Greying Shanghai

For such a seemingly sprightly city, Shanghai is ageing fast. In 2011, 23.4% of the city’s population was over 60, but by 2030 this will have leaped to over 30%, with an additional 200,000 people reaching the age of 60 every year. Implemented in 1979, the one-child policy has created a huge bulge of pensioners, around 80% of whom will be looked after by single children.

Growth & Urban Density

Over the past two decades, Shanghai has grown faster than any other world city and now houses around 23 million people (a third of the population of the UK). To accommodate the vast influx of economic migrants, the city’s size has expanded sixfold since the early 1990s. With four times the number of people per square kilometre living here than in New York, there’s not a lot of elbow room. Cars generate 70% to 80% of air pollution, and vehicle numbers continue to multiply, despite the prohibitive costs of buying a registration plate (c Y40,000).

Us & Them

Shanghai has a fraught relationship with the rest of China. The city has lured a vast army of labourers who work on the lowest-paid rung of the employment ladder. Although their city has always been a haven for outsiders, the Shanghai Chinese tend to look down on nonlocal Chinese. A non-Shanghai accent automatically identifies waidiren, who are considered tu (literally ‘earth’, meaning rural). Shanghai people conversely see themselves as yang (literally ‘sea’, but meaning ‘Western’). This chauvinism is almost an ideology in itself and, despite the glut of immigrant workers, waidi Chinese have to jump through hoops to become a full ‘local’ (one route is to marry a Shanghai person, but you have to stay married for at least 10 years). Even then, if you carry an accent, you remain a misfit.

History

In just a few centuries, Shanghai went from being an insignificant walled town south of the mouth of the Yangzi River (Chang Jiang) to becoming China’s leading and wealthiest metropolis. A mesmerising tale of opium, business and trade, foreign control, vice, glamour, glitz, rebellion and restoration, Shanghai’s story is a rags-to-riches saga of decadence, exploitation and, ultimately, achievement.

Shanghai’s Marshy Roots

Up until around the 7th century AD, Shanghai was little more than marshland. At that time, the area was known as Shen,, (after Chunshen Jun,, a local nobleman from the 3rd century BC) or Hu,, (after a type of bamboo fishing trap used by fisherman). The character hu still identifies the city today – on car number plates, for example – while the city’s main football team is known as Shanghai Shenhua.

The earliest mention of the name Shanghai occurs in the 11th century AD and refers to the small settlement that sprang up at the confluence of the Shanghai River (long since vanished) and the Huangpu River (Huangpu Jiang). Upgraded from village status to market town in 1074, Shanghai became a city in 1297 after establishing itself as the major port in the area.

By the late 17th century Shanghai supported a population of 50,000, sustained on cotton production, fishing and, thanks to its excellent location at the head of the Yangzi River (Chang Jiang), trade in silk and tea.

OPIUM

By the 1880s, around 10% of the Chinese population smoked opium. No other commodity became so uniquely associated with all of Shanghai’s spectacular peaks and troughs.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14