This afternoon I was poking around some demolished residences in Hongkou District (more on that in a few days), when I looked up and noticed a poster hanging from the collapsed wall in the background of the photo, below. I’ve blown it up a bit, and placed it in the lower right corner of the…
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Giant Pink Highrises.
As noted back in July, Shanghai’s US$45 billion makeover in advance of Expo 2010 has arrived at my apartment building (located on a prominent thoroughfare). Despite the inconvenience and noise, this was a needed renovation: my two building complex was built in the mid-90s, at a time when – apparently – highrises covered in dark…
Shovel Girls and Sandboxes: The US Pavilion Groundbreaking, at last!
Posted on Author AdamPosted in Architecture, Expo 2010, Expo 2010 - US Pavilion, US-China Policy6 Replies
Two things I want to make clear from the outset. First, despite appearances, Shanghai Scrap is not becoming all US Expo 2010 Pavilion, all of the time. It just seems that way. Rest assured: I’ll be back with some quality iron ore/Rio Tinto blogging next week (for the record: I was blogging Rio Tinto and price-fixing in…
A US Expo 2010 pavilion, after all.
Posted on Author AdamPosted in Architecture, Expo 2010, Expo 2010 - US Pavilion, US Politics9 Replies
Coming at the end of a tumultuous week in China marked by earthquakes, riots, and continued economic uncertainty, the news that the US had finally confirmed its participation in Expo 2010 (a/k/a, next year’s world fair) didn’t seem particularly significant. And, with much of Shanghai’s foreign correspondent corps preoccupied with more pressing news elsewhere in…
The view from here, the view from there.
As noted last week, my Shanghai apartment building is currently undergoing a much needed face lift in advance of Expo 2010. On balance, this is a good thing: My dumpy building gets a makeover, and I get to know the brave daredevil migrants who swing past my windows (and those across the way). Along the…
Angry Property Owners STILL Agree: Shanghai Film Group President Tarnishing the Party (Pt. II)
In April I blogged about a Shanghai (Xujiahui-area) highrise cluster that had undertaken a very public protest against a neighboring real estate development threatening to take away their views, sunlight and – presumably – property values. Hoping to inflict maximum face-loss, the affluent residents hung large, inflammatory banners from the sides of their buildings, calling…
Shanghai Expo out my window.
[Apologies if you’ve arrived at this post expecting news on the troubled US Expo 2010 pavilion. My ongoing posts on that subject can be found here.] I’m not sure when, exactly, Shanghai officially started polishing its main thoroughfares for visitors to next year’s Expo 2010 (World’s Fair). Me, I began to notice the renovations in…
Sapporo Clock Tower
After dinner, the daylong rain stopped and I decided to enjoy what remains of my time here by taking a random stroll through the downtown. Along the way, I came across this: The sign out front of the building includes some interesting history: The “Tokedai” [clock tower] was originally built as a drill hall for…
Federation Outpost, Hangzhou Bay
[Second in a special one-day, two-part series on things seen while driving between Ningbo and Shanghai.] Over the weekend I finally went round-trip over the two-year-old Hangzhou Bay Bridge. For readers who don’t follow Chinese infrastructure with the same enthusiasm as I do: the Hangzhou Bay Bridge is the world’s longest (35 km/22 mi) trans-oceanic…
Why can’t the US find $61 million for an Expo 2010 pavilion? A primer.
Posted on Author AdamPosted in Architecture, Expo 2010, Expo 2010 - US Pavilion, US Politics, US-China Policy28 Replies
At the moment, there ‘s almost no reason to believe that the United State will occupy a stand-alone pavilion when Expo 2010 opens in Shanghai on May 1, 2010. And though this doesn’t seem to be a matter of much concern in the United States, it is a matter of intense concern in Shanghai, and…