For my last two weeks in China, I have moved across the river to the apartment of a gracious host family.  Previously, the we were living in an apartment in Pudong , the newer more modern side Shanghai, but now that my brother and his housing subsidy have departed, I have relocated to Puxi, the older and more historic part of Shanghai.  Instead of driving with my father’s friend or taking the subway to work, I can walk instead.

The Pudong skyline

Being in Puxi is an entirely different experience from Pudong; it is more vibrant and gritty, more like the China I remember from ten years ago.  Pudong is a newly developed area, full of sleek new skyscrapers, immaculate designer malls, and manicured apartment complex neighborhoods.  It is largely populated by the wealthy and white-collar segment of the Shanghainese population and at night it glitters, but remains devoid of the nightlife-seeking droves that walk the streets of Puxi. Puxi has all the glossy nouveau riche installments of Pudong, with new high-end hotels and malls popping up everywhere, but seems less gentrified.  Cramped and dusty dirt-floor houses are on the same block as fancy Italian restaurants, and less than five minutes from the massive Tiffany’s facade in the plaza where I work, I find myself on a street full of tiny dingy noodle shops and old men on bamboo stools fanning themselves and spitting into the street.  Instead of the Porsches and Maseratis in the underground parking of my workplace, these streets teem with bicycles, tuk-tuks, and mopeds.  In Pudong my walk home from the subway was largely populated by other commuters and shoppers, here in Puxi I see everyday life unfolding in front of me.   People wash themselves in the street, scrawny kittens sniff for scraps, laundry hangs from street signs.

the Puxi Skyline

Pudong is the iconic skyline, the image that China wants to project to the rest of the world.  But it is Puxi that seems closer to what modern China truly is, bustling and packed, where the fabulously wealthy cross the street alongside those just scraping by.  There is the ostentatious display of all  that China’s amazing growth has brought, yet there is the evidence of all those who are still trying to climb their way to a decent standard of living.  What is striking is how quickly change has occurred; my father’s friend who grew up in poverty can now afford to take his family on luxury vacations to Europe, and there are many others just like him.  China is an exciting place to be right now for that reason, but it remains to be seen if those who are behind now will have the same opportunities to improve their socioeconomic status.

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