04.29.08

The Contradictions of Modern China

Posted in Economic Analysis, Oceania Cruise, China at 4:28 am by Administrator

On the surface, China remains a Marxist-Leninist state. Yet the economic system has lost most of its ideological content. Here are a few scenes:

At the Temple of the Jade Buddha, monks chant while the courtyard is filled with ordinary people — old and young — burning incense sticks that waft their prayers above.

The Maserati dealer shows off a beautiful yellow sports coupe and competes with the Ferrari dealer next door. Meanwhile, outside the street vendors, those peasants from the countryside without work visas for the City, make a few Yuan shining shoes or selling trinkets. Meanwhile down the road, the Shanghai Aesthetic Surgery Center does a booming business.

The City boasts incredible vistas with daring buildings. Yet if you look up towards the sky, the view is obscured with hundreds of wires. Wireless communications have supplanted the old telephone lines but what to do with the legacy of the communist rule?

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Shanghai - Bursting at the Seams

Posted in Economic Analysis, Oceania Cruise, China at 3:25 am by Administrator

Sailing into Shanghai’s harbor was an amazing sight. By the entrance from the ocean, the banks of the Yangtze River were littered with the relics of the heavy industry investments of the Central Planning years under Mao and early years of Deng Xiao Peng. As we grew closer to the City, newer construction started to appear. When we rounded the final corner, the massive and daring buildings of new Shanghai appeared.

Shanghai is busy and bustling. As you look up and down busy Nanking Road, people are everywhere, shopping and carrying out business. Along the way, buildings from the Mao era and from before the revolution are being gutted and restored. New highrises are going up by the dozens.

Beside the new Shanghai, there are symptoms of other social problems. The Chinese authorities attempt to slow the rural to urban migration by requiring work visas before the peasants can look for work in the City. As a result, there is a vigorous informal economy. Along the waterfront by the Bund and Nanking Road are hundreds of street vendors selling all manner of goods. We got a number of “Mao” watches with the face of the Chairman and a waving hand — taken from the wind-up Mickey Mouse watches we had as kids.

As with all the cities on our Asia journey, traffic is overwhelming. New freeways are going up but there are already too many vehicles. One can smell the exhaust everywhere. While the new cars must meet strict standards, every effort is made to keep older vehicles running, particularly for delivery vehicles.

Shanghai is the symbol of new China - rapid growth, highly populated and facing major environmental challenges.

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