Shanghai Day 2: Markets Galore

One observation I made today in Shanghai: Capitalism has won. This isn’t a political statement. This also has nothing to do (for the time being) with democracy. No, it’s all economics.

The neighborhood we are staying in with our friend Gianni is right in the heart of the Huaihai Lu shopping district. Name an American, British, French, German, or other Western brand name fashion store and it’s probably here. And the area is flooded with people. We started the day taking a taxi from that area and going over to the “Old City” area. Upon arrival, we went into the Yu Gardens bazaar where they are selling every kind of souvenir possible. Hundreds of different little shops, including plenty of food places – from locals selling dumplings to McDonalds, Starbucks, Dairy Queen, Cold Stone, etc.

The most impressive part of the day was getting away from all the vendors and taking comfort in the sites of the Yu Gardens. It was absolutely beautiful and serene. All sorts of rocks, gardens, water, sculptures, and other structures. After seeing all the giant skyscrapers on our previous day, it was nice to see some more traditional Chinese architecture.

In that same general vicinity we also saw the famous Huxinting Teahouse. Since we had so much tea the previous day, there was no need to indulge with any today. We then strolled around the corner to the City God Temple. This was a little foreign to us. There were statues of different “gods” (or perhaps ancestors) who are important to some Chinese people. This seemed to be a Taoist temple. There were people offering prayers and even incense, but the place was flooded by tourists. There were lots of various rooms with all sorts of statues of different past emperors and generals. This temple dates back to the Ming Dynasty.

From there, we continued along a walk recommended by one of our guide books. It was an excellent tip. The walk included going into some more local areas (away from the tourist crowds) and it was just fascinating. Lots of little streets with all sorts of shops, including many food vendors. We didn’t want to experiment too much. But we eventually came across a sit down restaurant where one of the waiters (appeared to be one of the owners) spoke excellent English and guided us through the menu. We ate a pretty nice meal for two, including two sodas for the total price of 11 U.S. dollars.

From there, we continued our walk, checking out another (former?) temple at the Dajing Tower museum. This area included a part of the Old City’s former city walls. This whole area is being redeveloped – so, much of that “Old City” outside the Yu Gardens bazaar isn’t left. One of the more interesting things of the day was walking through an indoor flea market. By flea market, let me specify: it was literally an insect market. All sorts of weird looking insects, but also birds and other products being sold. We continued down some other city streets that were not busy at all: it is an area that is considered an “antiques market” but it’s mostly just a flea market (minus the insects this time) where things are tried to be passed off as “antique” but highly doubtful. I bought a few small items.

We then finished the guided walk and ended up at the Xin Tiandi area. It’s basically a more modern area with stone tenements – a nice smart shopping and restaurant area. It seemed pretty high end and had a European feel to it with the many outdoor cafes.

From there, we walked about 6 or 8 blocks north to People’s Park. Once there it was nice for us to be able to sit down and relax for about 15 minutes and enjoy the view of some of the water in front of us. We walked around the park and from across the street we could see People’s Square. We also walked by City Hall.

Then we continued walking (I think we walked a total of 4 miles by day’s end) and went to the Nanjing Lu shopping area. We are told this area has traditionally been Shanghai’s foremost shopping district. Apparently in recent years it has had a hard time competing with the area I referenced at the top of this blog. But from the looks of what we observed, this area didn’t appear to be struggling. Tons of people in the late afternoon. Huge stores, going for many blocks. Perhaps, even for the Nanjing Lu shopping area, competition is a healthy thing. It certainly seems that the opening of a market economy has been healthy for Shanghai.

I’m not exactly sure how “free” that market is or what percentage of the population is able to benefit from it. But from two days worth of observation, it is clear to me that this economy is thriving and many millions of people are active participants in this amazingly huge city.

Considering I have a friend who is among the 500,000 Westerners living in Shanghai, it seems too that competition and capital are bringing foreigners and foreign investment into Shanghai. Some in other places in the world might be skeptical of capitalism. Considering this is technically a communist country, I think it’s clear capitalism has won the day and many more of the Chinese people are better off because of it.