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Let tradition live under new skyline

By Li Xing (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-25 07:45

It has been six years since I visited Shanghai. Although I expected to see the country's largest metropolis further transformed in six years, I was still a little surprised at its new skyline, with skyscrapers sort of juxtaposed together to compete for attention.

More are still under construction. From my hotel room on the 36th floor of Jin Jiang Tower, I can see one gigantic building complex rising just half a block away. When this real estate project, called Oriental Overseas, is completed, it will certainly dwarf the old three-storied residential buildings lining the two-lane Changle Road in front of Jin Jiang Tower.

Several of my Shanghai colleagues have grown up in compact residential communities in the city's downtown, but they have moved away along with their neighbors. On the land where their old homes once stood are shiny new highrises.

Even the heart of the most mundane Shanghai, the area of the Yuyuan and Chenghuangmiao (the City God Temple), has undergone gentrification. When I visited the temple area six years ago, several bulldozers were still at work nearby. We crossed a few narrow streets and passed by rundown homes where the owners hung their quilts outside under the bright sun.

When I got off at the temple Tuesday evening, I was taken aback by the new buildings within the area. From the neon lights that outline the buildings, I see the same-style up-turned eaves, whether they are lowrise stores or two to three-storied restaurants.

The old City God Temple area is mostly for tourists to have a view and a taste of traditional Shanghai. But elsewhere in downtown areas, it is a bit difficult to relive a life of the Shanghainese even a decade or two ago. During my first few visits to Shanghai in the 1980s and 1990s, I enjoyed a variety of local offerings for breakfast, from pot-sticking steamed dumplings, wonton soup, youtiao (Chinese cruller) to porridge.

However, this time, I walked a whole block and passed by only two small eateries that offer indigenous foods. The others include two Cantonese restaurants, a few cafes, a bakery, a McDonald's and a Starbucks.

At noon, when office workers come out in droves for lunch, they do not seem to have a lot of choices. They have to go for a quick bite from business lunch menus, because the tasty but inexpensive eateries are few and far between.

It seems to me that in our rush toward modernization, we are so eager to embrace things new that we sometimes forget to preserve our historic heritage - such as old buildings, old neighborhoods and old eateries.

In Beijing, we've already seen a lot of hutongs disappearing and skyscrapers replacing the once sublime skyline of the Forbidden City.

But as far as dining and breakfast are concerned, Beijing has made impressive progress. Small and inexpensive eateries mushroom amidst residential areas and office buildings. Near my home alone, we have places for jiaozi (dumplings), baozi (steamed dumplings), and noodles, in addition to a few fast food and convenience store chains. Even in downtown shopping malls, there are food courts with a variety of offerings.

By comparison, there are a lot more expensive and fancier restaurants, especially in areas such as the Xintiandi, in Shanghai.

However, I still miss the smaller but more traditional outlets and miss some of the old buildings. Scaffolds now wrap around quite a number of old buildings in Shanghai as well. I am relieved to hear that, instead of tearing them down, work is underway to refurbish and reinforce these old buildings. So quite a few old buildings in Shanghai are being preserved.

Although Shanghai has a history much shorter than that of Beijing, it still has its heritage that should be treasured, not bulldozed and replaced by glittering skyscrapers.

E-mail: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/25/2008 page8)