Sci-fi Shanghai: a giant city
Blade runner would not feel out of place in Shanghai, a city that feels positively sci-fi.
Look out across the horizon of this gigantic city and high-rise give way to high-rise after high-rise.
There are litererally hundreds of skyscrappers and it is breathtaking in scale. And there needs to be, this is one of the biggest cities in the world with a population of around 20m - more than 45 times that of Liverpool.
During the drive from the airport to downtown Shanghai our minibus did not touch terra firma until just before we arrived at the hotel, this is a two level city with a huge network of elevated highways.
One imagines when the elevated highway becomes congested Shanghai may just build another road level on top. With a national economic growth rate target of 8% there are no signs that this burgeoning city is about to stop growing and developing.
And that is part of the huge scale of this city. Shanghai is a functional city that now has a massive infrastructure in place to make sure its army of workers can get to work.
As a communist country everyone has a job. Stood outside the World Expo site it became evident just how this system is kept running.
Crossing the road at a corner there was not just one helper but two - a man with a whistle to alert pedestrians when they could cross (despite a high-tech automated crossing system that even had a countdown clock showing the number of seconds left before the lights changed) and a woman with a flag, presumably for traffic.
Another thing that struck me is the respect for authority that ordinary Chinese people have. Stood for less than a minute in an organised queue for a taxi later in the evening a group attempted to get into a waiting taxi. All it took was a few words from a man herding the queue and the group abonded the bid to beat the queue.
Today I should get a full look around Liverpool's pavilion at the World Expo, so I'll report back later on that.
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Dale Street Associates
David Bartlett
City editor of the Post and Echo covering politics, regeneration, and urban affairs.
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Yippee!!! It looks as if the Liverpool Lib Dems are dead meat for decades in this City now..recognised for the TORIES they really are....some honesty in the political system at last. Thank you ,thank you Nick Clegg.
Labour loves you!!
The Lib Dems neglected and ignored the poor, the weak and disadvantaged of this City ...just as Maggie did to the whole country. Joe and his Labour Team will do us proud now.
Yippee!!! It looks as if the Liverpool Lib Dems are dead meat for decades in this City now..recognised for the TORIES they really are....some honesty in the political system at last. Thank you ,thank you Nick Clegg.
Labour loves you!!
The Lib Dems neglected and ignored the poor, the weak and disadvantaged of this City ...just as Maggie did to the whole country. Joe and his Labour Team will do us proud now.
LOL@VHLL. Yes, sure enough, two public schoolboys running the country, Tory Boy and his mini-Me. And local LibDems howling and screeching in despair, it can't be any better. Labour needs a break from Government to get its act together, led by the next generation. That break won't be too long, a year or two. Meanwhile the Tory right and the LibDem left will try to get on together - with hilarious outcomes in view.
What have any of these comments got to so with the Shanghai blog post? Oh well, if you can't beat 'em...
So, who would have more influence in the new parliament - Luciana Berger, sitting on the opposition benches, or Colin Eldridge, sitting on the Government benches? Hmm?
the people of wavertree made a pretty clear choice Who they wanted - why cant you LDs get over it
and if you think back bench LD mps will have any sway - think again - theres about 250 tory mps in front of them
David,
Some months ago I said "What will happen to Colin (Hilton) if Labour get in?".
Today we found out-
Colin is set to go...
Fortunately, Graham, the only bench Mr Eldridge has to sit on will be a park bench, most likely somewhere down south.
hello!,I love your writing very so much! share we keep in touch more
about your article on AOL? I need an expert in this area to solve my problem.
May be that's you! Looking forward to see you.
hello!,I love your writing very so much! share we keep in touch more about your article on AOL?
I need an expert in this area to solve my problem.
May be that's you! Looking forward to see you.
There are some interesting closing dates on this article but I don抰 know if I see all of them middle to heart. There's some validity but I'll take hold opinion until I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we want more! Added to FeedBurner as properly
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