Shanghai’s most famous, most iconic sight is the 1994 Oriental Pearl TV Tower in the New Pudong district across the Huangpu River from the classic, colonial Bund. As recently as 1990, the whole Pudong area was boggy agricultural land. The government, & in a bid to kick-start Shanghai’s development, decided to grant the area Special Economic Zone status. US$70 billion of investment & fourteen years later and the skyline has been completely transformed. It is envisioned that Shanghai will be the next Hong Kong by as early as 2010 & to that end the building goes on unabated with a sea of cranes stretching as far as the eye can see to the right of this picture. Incidentally, there is a skyscraper under construction directly behind the TV tower that will be part of the new Shanghai Financial Centre. Slated, at 460 metres (1,509 ft), to be the worlds tallest building upon completion, this, more than anything, symbolises the rising commercial might of Shanghai, and China, as a whole. Shanghai (), China. August 30, 2004.

The waterfront Bund by the Huangpu River. During Shanghai’s riotous heyday under the British, the colonial riverfront, the Bund, was the city’s financial and commercial centre. Lined with grand edifices, the Bund waterfront is a vagabond assortment of neoclassical 1930s downtown New York styles & monumental antiquity. The green pyramid roofed building to the left is the Peace Hotel, then, as it is now, the most famous hotel in Shanghai. I attempted to enter its bar to sample some of the jazz the bar is famous for but I thought better of it when I received dubious stares from the bar staff. They must know a backpacker when they see one. My budget wouldn’t stretch to the Peace Hotel and instead I stayed in the beautifully restored Astor House Hotel, itself a bit of a museum with a very interesting past. It was located just behind the Epson sign in the distance. The Bund, Shanghai, China. August 30, 2004.

One of the highlights of my time in Shanghai was my accommodation. The Astor House Hotel (also known as The Pujiang) offers budget accommodation in very nice surrounds. This place oozes history and it’s hard to believe they have beds, which they do, or at least they did, for RMB100 (€10). The hotel was built in 1846 to cater for Shanghai’s foreign traders. It was then called Richards Hotel and it was the very first western style hotel in China. But the firsts don’t stop there: in 1882 it housed Chinas the first electric lamps; the first phone call in Shanghai was made from here in 1901; and China’s first motion picture was shown here in 1908. The walls of the hotel show the pictures of the many famous people who have stayed here over the years, including Albert Einstein (in 1922) and Charlie Chaplin (in 1931 & again in 1936). The Astor House Hotel/The Pujiang, Shanghai, China. September 1, 2004.

New Shanghai towering over the old as seen from Chunghuang Miao in the Old City. Nowhere are the contrasts between the new and the old Shanghai more apparent than here, in the Chunghuang Miao area of the Old City, where the new high-rises overshadow the older, crumbling residential lanes. While on paper Shanghai may be an economic success story, a lot of challenges remain, as the city struggles to cope with increased worker migration and a huge wealth gap. Chunghuang Miao, Old City, Shanghai, China. August 30, 2004.

Shipping on the Huangpu River. Shanghai is a major shipping port, situated, as it is, near the confluence of the Huangpu & Yangtze Rivers and the East China Sea. I took a trip from the Bund up the Huangpu towards its meeting point with the Yangtze, passing several shipbuilding sites, like this one, and freight storage locations en route. I travelled for hours with no end in sight to the shipyards. While it doesn’t make for a very pretty scene it certainly shows the importance of Shanghai to the shipbuilding community. On the Huangpu River, Shanghai, China. August 31, 2004.

A pictue of me – yes, that’s me – in Renmin Square, or the People’s Square, a large public square in the Huangpu District of the city. In the days of British rule the square was part of the Shanghai racecourse. Remodelling turned it into what it is today – the site of various museums, theatres & municipal government buildings. Renmin Square, Shanghai, China. August 30, 2004.