FROM SHANGHAI, CHINA

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Shanghai: Making Mountains Out of Skyscrapers

SHANGHAI, Dec 18, 2007 - In some countries around the world, they make mountains out of molehills, especially when complaining about obstacles to growth.  Here in China, they make mountains out of skyscrapers.  Literally. That's one of the many interesting stories I heard in my business meetings here today.

Mountains out of skyscrapers?  You betcha.  See these two skyscrapers on the left?  They are about 101 storeys high.  My meetings were in the left one.  When you stand at its entrance and look up, it makes you dizzy (two middle photos).  All around it are construction sites where new skyscrapers are being built.  They are supposed to be 88 storeys high, my host explained.  As for the buildings on the outer ring of Pudong (right), they are 75 storeys high.

Get the picture?  What the Chinese are building here in Pudong, on the eastern banks of the river, is a mountain of skyscrapers.  At least that's what it's going to look like when seen from the other side of the river, as depicted here in photo I took in March of this year (as if the existing skyscraper mountains aren't enough? - see the right photo).

"And what about the congestion?" I asked.  "Each of these skyscrapers will bring tens of thousands of new people to work here.  How will they get here?"

"Well, there are two subways now.  Six more are being built."

That's modern China for you.  No dream is too big.  Nothing is impossible.  If something doesn't exist, "build it and they will come" (just like in Kevin Costner's "Field of Dreams", 1989).  Can't help but wonder, though, what Mao would say if he saw what has become of his revolution?  Bet he'd be doing a few more revolutions in his grave. :-)

Meanwhile, my American host was full of praise about the work ethic of the Chinese people.  They not only work extremely hard, but are quick studies, too, he said.

"Could that make them a threat to the U.S. in, say, 50 years or so?" 

"Probably not.  They are good at following orders and executing projects.  But they are not as creative as Americans or Indians, for that matter.  So as long as we continue to innovate, we should be able to stay ahead of the curve," my American host opined.

Let's hope he is right.  If not, the $1 trillion multinational companies have invested in China since 1990 could be the seeds of our own destruction.  Well, maybe not our own, but that of our children's children's western world (see "End of Western Dominance?", 1994).  Such as the fate of the would-be New World Order architects.  They never seem to learn from history.  Or from great thinkers, like Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote in 1513:

Beautiful Art, More Signs of Christmas

Meanwhile, back to more cheery subjects, there are beautiful art pieces all around my hotel.

The two left watercolor originals hang on the wall just outside my room.  The enormous oil painting lines a marble staircase that leads toward the fitness center.  And so on...

Right next door is a shopping mall with an enormous ToysRus Christmas tree.

And that's all she wrote from Shanghai.

TO BE CONTINUED... in Hong Kong.

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