Shanghai - Everyday life

Name a brand and you will find it in Shanghai, including Ikea, which is so popular that seeing those bright blue bags over someone’s arm is hardly a surprising sight! 

With the largest middle class in the world, the stores and pedestrain streets throng with people dressed in a completely western style (okay, people still walk around with umbrellas when the sun shines, but other then that) and enjoy a modest but arguably more balanced economy then most Americans can imagine.  For example loosing a job here or being “relocated” does not mean that you are expected to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, collect short term unemployment that requires  managing on a fraction of your salary or worry about basic education and healthcare.  Life is much more like what you would expect in western Europe then what we experience in the US. 

Yangs Dumplings - boiled then seared - are a must. Remember to pierce with your chop stick to allow the “juice” to run out prior to biting into these tasty morsels.  Now your eating like a Shanghainese!

There are stores, LOTS of urban malls and innumerable eateries. Even though the 2015 GDP per capita is US$16,553, everything bustles, reflecting that Shanghai is generally an affordable city. Yangs Dumplings is popular with both locals and Trip Advisor voters for a memorable meal costing US$5US. Our Grand Central Hotel centrally located near The Bund, offered an incredibly popular all you can eat buffet for US$40 with piles of crawfish, carving stations etc. A good glass of wine US$7.   M on the Bund  will set you back a bit more, but this Australian entrepreneur, Michelle Garnaut, who now has a sister location in Beijing, offers an incredible combination of delightful food, amazing art and unforgettable views. 

Starbucks can be found throughout Shanghai, but the Reserve Roastery is a destination not to be missed, even if you don’t like coffee. 

Starbucks Reserve Roastery, Shanghai in many ways personifies the direction of this city and China overall.  Two full floors of sipping, eating and buying options are open from 7AM - 11PM and offer an experience you won’t soon forget.  Coffee beans from around the world are freshly roasted here behind a glass wall for all to see. A stock exchange type board educates consumers of their province and announces when they are being released via pneumatic tubes and to what coffee station. Sit at the bar as your personal barista creates a coffee tasting flight.  Another area has a broad selection of teas.  Multiple open kitchens create a wide variety of scrumptious western and eastern foods. The well curated merchandise offerings are of incredibly high quality and are certainly pricey, even by western standards, but move quickly.  By the way, Starbucks flagship Reserve Roastery is in Seattle, one is opening this Summer in NYC’s Meatpacking District and another is planned for Chicago.  

Fashion in Shanghai is certainly on par with London, Paris or New York.  Presence is important here, whether your Gucci, Chanel, Burberry, a new Chinese designer or Botega Veneta.  Shanghai’s own Feiyue sneaker brand is very popular in Paris, but available at bargain prices in here.  Long gone are the drab grey, olive and blue that many associate with China’s past.  

Winding through pedestrian streets in protected neighborhoods, undisturbed by development, feels like an oasis. 

Archetypical meets contemporary in specific parts of the city.  The government keeps rents incredibly low in the French Concession market, Tianzi Fang. Here tiny shops host both traditional goods and new fresh designers, safe from being crowded out by far more powerful brands. Shanghainese will tell you if a business can’t survive here, it can’t survive anywhere. It also provides a restful vintage feel that we all crave from time to time. 

The art is incredibly more varied and free then 10 years ago and certainly more so then what you see here - but I just loved this monochromatic selection. 

Art galleries are plentiful and varied in material usage, subject matter and approach.  Images may reflect the past or comment on the future. There’s a surprising amount of high tech and interactivity that allows images to change colors and move, such as watching a young girl balance as she actively dances across a clothesline. M50 Hub,  is anotable area of artist studios and galleries that are generally open to the public.  Wander around, stop at one of the eateries and reminisce about the SoHo of days gone by.  

One way bicycle rental is readily available at nearly free prices. 

