The (big) city we live in...

Shanghai is BIG.. - not just that - it is VERY BIG!. There is an estimated  25 Million people living in the city, ~300.000 taxis driving around and a bunch of the tallest buildings decorate the skyline. When you arrive here at first  the sheer size of it all is breath taking and in the first few months living here you can´t help it but feel like you moved into a huge maze. Everything seems to look the same. Wherever you go you are surrounded by people, cars, buildings, noise, smells - and  that it is not changing much wherever you end up going to.

Last sunday Paul and I decided to learn more about our new home town and decided to walk right accross it -  about 6km across Puxi down to People suqare to visit the Shanghai's Urban History and Development Museum.

On our way we came across one of those multi story motorway juctions in town which I still find absolutely fascinating. In particular when they are empty like last week during Spring festival, - or scary when busy as usual.

The entrance to the Museum is only 35RMB a real bargain for what you get. If you plan to come to Shanghai one day I highly reccomend you go and visit it. It is an awesome place  get a first overview about where you are.

For example you can learn about historic and present architecture of all 19 districts which together form the province of Shanghai. This way we  learnt that alone the district we are living in "Xu hui"   holds about 1 Million People and covers 55km². 

It is also known for it´s typical European architecture and  it is fringed with buildings refering back to the times of Spanish, French, German  and British settlement. Until today it is often refered to as  "The French concession"

The city also shares in the museum their future plannings and visions for each district. And believe it or not this includes also their plans concerning improving enviromental protection:

But the real attraction and why you want to come here is to see the model of Shanghai in a ratio of 1:500: It is enormous!!!.. The picture is taken from the balcony one floor up) and it is showing only the "inner core" of the city - about 40km in diameter.

Now let me help you a little with orientation:

The area left hand of the river is called "Puxi" meaning "West of the river". The area right hand of the river is called Pudong  meaning "East of the river". The river itself is called "Huangpu" and joins the sea about 40km east of the city - near Pudong airport. 

Every building with more than 6 floors can be found in this model. And not only this, it also includes buildings which are still work in progress, such as the next tallest building for China (Shanghai tower 632m) which one day will stand  next to the World financial center (also called "bottle opener"492m) at the riverfront in Pudong.

Do you want to know where we are living? Let me show you:

Make a mental cross and devide the picture above into four boxes. We are living in the lower left part of the bottom box.  And just to give you a bit of contrast: Bruv and Sis Lincoln live in the top part far right -  even a little outside the picture.

 

We actually  managed to find our road  in the model. It is exactly in the center of this picture:

See the junction? We are living right behind it:

Below is the view from Xujahui Center (10 min walk from us)  looking East. The distance is about 10km to the river. Did you see that the center in the picutures has no lights? This is the French Concession. Xujahui is also where I go to school - in # 99 and #100 in the raking of tallest buildings in the world (according to Wikipedia)

The next picture shows you the view from "Garden City" in Pudong based on the eastern side of the river.  We are now looking west to east. This is  Jinqiao district where the other Lincolns live. Right on the other side of the city.  Our home in Gao An Road is located near the far back left column. Or in real live: about 45 minute cab ride away.

Can you imagine that only 10 years ago this side of the river was not developed at all  and was mostly covered by marsh land?? That gives you an idea on how fast the city is changing.


Disorientating and huge as it seems - after a while of living here even Shanghai starts to take on shape. You start to get to know your places, your way round and one day you catch yourself thinking that  it and isn´t that big after all! You even start bumping into people you have seen before in bars and restaurants because the actual expat community is estimated to be  ~250.000 people here - a small village within a mega city.

Sometimes we still can´t believe that we are living right within it.
Two little "ants" within a mega ant nest. After all it´s all a matter of perspecitve :-)