Chapter 49 48. Shanghai Xintiandi

Shanghai Xintiandi, completed in 2001, shows another possibility of old city transformation: how to combine culture, history and commerce.It is not a commercialism that simply destroys the old and builds the new, nor is it a protectionism that simply sacrifices business.Shanghai Xintiandi is located in a prime location in the center of Shanghai, on the south side of Huaihai Middle Road, between Huangpi South Road and Madang Road, adjacent to the intersection of Huangpi South Road Metro Station and the north-south and east-west elevated roads.Xintiandi covers an area of ​​30,000 square meters, with a construction area of ​​60,000 square meters. It consists of a group of Shikumen buildings.The appearance of the building complex retains the brick walls, roof tiles, and Shikumen of that year, as if going back in time and being in the 1920s.However, the interior of each building is customized according to the lifestyle, pace of life, and emotional world of modern urbanites in the 21st century, making these buildings a place for international galleries, fashion stores, themed restaurants, and coffee bars.

In January 1999, Luo Kangrui, a Hong Kong native, burned incense and worshiped Buddha, and began his own risky move to transform the old alleys in Shanghai.Later media said, "Everyone thought he was crazy." Luo Kangrui was 51 years old when he began to renovate the alley that later became known as Shanghai Xintiandi. Luo Kangrui, who was born in 1948, is the father of Luo Yingshi, a wealthy businessman in Hong Kong. At the age of 15, Luo Kangrui was sent to study in Australia by his father. It is said that during Luo Kangrui’s 6 years in Australia, Luo Yingshi did not pay any money to his son, and all living expenses had to be paid by him at the hotel. Earn money as a doorman, as a waiter in a restaurant, or by working in a factory.After returning to Hong Kong, Luo Kangrui first worked in his father's company - Luo Kangrui said that the salary he got in his first job was 800 Hong Kong dollars, "a construction worker in Hong Kong earns more than this", and then, in 1971, took his father With a loan of 100,000 yuan and a project entrusted to him, 24-year-old Luo Kangrui started his own business.This is the embryonic form of Shui On Group, a small construction company.Later, Luo Kangrui recalled his experience when he started his business and said that he had not taken a day off for seven consecutive years and worked more than ten hours a day.

It was in 1984 that Luo Kangrui really showed his uniqueness.That year, because many Hong Kong businessmen were very uncertain about the future of Hong Kong, there was a wave of company relocation and business immigration in Hong Kong. On March 28, 1984, the board of directors of Jardine Matheson Hong Kong suddenly announced that Jardine Matheson Group had relocated to Bermuda because of its judgment on the future of Hong Kong; at the same time, the company would be listed in London, Singapore and Australia at the same time.At the end of the year, the then Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher signed the "Sino-British Joint Declaration", and the trend of the company's relocation eased slightly.But then, whenever there are twists and turns in the Sino-British negotiations, it will inevitably bring about a new round of company re-domiciliation and a wave of immigration from Hong Kong.A statistic shows that by November 1990, at least 77 listed companies in Hong Kong had relocated to Cayman Islands, Bermuda and other places.

However, Luo Kangrui, a young boy in Hong Kong's real estate industry, did the opposite. Instead, he began to go north to investigate the market in mainland China, and officially announced his entry into the mainland market in 1985. At this time, Luo Kangrui already had a political identity. With this identity, Luo Kangrui weaves his own government relationship network in Shanghai. In 1996, he won the 52 hectares of land in the Taipingqiao area granted to him by the Luwan District government, which became a key battle for Luo Kangrui and the Shui On Group. Luo Kangrui's first step was to renovate an old block next to Huaihai Middle Road in the commercial center. The Financial Times described the land on which Luo Kangrui is going to start construction, saying: The area consists of alleys (narrow alleys with Shikumen houses on both sides), covering an area of ​​about 30,000 square meters and housing about 2,380 Chinese families .The area has clearly fallen into disrepair, lost in the shadow of new luxury hotels and futuristic skyscrapers.In the alleys that have been preserved so far, the hanging clothes are lined up like colorful flags hung by every household, and the washing facilities are all outdoors.Rows of sinks are lined up on both sides of the alley, and the faucets are locked to prevent neighbors from stealing them.The yards of the houses are filled with the bicycles of hundreds of households.Residents usually set up impromptu tables to eat in the alleys, and there is no private space here at all.

But Luo Kangrui is determined to rejuvenate this old neighborhood that can be circled in a 10-minute walk.Not only is it revitalized, he wants to make it as commercially attractive as the adjacent Huaihai Middle Road.He invited Benjamin Wood Architects, an American old house renovation expert living in Boston, and Singapore's Nikkei Design Office to provide consulting advice for his renovation plan, "Others want to tear down and rebuild this area, but they want to I'm going to Shanghai immediately."Luo Kangrui offered Ben Wood and his colleagues 30 million yuan. His request was to preserve the historical characteristics of the area as much as possible, while making it commercially attractive to large companies and luxury brands. He wanted a flower that was different, but no matter how different the flower was, it had to attract bees.Otherwise this project is pointless.

