Portrait of an Olympic Host -- Finding the "real" China

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Finding the "real" China

So there I was in Shanghai, taking my friends around town. They had
stepped off a long flight from Vancouver via San Francisco, and it was
both of their first time in China. The purpose of their trip was to
visit Tibet, and quick stops in some Chinese cities was only a bonus.

Shanghai is definitely a beautiful city, and tends to impress those from
out-of-town, or even those out-of-country. I greeted the two weary
travelers at Pudong Airport, but they perked up when they boarded the
state-of-the-art Maglev train, a perfect introduction to "modern" China,
whatever that means. But "modernity" and "China" seemed to be the
prevailing topic of conversation as the weekend progressed.

Admittedly, Shanghai isn't like Xi'an, Beijing, or Guangzhou when it
comes to historical sites. Shanghai is a shopping, nightlife, and
entertainment mecca and its history only dates back to the end of the
Opium Wars back in 1846 (or thereabouts). Considering the history of the
other cities in China, Shanghai is just a spring chicken.

I thought, though, that Shanghai would be a welcome halfway point
between the west and China, before they dig deeper into the western
regions of the country in Chengdu, Tibet, Xi'an, and elsewhere. But I
was a little surprised by one of their observations: China isn't as
modern as people say it is.

For years, people coming over here, I think, have expected farmers in
straw hats and dusty streets filled with bicycles. Sure, part of that
still exists. But on nearly every television channel, newspaper article,
radio story, and blog, people are talking about the glistening new
buildings, nightlife, shopping, wealth, and the "quality of the wi-fi in
the lobby of their Guangzhou hotels", according to noted columnist Mark
Steyn. This hype has been building up for years in advance of the
Beijing Olympics, yet many of the run-down and dilapidated old apartment
buildings still exist. What's more, in arguably China's wealthiest city
of Shanghai, we saw the usual assortment of vagrants minus limbs
crawling around asking for change, boarded up windows, children asking
for spare kuai, and pollution as bad as I've ever seen it in the city.
How modern is all that... and how will Beijing, less developed and more
polluted, look in comparison?

Perhaps the incessant media coverage of China's rise has risen
expectations to the point where they can't be reached. Although I sound
like a Xinhua mouthpiece, China does, in fact, remain a developing
country. And despite the glitzy headlines, we have to remember that.

I'm also eager to hear what my friends think of Shanghai's modernity,
after two weeks in Tibet!

Posted by Cam on August 6, 2007 7:08 PM | Permalink

http://www.zhongnanhaiblog.com/2007/08/finding_the_real_china.html