Pulling out all the stops
"The Bund symbolizes Shanghai, encapsulating a century of political, economic and cultural change in China. The new Bund not only carries on the historic and cultural legacy of the Bund; it will also be instrumental in transforming the functions of areas along both banks." Those were the heartfelt words of Shanghai mayor Han Zheng at the reopening of the Bund.
Shanghai had indeed gone all out, spending US$700 million (about NT$22.2 billion) on this major renovation. Apart from aiming to facilitate general tourism and transportation, the Bund renovations were explicitly made with an eye toward Expo 2010, which starts on May 1.
According to estimates by the mainland Chinese government, some 70-100 million tourists will be flocking to Shanghai for Expo 2010. How could the mainland Chinese not want to spruce up the Bund so that it might better play host to the city's numerous visitors? It is after all the city's most famous attraction.
In fact, since winning its bid in 2002 to host Expo 2010, Shanghai has been pushing public infrastructure projects of all types and sizes. For instance, the Shanghai Metro, which eases traffic congestion in an environmentally friendly manner, is being expanded from three to 11 lines. It is estimated that those new lines will bring its total track length to 420 kilometers, surpassing the London Underground (408 kilometers) as the largest subway system in the world.
What's more, Shanghai is working hard to make Hongqiao Station on the west side of Hongqiao Airport the world's largest passenger transport node. It will become a giant transit hub that combines air travel with high-speed rail, regular rail, the metro system, above-ground mass transit (buses), taxis and maglev trains. It's estimated that the Hongqiao Hub will accommodate at least 1.1 million passenger journeys a day, roughly 2.8 times the 400,000 passenger journeys that the Taipei Train Station (with high-speed rail, regular rail and metro lines) accommodates daily.
The core attractions of the expo will be found on both sides of the Huangpu River and encompass a total area of more than 5.28 square kilometers. In addition to constructing the Expo Park's basic infrastructure, which involved tearing down numerous buildings and moving 18,000 residents and 272 factories, the authorities also ordered facelifts for several hundred buildings. A motley collection of apartment buildings of varying conditions and appearances had their walls scrubbed and their roofs repaired. One and all, they ended up with clean white walls and either red or blue roofs.
Expo 2010's promotional campaign is ubiquitous. There's the wavelike mascot "Haibao," which means both "treasure of the sea" and "treasure of Shanghai." And slogans such as "A City of Harmony-It's Everyone's Expo" can be found at every metro station and shopping center. Even taxicabs feature touch screens with animated promotional videos providing information about tickets and "highlights" of various pavilions. With support from the central government, Shanghai has spared no expense and gotten the whole city involved in preparations. Its goal has been to give itself a full makeover before the expo, so that it can rise into the ranks of the world's leading cities.
The "moon boat" Saudi Arabian Pavilion cost NT$4.8 billion to build. The world's largest 3D movie theater inside has a screen the size of two football fields. The pavilion aims to allow visitors to gain an understanding of Arabian classical culture and handicrafts-as much as if they had actually gone to the country itself.