing existing parks and plastic models of structures yet to be built. It clearly articulates the city planning leaders’ intent for Shanghai – to be dynamic, livable and prosperous. It’s a stunning, visionary master plan.

In the last 30 years China has risen to the 2^nd largest economy in the world. It has lifted 650 million of its citizens out of poverty into the middle class. In less than a decade, China will pass the USA to become the largest economy. In the recent U.N. World Tourism Organization announcement that 83 million mainland Chinese spent $102 billion abroad in 2013, passing Americans and making them the biggest tourism spenders in the world. All that powered by the economic policies of a one-party, communist government. Shanghai was in ruins after Japan bombed them in 1937. Look at what they've achieved 70 years later. I felt it’s all about how big can you dream… I left Shanghai in awe as I boarded for London with a single resolve in my mind. I have got to get my daughter to learn Mandarin!

by Sachin Kulkarni, London. 2^nd March 2014.