Thursday, April 23, 2009
Pictures of China rising
I've been fortunate to visit China, not counting Hong Kong, three times: 1984, 1986, and 2006. The change in the big cities, especially near the coasts, in the two decades between my visits as a student and the trip three years ago was nothing short of astonishing. If you had only seen the country in those first years after it opened up, you simply would not believe this astonishing gallery (not for dial-up) of post cards and other photographs of the new China. Or, at least, the wealthy parts.
8 Comments:
By 
Andrew X, at
Thu Apr 23, 01:29:00 AM:
How can China be doing so well?? They aren't even a civilized country!
Unlike the "civilized" world, they don't have.....
...a media that relentlessly disparages their own nation, it's history, it's morals, it's culture, harps on it's flaws and failings, ignores it's successes and glories, and generally considers anyone who takes China's interests into consideration in any way as some sort of abomination upon the land.
They don't have an academic and cultural mainstream that does..... essentially the same things, and are full of people who quite literally will think that which celebrates whatever is "not China" is good and wholesome and wonderful, and that anyone who appreciates what IS China, is some sort of troglodytic caveman who must be purged forthwith from polite society.
How can any country hope to succeed without such marvelous assets as these working in their favor?
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Thu Apr 23, 01:52:00 AM:
Yes, China has changed. In the mid 1980s, Chinese officials would give me signed purchase orders for thousands of items with the prices left blank.
"You fill in the prices," they would say.
By Viking Kaj, at
Thu Apr 23, 10:43:00 AM:
But, to quote Tom Lehrer, "Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air."
Some of those pictures were taken on 2 of the 3 clear days in 365 over there. In others you will notice a persistent haze that is not the fault of your receiver.
It doesn't matter much what we do about our hydrocarbon emissions since the godless Chinese communists could give a rat's a$$. Some of LA's famous smog has its origins in Shenzen. Just wait until every Wang gets a driver's license over there in 2020. There goes the planet.
On the bright side, maybe we can teach Al Gore Mandarin and export him. It won't make much of a dent in our balance of payments, even if they pay by the pound, but what the hey.
By Georg Felis, at
Thu Apr 23, 12:28:00 PM:
I hate to comment on a country that I have never visited, but here goes. China has always struck me as much larger than any “Chinese are like this…” description can cover. You have carnivorous capitalists who could run Trump into the ground, groups craving uniformity to a degree we cannot understand, individualists who worship at the altar of “I’m unique, look at me!”, full-blown communists who insist on the absolute power of the State while driving a Lexus, and a young spoiled-rotten generation from the One-Child policy. There is a budding economy/ecology vehicle market in China that makes the US look backwards and tail-chasing, the Chinese electric/hybrid auto market is exploding with new cars coming out on a *monthly* basis. Admittedly they are not as good as the car that Detroit promises “Real Soon Now”, but they are on the road now, for less money. (yes, and less airbags, and less crash protection, and less paint…) At the current rate, in twenty years we will not have a single US car manufacturer, and China will be exporting their autos to our shores.
Forty years ago we thought we would be at war with China using nuclear missiles. Now it looks like the weapon of choice will be the tire.
By 
, at
Thu Apr 23, 03:58:00 PM:
Is it just me, or does the skyscraper in the first 3 pictures look eerily like Sauron's tower in "The Lord Of The Rings"?
By , at
Thu Apr 23, 08:19:00 PM:
Hey I was just seeing that in those photos. Anonymous it sure does look like Sauron's Tower. Plus, just a note isn't that a Greek Orthodox Church, and a Catholi Cchurch in those pictures also. I wonder if anyone goes in them for services or are they for show? I wonder what an earthquake would do to those buildings in the big city when they have one?
Heltau
By , at
Fri Apr 24, 10:03:00 AM:
I visited China in 1980, 81 and 83. The differences in those years was huge. It was easy to see that the future was going to be incredible. These pictures show that. Absolutely incredible. Shows what you can do with slave labor and "carnivorous capitalism" in a no holds barred environment.
By , at
Sat Apr 25, 09:23:00 AM:
Staggering growth--they are doing something right. Note: many multilane highways, few cars; huge pollution now. Wait till they all have two cars!!
Tom
