Put-putting around Pudong

9.2.2010

Yesterday after class and after eating lunch with my friends in a thick Korean neighborhood just off campus I decided that I had to go to Pudong, Shanghai’s steel plated finance district. I didn’t exactly know what I would find or even what to look for. I thought that the ciudadella would resemble San Francisco’s financial district or New York’s Wall Street, a place shaded by sky scrapping monstrosities and infested with stressed out businesses men. I found neither.
I took the metro down to Nanjing Road and then crossed underneath the Huangpo River. The trip was long, this city is big. The trains were cramped and sweaty even though they were clean, orderly and air conditioned. Emerging from the subterranean world light jumped off the steel and glass buildings invading my retina. I was shocked to see how big Shanghai Financial Center actually is—it’s the world’s second largest building. I had to take a picture and just as I did I was intercepted by two Chinese country girls who wanted their picture taken with me. Disoriented I started to explore the area a bit, walking down the sidewalk.
The second thing that I notice after the Shanghai World Financial Center is how many parks are scattered throughout the area; everywhere that is not skyscraper is a beautifully tranquil garden area with perfect Taoist energy being emitted. I crossed the street which is was wider than the Missouri River and walked to the base of SWFC. I took a few pictures and then walked in to the building. There is actually not much to see on the inside, just a few shops and restaurants. I’m sure there is an observation deck but I will save that for a later trip. If I really had a lot of money I would stay at the Hyatt located on the 87th floor, meet with my chums at Ernst and Young and then have a thousand dollar meal at a fine Japanese restaurant. I felt a little out of place and I headed out to continue my prowl.
I walked across the street to find the Jin Mao Tower which might not have the height but has all the elegance of its neighbor. I think of Jin Mao as the bottle and the Shanghai World Financial Center as the bottle opener. You might be able to see this from my photos. Jin Mao is more down to business and was not as inviting as SWFC. When I went to go take a picture of the sign the guard shooed me away. He said something along the lines of “no pictures please” in Chinese, I assured him “I like Yao Ming too” and finished taking my picture.
The next sight on my excursion was the Oriental Pearl Tower a building made of several balls of pink connected with a concrete neck. The iconic center piece of the Shanghainese skyline seems to only be aesthetic and has no real function other than being a television feed. I did not try to go to its base because the walkways that surrounded the tower were full enough with happy tourists. In this neck of the steel sequoia woods it was clear the socialist building plans were executed with the utmost precision; every building in its place, clean and beautiful and yet the feeling of the capitalist machine is not ever present in the faces of the passersby—eerily different from what I am used to.
I walked around Pudong’s avenues a little more, slightly shaded by manmade structures that stretched to the heavens. The major issue I found unbelievable in Pudong was that there are no people on the streets. Maybe they were all working hard high above but if the same business climate were in North America it would be obvious that this is a financial hub. Overall there was room to breath, which is a funny feeling in a place that is supposed to as hectic as the NYSE.
I finished up my short introduction to Shanghai’s business world got on the subway headed home and studied myself to sleep.