After looking in close-up to the construction and the demolition of parts of Shanghai's Jing'an District, in our third and final installment we scan the skyline. And we ask ourselves, as a reader pointed out, what is the city concept of Shanghai? Is it something one can understand?
Right around our corner, the city is disappearing and being torn down. Since the beginning of this week, a section of Changde Lu (between Wuding Lu and Kangding Lu) is the territory where jackhammers, moving companies, land surveyors, local inhabitants and trucks take up with equal urban zeal their role in Shanghai's theater of progress. What for? Road widening? A new subway line? Expo-related renovation?
Since mid-October 2009, MovingCities is based on the 26st floor of a tower located in Shanghai's Jing'an District, one the city's most densely populated districts - bordering the Huangpu District in the East, and Suzhou Creek to the North. Somewhere in front of us two towers are under construction. It is not that they are adding one floor each day - don't believe the hype - but, in ...
Our impressions of Guangzhou are random and scattered. Drifting for four days in-between the GAFA Campus, Tianhe Central Business District, shoppingmalls, rooftops, the Opera House and the Pearl River Tower, we eventually headed to Guangzhou's Eastern Railway Station. Destination Shenzhen.
As always, no better way to extract oneself from the chaotic and bustling streetlife of the Chinese city than to explore it from above. From rooftops, remaining always in the center of the urban scenery, MovingCities explored from four locations Guangzhou's massive horizon-filling panorama of architectural projects of all stamps. Some bird's eye time.
After spending our Saturday on the Guangzhou University Island, on Sunday we took a cab to North-Eastern part of town; Tianhe District and its Central Business District. First stop was Teemall, the city's largest shopping center allegedly averaging 300,000 visitors a day. A metro ride to the South, the second stop was SunYat Sen Univeristy University - Guangzhou South Campus - at the banks of the Pearl River, ...
We spend our first day in Guangzhou meandering in-between the gigantic Guangzhou University Town campus and the remnants of an adjacent urban village. Under construction, the island will accommodate 10 top universities and 250,000 students, while, under destruction, folk, improvised and narrow-lane architectures are disappearing. Jiang Jun and Gabrielle Marks walked us around.
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going so soon? we are under construction...hold on!