Went exploring the South Bund neighbourhood across the river from our apartment with a few Guy Tai buddies and came across "Cool Docks", the old docklands of Shanghai that are now being redeveloped including the building of an artificial sandy beach next to the sparkling blue Huangpu River (it's really dark brown) where people can pay 20 Yuan ($3.00) for access to the sand and sun loungers - a little strange to say the least. Our apartment can be seen in the far left of the photo just behind the second last unbrella.
The entire area is undergoing a massive redevelopment with restaurants, bars, night clubs and boutique hotels starting to pop up. One of the hotels "The Waterhouse" is pretty unique. You should check out the website to see how a dilapitated warehouse can be converted into a swank 19 room hotel, restaurant and roof-top bar. This place is cool.
One of the casualties of this redevelopment is the disappearance of some of the poorest (yet still quite vibrant) neighbourhoods I have seen. If you close your eyes, you might not be sure just what year it is - people cooking and washing their clothes in the streets and vendors selling everything from silk to nuts and everything in between, all in a very close tight space. This is the Shanghai that I think we all imagine when we think of China - in a few years it will all be gone, replaced by 30 story apartment complexes the government is building to house the growing population in Shanghai. I have heard some estimates they expect the population of greater Shanghai to reach 80,000,000 by 2050. Theresa and I will be long gone (figuratively speaking of course) by then :)
The entire area is undergoing a massive redevelopment with restaurants, bars, night clubs and boutique hotels starting to pop up. One of the hotels "The Waterhouse" is pretty unique. You should check out the website to see how a dilapitated warehouse can be converted into a swank 19 room hotel, restaurant and roof-top bar. This place is cool.
One of the casualties of this redevelopment is the disappearance of some of the poorest (yet still quite vibrant) neighbourhoods I have seen. If you close your eyes, you might not be sure just what year it is - people cooking and washing their clothes in the streets and vendors selling everything from silk to nuts and everything in between, all in a very close tight space. This is the Shanghai that I think we all imagine when we think of China - in a few years it will all be gone, replaced by 30 story apartment complexes the government is building to house the growing population in Shanghai. I have heard some estimates they expect the population of greater Shanghai to reach 80,000,000 by 2050. Theresa and I will be long gone (figuratively speaking of course) by then :)
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