The planning that makes the city tick

Shanghai used to be much smaller, not even one of that region of China's major cities. Now, it is clearly a major metropolis. I went to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall to learn more about this past and also about where Shanghai will go.

The highlight of the hall was a room-filling scale model of Shanghai today. Many, many buildings in miniature were represented. Moreover, to show just how futuristic Shanghai is, they would dim the lights and rotating areas of the city would light up in turn.

Pretty cool!

I was a little bummed I wasn't (enough of) a VIP to get to go on the suspended walkway dangling above the model for a true bird's eye view.

The plans for the future were intriguing. Signs of a "socialistic new village"? I wanted to learn more. From what I could make out (English captions were limited), there were tremendous plans underfoot to turn many of the outlying areas surrounding Shanghai into mini cities and super towns (something like 9 new cities, 60 new super towns, and 600 socialistic new villages). These would have quite the central planner hand and would be built to provide all of the residents' need within reach. The TV screens were already playing some advertisements - or perhaps propaganda - about how excellent these new places would be.

Beyond that, there were exhibits about the restoration of the riverway, the expansion plans for the airport, train station, and deep water port, and assorted other plans for the growth of a city so large. I appreciated the inclusion of making the food of the city part of its allure.