Shanghai

A city that began as a fishing village 5000 years ago. Now it is the second largest city in the world, population 25 million. It is the busiest container shipping port in the world. China did a massive rebuild and clean up of Shanghai starting in the 1990s. Our experience…. the streets are clean, air pollution doesn’t seem a problem. Lots of electric cars and electric scooters. Streets are fairly quiet with traffic noise nonexistent from the use of so many EVs.

What amazed me is the amount of infrastructure work from roads and bridges to skyscrapers and airports that have been completed in recent times. So much has been built in the last 30 years. How is it paid for? It appears that many buildings are only partially occupied. Some of the cities we have visited included a bus ride out of town. We see 4 lane and 6 lane highways, brand new bridges, new landscaping along public access….. and very little traffic or people once you get out of the city. How is all of this paid for? My only previous visit to China was a layover in Quanzhou(Canton) back in 2005. It was a dirty, noisy, city…. no new buildings. How did all of these cities get rebuilt and modernized so fast??