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A purified environment
by Hart Eddy - harteddy1@yahoo.com : Traveling in China
7/6/2005 A PURIFIED ENVIRONMENT

The Pudong New Area sits across the river from Shanghai Puxi like a glittering title belt—a glowing neon prize held out to symbolize the promise of the new. Before coming to Shanghai I would stare at photos of Pudong’s skyscrapers and feel my blood go cold with the anticipation of immersing myself in its future cool. In 1990 it was a swamp, now, it’s the calling card of booming China. With government money pouring in and a blank canvas to work with—it’s a virtual urban planning laboratory—a completely synthetic city. In theory it should be a kind of engineered urban paradise—ultramodern skyscrapers integrated with green parklands, an efficient transportation network and a thriving street life. Why then, is it so eerily quiet?
I’m walking through Pudong after several days in Puxi, and the first thing that strikes me is the Los Angeles-like distance between structures. The boulevards are wide and each stunning building, so neatly clustered when viewed from afar, is separated by a field of grass, a huge wide street or a vacant lot full of bashed concrete blocks and twisted metal. On the ground, Pudong is still a work in progress—it finished buildings give off a kind of Kubrickian airlessness and precision, while its construction sites look like dystopian sci-fi rebar farms. I pause to snap photos of cheap juxtaposition: sweaty workers sifting through reams of tangled steel in front of the gleaming façades of a brand new buildings.

Branching out from the central Lujiazui free trade zone, the buildings show none of the jumbled charm of outer Puxi and quickly recede into replicated Photoshop housing blocks, bland and boxy. The skyline is a row of staggered cranes. The buildings of Lujiazui that already exist, to their credit, are breathtaking. The Oriental Pearl Tower is the architectural equivalent of a car crash—you can’t help looking at it. Time and time again my eyes would instinctively pull to it—its lollipop silhouette hangs in the air over Shanghai like a well-designed logo. Even better though somewhat less well branded is the Jin Mao tower—a truly beautiful structure that seems to combine the old and new in a design that recalls New York’s Empire State building sheathed in an armor of futuristic alloy. When viewed up close, I can’t believe this utter triumph is standing relatively alone in its surroundings. The other buildings seem far off. I take pictures of the tower that make it look like a giant lone spike in the earth.

Lingering around Pudong at night, the contrast with the dynamism of Puxi strikes me again—it’s dramatically less crowded. In fact, despite all the cinematic juices that were stirred during my night walks in Puxi, Pudong actually feels like a film set. No crowds, perfect backdrops and an eerie silence. The buildings are so clean, so new, they look realer than real: a special effect. Liquid silver slabs in digital high definition inserted against a fuzzy sky of traditional film. I think back to a translated sign I saw at the Xiangyang outdoor market in Puxi: “purify the market environment”. It seems more appropriate to the arid and silent streets of Pudong than the bustling knock-off paradise of Xiangyang. Here, the market environment has been purified. Security cameras on turrets guard the luxury hotels. Again, I’m reminded of downtown LA. All amenities for the modern business traveler are provided. I know I’m oversimplifying—but the emotion is true. The air feels fake. The strain for glamour is there, but it’s such a strain. Is this soullessness real or imagined? Aesthetically at least, its real. This place will look insane on camera. Ironically, the visual incarnation of global capitalism’s end of the rainbow is in China. Unfettered progress, not a hair out of place. There isn’t even a breeze. When I walk Pudong at night I feel like I’m trespassing in a theme park after hours. I feel like I’m walking through a ghost town that was never even alive.


Editor's Note: To view Hart's pictures from this story go to http://www.pbase.com/mytravelbug