Getting around Shanghai is not as challenging as you might imagine. Although the presence of automobiles has increased dramatically, so too has the easy to use and very inexpensive subway system. (Apparently subways are easier to build in Shanghai then the stalled 2nd Ave line in NYC.) Motor scooters and bicycles were the traditional modes of transportation, so bike lanes and lane sharing is something Chinese take for granted, particularly within the older areas of the city.  However the newly built major arteries can easily get clogged with traffic and a 6 mile car ride can take the better part of 45 minutes. (Think of the Long Island Expressway.)  Yes, air pollution can certainly be an issue - similar to LA of the 80’s. But with a government who takes a long term view and exerts a steady hand, strict limits, easy access to bicycles and creating architecture focused on incorporating alternate energy and carbon footprint reduction would imply that this problem too will be solved.  

Shanghai - China’s largest city

Shanghai and China poses some interesting and sobering facts:

With a population of 1.38 Billion, China is the most populated country in the world - followed by India at 1.29 Billion  and the USA in position number three at a mere 329 Million. YUP - that is considerably less than 25% of China’s population.  It takes  a moment to fully absorb that littl factoid.  From a marketing perspective - that’s the equivalent of saying that if 25% of the Chinese population prefers Dunkin Donuts over Starbucks, it is the same number as 100% of  the American population preferring Dunkin Donuts over Starbucks. (More on Starbucks later.)  So, when it’s reported that there are more consumers drinking wine in China then in any country in the world, what is that report actually saying? Is it then any wonder that a wide variety of brands are focused on a rising middle class in Asia? The numbers are fascinating.  

This Shanghai Urban Planning Museum 2010 model, indicatesin yellow all then current structures and lighted planned projects, now completed on both sides of the Huangpu River,

Shanghai, with a population of 34 million  is the most populated city in China and yes that’s more than 10% of the entire USA’s population and over 4 times larger than NYC’s population of 8 million. Shanghai is also the most populous city in the world. Although growth began in the late 19th century, Shanghai has experienced  a population growth of 37.53% since the year 2000. It is known for its architecture, temples, and gardens.  More recently, it has become the financial and industrial center of China, and increasingly considered its art and fashion capital, rivaling Paris and London.

The Huangpu River divides and, in many ways, defines Shanghai. The Huangpu  is 70 miles (113 kilometers) long and was man made in 221BC as a major tributary to the Yangtze River, which then empties into the China Sea.    (Yes, the river was excavated and completed by 221BC, another factoid that takes a moment to absorb.) The river defines Shanghai’s two primary districts. On the western shore is the historic area of Puxi, home to The Bund which is known for its historic early 20th century Beaux Arts style architecture that housed international consulates, trading and banking houses On its eastern shore is the modern area of Pudong, home  of the iconic pink Pearl Tower. The Communist Party of China (CPC) was founded in Shanghai by Chen Duxiu and LI Dazhao on July 1, 1921 in the neighborhood referred to as the French Concession. Today, Rodya, Shanghai is the home to two branches of the China Stock Exchange, cementing its importance as a Chinese financial center. One should take care to not confuse Communism as a form of governing with its underlying free market economy. Anyone would be challenged to find such a rapidly growing, prosperous midlle class in any American or western city.  The economic change here in the last decade is simply jaw dropping. 

We were last here in 2007,  the year before returning for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. There was the unique and  iconic pink Oriental Pearl Tower. along with a handful of low, bland buildings on the Pudong side of the river.  (When Steve had been here in in 1999 Pudong was farmland being plowed by water buffalo, so to him, even this initial transformation seemed exceptional.)  However, over 25% of the world’s  building cranes were also here in 2007. Today the Oriental Pearl Tower blends in with a bevy of internationally designed,  modern, high tech architectural wonders. This vertcal building boom inspires architects to create multi-use structures built to withstand typhoon winds and reduce carbon footprints by increasingly utilizing wind turbines and rainwater collection to work with building materials to warm, cool and light. Today there are over 30,000 buildings with a minimum of 24 stories in Shanghai, including the 128-story Shanghai Tower - the tallest in the city and 2nd largest in the world. 

