Part IV: After Liberation

In the past 50 years after liberation, Shanghai had a rough but also refulgent time during the development. The development speed in the early 30 years is quite different than that in the late 20 years. At the beginning, the city faced many water, electrical and town gas supply problems. And the transportation system was very inefficient either (as mentioned before). But a crucial problem is from economy, affected by Republic of China’s propaganda many rich people escaped from Shanghai to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia with their fortunes to avoid communization and Republic of China himself also took much treasure such as gold and Us dollars from Shanghai to Taiwan when retreated. Lacking financial support, it was hard for the government to implement big projects even to maintain the operation of the city. On the contrary, the intelligent class decided to stay on and many oversea intellectual Chinese returned to People’s Republic of China with the passion of building a new China. This should be the most important recourse New China had gained. However, the continuous political movement squashed their dreams.

The other factor that greatly influenced the city’s development was the central government’s Shanghai policy. Before 1979, as the biggest Chinese city, Shanghai’s major duty is to support the development in other parts of China rather than its own needs. The revenue Shanghai turned in to central government was the most in China. Therefore, the machines in Shanghai’s factories couldn’t be updated, road couldn’t be reconstructed, no money to build more house and public utilities couldn’t keep up with the population growth. So many problems merged such as public traffic jam and overpopulation because of lack of house. And the factory started to lose their competitive ability. The situation had become worse and worse. That brought some special character into Shanghai’s culture such as the culture of Longtang, which can only be found in this particular period.

Shanghai city development investment
Unit: billion Yuan
	50 years total （1949 - 1998）	The early 30 years（1949 - 1978）	The late 20 years（1979 - 1998）
Total	1170.236	29.912	1140.323
Infrastructure	114.884	2.611	112.273
Ratio in social investment（%）	9.8	8.7	9.8
1.Public utilities	34.225	1.251	32.974
Water supply	11.607	0.316	11.291
Town gas	10.038	0.294	9.744
City transportation	10.556	0.276	10.281
2.Municipal construction investment	80.659	1.360	79.299
Virescence	2.687	0.060	2.627
Sanitation	1.528	0.084	1.444
Municipal construction	76.217	1.188	75.028

l 1950-1966 Changshou Road Bridge, Yunzaobang Bridge, First bus terminal, Drain system in Huangyang Zone, Taopu Industrial Zone, People square, Wuning Road Bridge, Zhaojiabang Road reconstruction, Zhongshang ring Road and Shanghai-Minghang Highway.

l 1967-1976 During the Cultural Revolution no big project was built expect the first car tunnel under the Huangpu River.

l 1979-1988 East Yanan Road River Tunnel, Water supply from upper Huangpu River Project, Shanghai-Jiaxing Freeway, Xingzhuang-Xongjiang Motor way, Pudong Town gas Factory, Huangpu River Bridge, No.1 Metro Line and Pollution Prevention Project.

l 1990s Nanpu Bridge, Yangpu Bridge, Inner Ring Viaduct, North-South Viaduct, Outer Ring Road, Yanan Road Viaduct, No.2 Metro Line and Mingzhu Viaduct Light Rail.

Hongqiao and Pudong are two special economic districts in the city. Their GDP growing speed is higher than that of the whole city. And these areas are the most active economic parts of the city. Therefore the land price is very high and only high-rises can make profit.

Though there were many problems in the city development, we cannot help seeing all these achievements, which could not be implemented before the liberation. These projects has integrate each part of Shanghai become a more consistent city. Of course, on the other side has destroyed some particular character of the metropolis. Nevertheless Shanghai is becoming a famous metropolis in Far East again.

Administrative System

It is very interesting that the administrative system in Shanghai after liberation is quite similar to that of Republic of China. There is a city construction commission in the government to regulate the city development affairs, and there is a vice mayor whose major duty is to supervise the commission and make some important decisions. Such an up-to-down system is difficult for common citizens to participate even be aware of the decision-making procedure. Despite a powerful government have many advantages such as easy to implement big projects, it is still unhealthy to the city because the decision is only made by a few people and with the medium who always voice for the government the citizens is hard to really know what they want the city to be. Such things happened in some projects such as the erection of the television tower, inner ring viaduct that always jammed because the road width couldn’t afford the traffic flow and the international meeting center that brought some aesthetic arguments. From the viewpoint of individuals, unlike western council system, this mean you can hardly know what will be constructed near your property until it had been built and the nuisance had been made. But things began to change these days; the commission started to reform its working procedure to make it more efficient and more transparent.

The East Pearls Television Tower maybe is the most controversial construction in the city. Its erection is for politics as a symbol of the Open of Pudong rather than for the city’s development. And those balls on the tower show the special taste of the mayor.

Trends of City Development

In 2000, the new Shanghai City Planning Scheme was passed. In order to become an international economic, information and cultural center, Shanghai’s goal is to develop into a multi-center metropolis, a city having multiple patterns, cores and axes from central city, new sub center, center town to village. The ideas of sustainable development, environment protection and heritage conservation are emphasized in the Scheme. According to the Scheme, People Square will be the city level political and economic center, and there are four sub centers around it. From 2000 to 2005 about 20 big residential districts will be built.

l Build a new deep-water port, which will be the most important infrastructure for the international metropolis.

l Add 2 new tunnels under Huangpu River. There will be 6 bridges and 6 tunnels across the river.

The picture shows these huge infrastructures had become new barriers against pedestrians and destroy the old city pattern that is more human. They separate the city into several parts. It is hard for the aged and children to cross these man-made concrete rivers. Though they made the city more integral, they had also made city more fragmental.