Shanghai Urban Planning Museum
First, a little background on the city: Shanghai, which means "above the sea", is China's most heavily populated city, with around 19 million people. It is centrally located near the eastern coast of China. (We have included a link to a pretty good map of China and its provinces in the "Links" area in the right margin.)
Shanghai has functioned as China's best example of East-meets-West. It was the first city in China with electricity, streetlights, roads and cars. In the early 1900s old Shanghai was considered a playground for foreign adventurers and a free-trade show for overseas exploiters. It was a major trading port, especially for textiles and handicrafts. In the early 1990s the city of Shanghai began a new transformation. It was essentially torn apart and rebuilt. The city's visionaries believed it could turn into one of THE great cities in the world. It was said that 1-in-5 of the world's high-lift cranes were there at that time.
Shanghai is a fascinating city that serves as China's capital of commerce, industry and finance, and has classic Chinese, European colonial, and modern architecture. It is currently competing with Hong Kong, Beijing, and Singapore to be considered the "capital" of Asia.
The Shanghai Urban Planning Museum features exhibits of colonial and contemporary Shanghai within its five stories. However, the main highlight is the massive scale model of urban Shanghai present and future. As China's largest city, the population of Shanghai is around 19 million people, including a "floating" population of between 3-4 million people. It's hard to fully appreciate the sheer size of the scale model, but to give you an idea, the above picture is actually 6 individual photographs I stitched together to make one.
A look at the Pudong District of Shanghai East. The tallest, blue building on the right is the Shanghai World Financial Center which is currently under construction. The bridge spanning the river is the Yangpu Bridge, which boasts the longest bridge span of its type in the world at 1,975 feet.
If you look closely at the center of this photo you will see two workers performing maintenance on some of the buildings.
GODZILLA!!!!! AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!
This gives a good representation of the size of the models and the detail that has been put into making each one look like the real thing. (This worker also brings back memories of Dave Stanley "snorkeling" in Mexico.)
Shanghai has functioned as China's best example of East-meets-West. It was the first city in China with electricity, streetlights, roads and cars. In the early 1900s old Shanghai was considered a playground for foreign adventurers and a free-trade show for overseas exploiters. It was a major trading port, especially for textiles and handicrafts. In the early 1990s the city of Shanghai began a new transformation. It was essentially torn apart and rebuilt. The city's visionaries believed it could turn into one of THE great cities in the world. It was said that 1-in-5 of the world's high-lift cranes were there at that time.
Shanghai is a fascinating city that serves as China's capital of commerce, industry and finance, and has classic Chinese, European colonial, and modern architecture. It is currently competing with Hong Kong, Beijing, and Singapore to be considered the "capital" of Asia.
The Shanghai Urban Planning Museum features exhibits of colonial and contemporary Shanghai within its five stories. However, the main highlight is the massive scale model of urban Shanghai present and future. As China's largest city, the population of Shanghai is around 19 million people, including a "floating" population of between 3-4 million people. It's hard to fully appreciate the sheer size of the scale model, but to give you an idea, the above picture is actually 6 individual photographs I stitched together to make one.
A look at the Pudong District of Shanghai East. The tallest, blue building on the right is the Shanghai World Financial Center which is currently under construction. The bridge spanning the river is the Yangpu Bridge, which boasts the longest bridge span of its type in the world at 1,975 feet.
If you look closely at the center of this photo you will see two workers performing maintenance on some of the buildings.
GODZILLA!!!!! AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!
This gives a good representation of the size of the models and the detail that has been put into making each one look like the real thing. (This worker also brings back memories of Dave Stanley "snorkeling" in Mexico.)
posted by Derek and Stacey at
12:40 AM
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