There is a light show for several hours every evening, before the buildings go basically dark to conserve electricity. Thousands flock  to The Bund for photos. Absorb the full affect by taking an evening cruise  on the Huangpu. It’s an event to remember. 

By comparison, the Hong Kong’s nightly laser show pales in comparison. Might there be a message there? 

And what about everyday life?

Ia country that prescribes a specific amount of green space per capita, Shanghai is no concrete jungle.  Particularly on the weekends people get outside for socializing and fun.  ThecPeoples Park Matchmaking Corner is not to be missed. Beyond the usual city park activities, parents come here to pin the bios of their adult single children to umbrellas, hoping to meet and exchange information with other parents who are “shopping” for potential suitors for their single children. Bios include height, weight, education, interests of both the suitor and the person they desire to meet.  Very important is if there is a “marriage home”, because who really wants to live with their in-laws? AND if the parents have already met and like each other, then that removes a huge potential barrier to a promising match.  Parents generally scope out “their soot” among the hundreds who come here. Not  so surprisingly, this meeting and exchange becomes a weekly social event. Who needs to go on-line? This could truly be an exportable idea!

This entire love lorn concept, may also attract just a bit of theatre.  Here we find a young man who claims that after seeing this beautiful Chinese woman on-line, he has spent years searching her out.  He has traversed  oceans, travelled thousands of miles, conquered multiple challenges and all for love. And yes, today he is going to meet her for the first time.  The crowd gathers.   The girl is ushered in by his friends who capture on video the long anticipated meeting.  She seems in awe, shyly smiles, is smitten and after a short time is literllly carried away. Will they reappear next week to again live out this tender moment? We’ll never know.  

Parks are also a place for older people to gather daily during the week.  Retirement is mandatory at 55 for women and 60 for men.  There is time to be filled; with city parks and senior centers waiting.  Besides morning Tai Chi, there are a wide variety of activities throughout the day. I wandered through Fuxing Park, built in 1909, in the French Concession.  Dancing is VERY popular. But there are coral groups, musical instruments to learn to play - including Maraca, the card game  Dou Dizhu, aka “fighting the landlord” , Mahjong and chess. Maybe  you want to practice your painting or character making with sumi brush and water?  This man writes - “beautiful land” - the Chinese characters for America.  

Where are we now

Watch a movie, close your eyes for just a few hours and everything changes - dramatically! More later.  

Winter 2018

What HAVE we been doing? We have been pretty much exclusively on Useppa since Christmas.  Ok, except for a pre-New Years foree to New Hampshire for Karen’s godson Henry and Mary’s wedding.  

Back on Useppa, the weeks fly by. If you read our holiday letter, you heard Steve bemoaning a lack of overseas travel. Clearly he’s focused on correcting that issue in 2018.  

Shanghai was Steve’s first passport stamp of the year. He was quick to raise his hand to do a pre-visit, in preparation for our return in May with a group of HBS students.  Yup - more on that later.  

Santa brought Steve a drone, which he has quickly mastered.  Besides zipping around the Island and dodging palm trees, Karen now has areal views of the Butterfly Garden - perfect for planning!

Karen’s work to attract yellow Sulphur butterflies and capture their lifecycle has paid off. Eggs, caterpillars, chrysalis and butterflies found the masses of Senna and Cassia planted last summer.  Karen’s threatening to get her Master Gardener certificate so that she can come out of retirement and officially start a career in Butterfly Gardening. Perfect for a NYC girl, don’t you agree?

Looking for culinary, culture and local art? Come to the Pine Island Clam Jam - where you can find a bit of everything while the experts judge the best “chiefs”.  Karen and her neighbor John eye an outdoor fire pit made from discarded iron tanks.  Ok - we’d need a bigger backyard and a crane, but stil......

Like many sailing club members, Karen and Steve took a turn at the grill for upward of 40 after the Saturday afternoon Catboat races.  And this year the Useppa Yacht Club sponsored the biannual Catboat Rendezvous - where sailors and their boats come from as far away as New England.  

So when should we expect you? We’re leaving Useppa before the end of April, so the clocks ticking!