Ben Wood's Architects won the project, despite "the amount of work involved in rebuilding the building and maintaining its original scale... making our proposal the most expensive and clearly the least rewarding at the moment". Later, the media reported, “After studying the old buildings in Shanghai for 1,000 hours, the designers decided to retain most of the Shikumen buildings in the northern plot and intersperse some modern buildings in the overall planning; the southern plot reflects the characteristics of the times. Mainly new buildings, with a small number of Shikumen buildings, a pedestrian street connects the two plots in the south and north."

The Shikumen in some areas have been destroyed beyond recognition by time and man-made damage. In order to achieve the effect of the old building, Ryan Company found the original drawings signed by the French architect from the archives and restored the building according to the drawings. But "it's not a 'faithful' restoration. I'm not a conservationist. My aim is to respect...the character of the area, but to create a commercially viable living environment," says Ben Wood. .They reinforced the building, renovated the exterior, added windows, modified the water and electricity systems, installed underground fiber optic cables and air-conditioning systems, and almost completely remodeled the internal structure to allow companies and brands to settle in.They even specially imported an expensive anti-moisture potion from Germany, and injected it into every brick and brick joint in the wall like an injection.After such a lot of tossing, the cost per square meter of "Xintiandi" reached 20,000 yuan.In order to relocate more than 2,300 households and more than 8,000 residents on this land, Shui On Group has to pay 600 million yuan in relocation fees.It is reported that in order to transform Xintiandi, Luo Kangrui invested half of his total assets, 1.4 billion yuan.

This gamble ended with Luo Kangrui winning.The shrewd Luo Kangrui set the completion date of Xintiandi on June 30, 2001.Because July 1st is the 80th anniversary celebration of the founding of the Communist Party of China, and the site of the first major meeting of the Communist Party of China is in Xintiandi. Luo Kangrui has not moved at all and kept it as it is. October is the APEC meeting in Shanghai.Later, Luo Kangrui proudly told the media: "To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the senior leaders of the central government will go to a conference site, and there is no need to publicize the whole country; APEC will be held in Shanghai, and the presidents and heads of state of various countries will come to Shanghai. There are more than 6,000 foreign journalists. You don’t need to promote it, you can promote it.” Sure enough, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Russian President Putin, and Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong all visited Lo Kang Swee’s “Xintiandi”.These photos are properly preserved by the Ryan Group and can be displayed whenever necessary.And various fashionable restaurants, coffee shops, clothing stores, jewelry stores and bars have begun to enter Xintiandi one after another.

Later, the writer Ling Zhijun wrote Xintiandi as an example of China's "new people, new life" in his book "Change": "Most Shanghainese will introduce this place to friends from other places:' Go ahead, you'll love it, drinking coffee there is like being on the streets of Paris.'Young people make no secret of the happy consumerist tendencies in their hearts, believing that a new life is here...Historians say it'looks old The reporter said it was "a different kind of elegance", the writers said it was "a fairy tale in Shanghai", and the economist said it "provided 2,093 jobs". Shikumen The museum uses the following sentence to describe it: 'Middle-aged and elderly people think it is very nostalgic, young people think it is very fashionable, foreigners think it is very Chinese, Chinese people think it is very foreign'."

Luo Kangrui kept a hand. He stipulated that his house in Xintiandi was only rented out and not sold. "Once it is sold to these merchants, it will be out of control. I am determined not to sell it." Luo Kangrui said.This will make his return on investment very slow, but later on another occasion, he expressed his wishful thinking: "But here I have 52 hectares of land, and the house next to me is selling very well. The rice is $2,500, the highest price in Shanghai." While planning Xintiandi, Luo Kangrui began to plan and build the Green Lake apartment next to Xintiandi, which is also part of his Taipingqiao area reconstruction project.The 5 apartment buildings in the first phase of Green Lake World were completed in 2003, with a total of 277 apartments.Its housing price was US$3,229/square meter when it opened before 1999, and rose to US$8,611/square meter in 2005.And this is only part of the 52 hectares of land in Luo Kangrui's hands.

Shanghai Xintiandi made Luo Kangrui famous.Although Shui On Group can only be regarded as a later generation in Hong Kong's real estate industry, it is said that even real estate tycoons such as Li Ka-shing and Sun Hung Kai's Guo Bingxiang patted Luo Kangrui on the shoulder when they saw him, praising him, saying that it is a good job to think of entering the mainland market so early . Shanghai Xintiandi has become the same Shanghai landmark as the Bund and Xujiahui, and it has also become Luo Kangrui's famous work.In his global social places, people often come over and say to Luo Kangrui, "I have just been to Shanghai and saw your 'Xintiandi'." Luo Kangrui himself said, "'Xintiandi' may be the most important part of my career. gone." Renovation of old cities like Xintiandi can not only please the government and citizens, but also bring tangible commercial benefits. All of a sudden, cities across the country have invited Luo Kangrui to their cities to renovate the old cities and build a new world.Luo Kangrui was also unceremonious, and built Xintiandi by the West Lake in Hangzhou, Xintiandi in Chongqing, and Xintiandi by the Yangtze River in Wuhan.And in every place, even if it is difficult to reproduce the grand occasion of Shanghai Xintiandi, it has become a prominent local landmark.Luo Kangrui has also become an important real estate tycoon in mainland China. He always wears Chinese clothes and appears in the media in a polite manner, talking about "relationships" and cultural real estate.