My first trip to Shanghai was in 1997. I loved the city, but was quite disappointed in their shopping selections. The department stores sold poor quality clothing, and there were few imported items (i.e., items I might find while shopping in the U.S.). I had expected the "big city" to have more advanced options like Hong Kong had at the time. Shanghai did have fancy hotels and even a Tony Roma's steakhouse, but overall, things were fairly poor even in Shanghai. That has all changed now. It is hard to find things in Shanghai that look poor, unless you try really hard and travel out to the extreme suburbs. But I did find one neighborhood near downtown that still looked rather old; it is getting torn down though, so it won't be looking old for long. I decided to take some photos before it is too late to see the old Shanghai.
This scene looks like it could be from almost anywhere in China, but you won't be seeing much more of this in Shanghai.
In the far back, the pencil-point building is the J.W. Marriot hotel, and the spaceship building is the Radisson hotel. So this is not terribly far from the main downtown area. The foreground shows the demolition of concrete three-story homes behind a concrete wall construction barrier. No doubt, high-rise buildings will take over this prime real-estate. I bet those pinkish buildings won't last another ten years before someone tears them down to build something nicer.
The corner store is no more.
More on Shanghai again tomorrow.
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