Observations of Shanghai Part II

The famous Peace Hotel on the Bund. A building dating from the twenties and thirties.

Contrast the soaring steel structures at Pudong with the stately, august trading houses and banks on the Bund being the old symbols of the hated colonial powers, and to use the vocabulary of the communists, 'the imperialists', (of which they undoubtedly included Japan, a predatory and aspiring Asiatic power), the drives to outdo each other through building stupendous skyscrapers and tall trading houses appear not dissimilar, merely being a gulf of eighty years.

A huge mall and office block owned by Capitaland (yes, Singapore's Capitaland) at Nanjing Road (Nanking Road).

The amusing bit is the monument at one end of the Bund. It is a concrete structure built in 1991 to commemorate the city's liberation (ie conquest) by the commies. The People's Heroes Monument is a symbol of the new masters, the communists of Mao Tse Tung (Mao Zedong). Commercial buildings, the symbols of capitalism and that of a symbol of cruel totalitarian power share the Bund. There is also a statue of the portly Great Helmsman, Mao Zedong, at the Bund. What a means of sending a message, of telling who the new political masters are.

Old house dating from the colonial era. A house like this would typically house several families under one roof. Those days are numbered as tall shiny new condominiums are replacing them.

In view of the opening of China in 1980 and the adoption of a capitalist machanism to regulate the economy, the erection of these symbols in the not too distant past appear ironic. However, it is logical as it would also serve as a reminder of the political continuity between generations despite the adoption of a new economic paradigm. No more centralised state-controlled planning. The new ideology of the new communists is pragmatism.

Old grey building built in the usual communist-style of the fifties to the seventies.


Another view of old Shanghai. Old houses.

Shophouses lie amidst tall apartment blocks, malls and office blocks. The old and the new.

Strange house. This appears to be a fancy.*

*I don't know the history and origin of this particular structure. I shall look it up. I will have more to say on this later.

Addendum

My old friend said that the building is a restaurant at present. Xiao Nan Kuo at 1398 Nanjing Road. It is a Chinese restaurant serving Shanghainese crusine. He refers me to this blog entry: http://www.ymchee.com/archives/2004_11.html

He doesn't know the builders or the original occupants or the history either. Pity.

Addendum 2

My friend has more information:

He refers me to this:
http://www.chinanewsweek.com.cn/2003-10-23/1/2429.html

and this:
http://www.mollervilla.com/en/main.asp

So, it is the Heng Shan Moller Villa Hotel. A boutique hotel.

And more photos:
http://www.forest53.com/gallery/gallery_show.asp?id=42