Shanghai Before the Foreigners
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Shanghai Before the Foreigners
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Re: Shanghai Before the Foreigners
#2This kinda reminds me of how Edo (nowadays known as Tokyo) was a little fishing village back in the Sengoku period.
Re: Shanghai Before the Foreigners
#3Nice share but after reading the article my existing view that the area of greater Shanghai was an agricultural area without substantial urban development until the opium wars is unchallenged.
Nice to see some familiar spots. About 21 years ago I used to go to the Jing'An temple for lunch on weekends and chat with the monks. They had excellent vegetarian food in the temple, and often the monks would buy me lunch.
If you want to look at hydro-engineering wonders, the nearby grand canal is amazing. I would post a wayback machine link of a trip I did up there circa 2005 but archive.org are still half down right now.
Can't stand Shanghai - no nature.
Re: Shanghai Before the Foreigners
#4Can I suggest you the novel "Maiden Voyage" by Denton Welch. Is a portrait of Shanghai in 1930 by an english boy
Re: Shanghai Before the Foreigners
#5Nice share but after reading the article my existing view that the area of greater Shanghai was an agricultural area without substantial urban development until the opium wars is unchallenged. Nice to see some familiar spots. About 21 years ago I used to go to the Jing'An temple for lunch on weekends and chat with the monks. They had excellent vegetarian food in the temple, and often the monks would buy me lunch. If…
Nanjing, just an hour or so up the river, is multiple thousands of years old and is one of the most important historical cities in Chinese history. So it is really no surprise that Shanghai was not developed until foreign trade became important.
Re: Shanghai Before the Foreigners
#6Here's Shenzhen, before and after tech. Shenzhen really was a fishing village in 1950, and a small town into the 1970s. All the action was in Hong Kong nearby. A local photographer has been taking pictures from the same spots every year since 1985.[1]
Population of Shenzhen:
1950 3,000
1960 8,000
1970 22,000
1980 59,000
1990 875,000
2000 7,193,000
2010 10,223,000
2020 12,357,000
Re: Shanghai Before the Foreigners
#7Nice share but after reading the article my existing view that the area of greater Shanghai was an agricultural area without substantial urban development until the opium wars is unchallenged. Nice to see some familiar spots. About 21 years ago I used to go to the Jing'An temple for lunch on weekends and chat with the monks. They had excellent vegetarian food in the temple, and often the monks would buy me lunch. If…
Nanjing, just an hour or so up the river, is multiple thousands of years old and is one of the most important historical cities in Chinese history. So it is really no surprise that Shanghai was not developed until foreign trade became important.
It is also hard to talk about the relatively new coastal development without the fact that in the 1600s the Qing forcibly evacuated most coastal areas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Clearance
And before that, the Ming banned coastal trade. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haijin
Re: Shanghai Before the Foreigners
#8Here's Shenzhen, before and after tech. Shenzhen really was a fishing village in 1950, and a small town into the 1970s. All the action was in Hong Kong nearby. A local photographer has been taking pictures from the same spots every year since 1985.[1] Population of Shenzhen: 1950 3,000 1960 8,000 1970 22,000 1980 59,000 1990 875,000 2000 7,193,000 2010 10,223,000 2020 12,357,000 [1] https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d414…
100x growth in 20 years starting from 1980 is insane. Would’ve been very interesting to witness.
Re: Shanghai Before the Foreigners
#9Here's Shenzhen, before and after tech. Shenzhen really was a fishing village in 1950, and a small town into the 1970s. All the action was in Hong Kong nearby. A local photographer has been taking pictures from the same spots every year since 1985.[1] Population of Shenzhen: 1950 3,000 1960 8,000 1970 22,000 1980 59,000 1990 875,000 2000 7,193,000 2010 10,223,000 2020 12,357,000 [1] https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d414…
Bear in mind that the growth of one fishing village involves growing-into aka annexing neighboring villages, I've heard it said "Shenzhen did not start as one village, it started as thousands"
Re: Shanghai Before the Foreigners
#10Can I suggest you the novel "Maiden Voyage" by Denton Welch. Is a portrait of Shanghai in 1930 by an english boy
I'm enjoying Shanghai Grand by Teras Grescoe , it follows the Americans and other foreigners hanging out in the French and American concessions in that same era. Really interesting period, America itself being in a great depression while Shanghai was booming, attracting investors and clout chasers from all over the world