Emerging Markets: Shanghai

Pudong District from the Bund

Our Tour guide likened Beijing to Washington DC with it's plethora of cultural and historical sites, and Shanghai to New York City - being the big bustling city, the center of Asian commerce.

Business Visits:

While in Shanghai we did visit some american businesses setup and doing business in China. First we visited a Valspar facility. Valspar makes coatings, most people are familiar with their paints and varnishes. We discussed with them the challenges and opportunities of operating in China with the corporate headquarters being in the US. They gave us a tour of their facility there, but it was mostly a look from the outside in as the production of metal coatings requires significant ventilation and when inside the facility workers must wear respirators. They did mention that while they strive to stress safety many of their employees don't like to wear the respirators, and just deal with the fumes. Dealing with the fumes usually results in significantly lowered white blood cell counts... I'd wear a respirator.

We also visited with JP Morgan in Shanghai. While not a full retail bank as they operate in the US. JP Morgan took us into their conference room on the 40th floor of the building with a terrific view out of the windows and discussed with us the challenges and opportunities of banking in China. China has 6 major banks that serve a majority of the 1.3 billion people. These banks are state owned and are definitely too big to fail.

Cultural Visits

In Shanghai the cultural visits were interesting but not nearly on the same magnitude as they were in Beijing.

Jade Buddah Temple:

According to our tour guide, 80% of China is atheist, of the remaining 20% the majority are Buddhist. There are some Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Having an understanding of the Buddhist culture is important in understanding the Chinese culture. We went to visit the Jade Buddha Temple which was founded in 1882 with 2 Jade Buddha statues imported from Burma. We saw those, but photography was not allowed. However, I did capture some pictures of many of the other statues of Buddha and others.

Main Courtyard, with worshipers burning incense and praying.

One of the Three Golden Buddha's.

This one is Bhaisajyaguru.

Silk Factory/Market was an interesting place where we were educated on silk worms and China's rich silk history. What was most fascinating was watching the silk fibers being extracted from silkworm cocoons and spun into tiny silk thread. Mostly when I think of silk I think of the elegant silk fabric that is ... silky... But we learned of the insulating properties of silk and how they compare to other materials. This factory made silk comforters. Just as a down comforter is filled with goose down, a silk comforter is filled with Silk. I had never heard of this before. But when we saw that the silkworm cocoons were used to create layers in a silk comforter I was impressed. No need to 'fluff' the comforter to redistribute the stuff inside.

individual silk fibers being extracted from silkworm cocoons and spun into silk thread

stretching & pulling silkworm cocoons into layers of a silk comforter

Following the tour we were 'sold' comforters, then later 'sold' other silk goods. I am sure that our tour operators take a cut from bringing all these american tourists to come and buy their goods. This didn't seem to be a public market. And the prices were more reflective of what I would expect in the US rather than the bargains that were very plentiful in China. So, while put off by the sell job, I appreciate the education.

Shanghai's Urban Planning Museum is a four story museum that culminates in a giant scale model of Shanghai 2020 master plan. This model had all the buildings in this giant city, present and future. The detail was spectacular.

Shanghai City 2020 master plan model

The Yuyuan Garden was created in 1559 by a son to honor his father (a high ranking official in the Ming dynasty) and took 20 years to build. This lavish garden, consisting of architecture, rock formations, water features, and plants has a long history of various owners and occupants and falling into repair and restoration many times. The most recent restoration was in the 1961. The garden is about 5 acres, and I ditched the tour and just spent an hour exploring this amazing space and marveled how this was constructed over 400 years ago with out modern engineering, and power tools and has (with some maintenance and restoration) lasted so long.

Inside the Yuyuan Garden

Shanghai is known for it's spectacular skyline. One of the best places to see it is on a cruise along the Hunagpu River. Often times the visibility in Shanghai isn't very good because the air pollution is very bad. But on the night we went to the river the sky was pretty clear and we were very impressed with all the lights. Shanghai puts on quite the light show until about 10:00 or 11:00PM each night.

Pudong District from the Hunagpu River

The Bund from the Hunagpu River

On our free day myself and some of my classmates wanted to ride the fastest commercially operated train in the world today. The Maglev train runs from just outside Shanghai out to the airport and back. 19 miles each way. The Trip takes about 7 minutes. You do the math. Okay, you don't have to. The top speed of this train is 431 km/h. Translates into 268 mph. We had no reason to go to the airport, other than to ride the train. It felt fast, but not jarringly so. It reaches 200 mph in the first 2 minutes. Needless to say it was a fun ride. I took some video, but it didn't turn out.

The Shanghai Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) train.

After we went on the fast train, we went up into the tall building. The Shanghai World Financial Center is currently the 3rd tallest building in the world. The 94th, 97th and 100th floors all have observation decks. The birds eye view of Shanghai was awesome. I especially enjoyed looking down on the Jin Mao Tower next door.

Shanghai World Financial Center

World's 3rd Tallest Building.

From the 100th Floor of the Shanghai World Financial Center

Looking down on the World's 9th Tallest Building - Jin Mao tower

I walked from the Yuyuan Garden back to my hotel and found my to the Pedestrian Street at Nanjing Road. Which, among this post of tallest, fastest etc, is considered one of the longest shopping districts over 6km long. I was really taken back by how many people there were. There were no special events. It wasn't Christmas shopping. It was just a regular Saturday in Shanghai.

.

The Pedestrian Street (our hotel is in the background with the dome/needle on top)

Overall, my impression of China is that there are a lot of people there, and that while they try to make their world appear very western, their culture and values are very different than those I have known in the USA. Understanding those values and cultures will be key to an undeniable future than we'll experience with an increasingly Chinese influence.