The Evolution of Old Shanghai
Canadian International School of Hong Kong , Tam , Audrey – 14
I really appreciated my Dad picking me up from the airport after I had my four day ice-hockey camp in Vancouver , Canada . My legs felt like they were paralysed after the intensive training at the camp ! While we were passing the Tsing Ma Bridge , my Dad suddenly said to me , “ Look at our beautiful city ! Some people say a city is like the heart of a country , with all the highways like the arteries .” I thought about what he said and replied , “ Then Hong Kong must be the heart of China !” “ Not really . I think Shanghai is . Hong Kong is just a small city when compared to Shanghai .” He laughed . I could not sleep that night , probably because of my jet lag . My legs were tired but my brain was restless , I couldn ’ t stop thinking about my Dad ’ s statement . So I thought : why don ’ t I learn about how Shanghai became the biggest city in China ? I remember our whole family once went on holiday in Shanghai . During that trip , we also bought a book as a souvenir , which happened to still be sitting on the bookshelf in our living room . It was the perfect start to my investigation !
The book is called “ The Old Town of Shanghai ”, published by the University of Shanghai in 1999 . It contains a lot of pictures and information about the old city of Shanghai and reading it recalled a lot of happy memories from our Shanghai trip . As I randomly opened the book , the page describing the Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant appeared in front of my eyes . While we were in Shanghai , we had a feast there . To my surprise , the book also stated , “ when the Canadian Governor General , Ramon J . Hnatyshyn came and visited the old city in 1994 , he said he did not know the Shanghainese dim sum could be so tasty until after visiting Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant !”
We can enjoy a lot of traditional Chinese food in Shanghai , especially in the old city . Apart from the Steamed Bun restaurant , the book also talks about the Shanghai Li Gao Tang Dian ( a shop selling chinese herbal candies ), Xing Long Guo Ji Hao ( a store selling sweet , creamy and spiced dry beans ), Da Tong Chun and Qiao Jia Zha , ( shops selling glutinous rice balls ). In fact , there have been a lot of entrepreneurs who established their businesses in the old city since the Song dynasty . These shops were all located on the sides of the Middle Fangbang road ( also known as Old Street nowadays ).
Fangbang was the earliest spot for Shanghai commercial development . It used to be a canal diverting water from the Huangpu River to the old city . In 1913 , in order to improve access from the east to west side of the city , a wide thoroughfare was reclaimed from the canal . Although this place might now seem like an extremely commercial tourist attraction , no matter how it changed , one cannot deny the fact that it was the birthplace of Shanghai .
Global cities cannot arise without a good birthplace . There must have been some reasons behind the location of the Fangbang canal that drew people to this location . If we think about the geography , the site is at the middle of the east coastline of China , standing on a portion of the Yangtze delta . This delta area is known as the fertile triangle and is one of the richest agricultural zones in the country . With the adequate amount of rainfall and mild temperatures most of the year , this fertile triangle is perfect for cultivation . This “ agricultural advantage ” is especially true for planting wet-rice since the soil has a high clay content .
Consequently , the area easily became a great attraction for peasants to settle down in the old days . In early history , most people in China were peasants but a lot of these peasants were actually great thinkers and innovators . They invented a lot of special techniques and tools to improve their production of crops . For example , they applied the “ horse-hoeing husbandry ”, which required germinating seeds in rows and hoeing them completely . A famous agriculturalist , Wang Chen , also published the Treatise on Agriculture in 1313 , to show some successful cases of hand-hoeing practiced by the less fortunate farmers . Thus , with all this knowledge and inventions , the amount of food yield could continue to increase every year . Most peasant families now had an abundance of food and fuel supply for living . This happy , stable lifestyle , however , led to a tremendous increase of the number of their descendants , resulting in an even higher demand for food and crop yield . Another problem was , after years of cultivation , the farmland would have become totally infertile . Subsequently , there was no better option for the peasants than to explore and migrate to another piece of fresh , fertile land . With a fertile land like the Yangtze delta , it was no surprise that peasants would pick it as their migration destination .