The river Huangpu cuts through Shanghai, acting as commercial link between the portions of Puxi and Pudong, the Shanghai of old and Shanghai of the future.
The Shanghainese have a saying, "The tourists look for Puxi for its history, while the Shanghainese look to Pudong for the future…"
For four hours, the BASF group traveled from Nanjing to Shanghai by land to discover the difference. The group were then billeted at the Grand Hyatt, which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the World’s Highest Hotel (complete with highest swimming pool and longest laundry shoot), sitting on the upper floors of the world’s highest building.
The Shanghai CIMC Reefer Containers Co. Ltd. (SCRC), a Sino-foreign equity joint venture is owned by China International Marine Conaines (Group) Ltd. (CIMC) with four other minority partners.
SCRC is the biggest reefer container producer in the world holding over 30 percent market share. It has a capital of US$31 million and total investment of US$50 million.
Located at Luodian town in Baishan district, it is 13 kilometers from Wusong Port. It has a 33,400 square meter workshops with a considerable stockyard.
Inside the workshops, there is the production line for stainless steel reefers. The designed capacity is 30,000 units of reefers annually.
In 1997, BASF has started catering to the industry with its variety of polyurethane systems. The following year, the company tied knots with SCRC. After SCRC acquired Qingdao Hyundai and subsequently established QCRC (capacity of 25,000 units), BASF also extended its service to the new company.
Statistics indicate that BASF polyurethanes are present in one-third of the world’s reefer containers. In 2004, BASF was named as the Best Supplier of Year 2004.
On the other hand, the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park (SCIP) is built with advanced "integrated" development concept of world-class chemical industrial park.
The Park will provide investors with the best service through concentration of chemical projects, utilities, and infrastructures, logistics transportation, environmental protection, and administrative services.
At present, projects with a capital investment of more than $8 billion have settled down in the Park. The world famous multinational corporations such as BP, BASF, Bayer, Huntsman and domestic large-scaled companies led by Sinopec, SPC, HYG, have been the major investors in the park.
These days, it is no big deal to go back and forth through the numerous bridges and tunnels that go over and under the river. In fact, the Bund Pedestrian Sightseeing Tunnel affords a smooth ride complete with lights and sounds show.
The Huangpu Cruise, a 60-kilometer return trip between the Bund and the Wusongkila (the mouth of the Yangtze River) is a must for first-time tourists to Shanghai. When night falls, colorful lights illuminate the whole Bund area and turn it into a scene of the "wonderland."
In the Pudong side, one can see skyscrapers that stretch up to the skies, and landmarks that define the Shanghai landscape with their unmistakable silhouettes like the famous China Telecom, which partnered with the number one wireless phone in the Philippines, the Smart Communications, Inc., Oriental TV Tower (468 meters), and the Jin Mao Tower (430 meters).
Shanghai’s phenomenal development is reflected in Pudong’s growing numbers of business and convention sites like the Shanghai International Convention Center, the Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone, the Pudong Financial Street, the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, the new shopping center and the Century Boulevard, among others.
Shanghai is a shopping paradise where everything comes all over the world. From the posh brands that line Nanjing East, to the trendy department stores in Nanjing Road (it is now China’s No. 1 street with 360 grand cinemas. Restaurants and shops, even the tiangge style market in Xiang Yang, one can buy anything from electronics, clothes, shoes, bags, fashion accessories, videos, exotic foods, and Chinese novelty items.
Shanghai cuisine is a mixture of Hangzhou, Ningpo, Huizhou, Suzhou, Yangzhou and Wuxi – food that taste sweet and mild and uses chicken, duck, and vegetable in most dishes. Nowadays, the cuisine is divided into two parts, "Hai style" is a cooking that combines expensive ingredients and "Ben Bang" is the traditional cooking style that tastes strong and fresh.
The Chinese term "Yum Cha" literally means drink tea, but it also means to have a meal. Chinese tea is served along with the meal, when your pot is empty, call for a refill by lifting the lid.
Shanghai won the bid in Monte Carlo in Dec. 3, 2002 to stage the World Expo in 2010.
It will invest about US$3 billion to prepare for the expo, including infrastructure of transportation, telecom, water to commercial investment that would bring along a multiplier effect of five to 10 times, reaching US$15 to US$30 billion.
It is also estimated that the expo would attract over 50 million visitors, income from the travel industry to reach 9.11 billion RMB, while the hotel industry would have a net income of 100 million RMB per day.
There are two airports in Shanghai: The Pudong International Airport and the Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport. In fact, since Philippine Airlines started daily flights from Manila in October 2000, Shanghai has become but two-and-a-half hours away.
