Chapter 3 2. "Golden House" on the sea

The money worship in Shanghai is not only because she likes rich people and making money, but also because she likes to spend money and use it to dress herself up as a beautiful "golden house".From a distance, this house is shining with gold, but you can truly feel the essence of the "golden house" - hard and cold, when you get close to it. Take the recent World Expo event as an example.This is the largest World Expo in history.According to official data, for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, the construction of the park involved a capital investment of 18 billion yuan and an operating cost of 10.6 billion yuan.Huang Yaocheng, consultant and former deputy director of the Shanghai World Expo Coordination Bureau, revealed that the entire Shanghai has invested about 300 billion yuan in supporting the World Expo, and the projects involve subways, transportation, and environmental protection.It is more than twice the cost of the Beijing Olympic Games.

Singapore's "Lianhe Zaobao" published an article titled "Looking Forward at Any Cost" about the construction of the Shanghai World Expo: Shanghai's successive leaders actually began urban renewal decades ago, but the latest round of preparations for the Expo has gone too far: within a year, nearly all of Shanghai's streets have been resurfaced, and (sometimes more than once) new buildings have been dug. Sewers were laid, new curbs were laid, new sidewalks were built, and the mammoth subway line was doubled. Governments repaint or repair street frontages—often without notifying owners; bright new neon signs are installed on highways and bridges; Where there is mud and beams, lush trees are planted.

It seems like every day a new subway line or high-speed rail is built, or even a brand new airport terminal.The Expo site -- a 5.28-square-kilometer plot of land on the banks of the murky Huangpu River -- houses more than 200 state, corporate and municipal pavilions.These magnificent Happy Palaces focus on the future scene: clean, green, high-tech city life, and Shanghai becomes the center of the universe. “The only thing we Chinese care about is face: we are willing to waste money and people to beautify the city; even if the road does not need to be resurfaced, we will still do it,” said Tu Qiyu, a researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, who is conducting research on the expo.He admits that no one really knows how much Shanghai is spending on it: the official figure is 300 billion yuan ($44 billion), but real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle estimates that Shanghai spent or brought forward the expo. Infrastructure investment pushed the total cost to $95 billion.

For this grand event, Wu Zhiqiang, a professor of urban planning at Tongji University, said: "Shanghai took 15 years to complete what London took 150 years to complete." The construction of the Shanghai subway system began in 1995, but only in 2009 , the total operating mileage has been doubled, exceeding 420 kilometers. At the press conference of the Shanghai Municipal Government on April 15, 2010, Shen Xiaosu, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Construction and Transportation Commission, said that before the opening of the park, Shanghai Rail Transit had put into operation 11 lines, with a mileage of 420 kilometers and an average daily passenger flow of 550. million person-times, this mileage makes Shanghai among the top three in the world.

However, behind this brilliant achievement is the expensive construction cost. According to a report in "Observation and Thinking" magazine in July 2009: "The subway is an underground transportation with high construction cost and high cost operation. The comprehensive average cost of the three urban rail transit lines in Singapore built in the early 1990s was 332 million per kilometer RMB; the construction cost of the most modern No. 11 subway line in Tokyo, Japan is 754 million yuan per kilometer. Due to the relatively high rate of imported subway equipment in Shanghai and Guangzhou, the cost of subway construction is relatively high. The cost of subway construction in Shanghai is 800 million yuan per kilometer The cost per kilometer of the Guangzhou Metro is about 700 million yuan. Due to the high localization rate of the Beijing subway, the cost per kilometer is also more than 500 million yuan.”

Obviously, Shanghai's subway construction costs lead the country, and are even second to none in the world.And behind such "glory" is the high subway fare—after the opening of the Anting Branch Line of Shanghai Rail Transit Line 11, the highest subway fare finally broke through the single-digit mark, reaching 10 yuan; and Beijing Compared with the "2 yuan, all 2 yuan" can take the whole subway fare, Shanghai is really "reasonably expensive". Shanghai is booming, but the common people are still suffering.On the one hand, Shanghai is unable to reduce the cost of living of its citizens; on the other hand, it has invested more funds in a series of "livelihood projects", but the results may not be as good as "public opinion".

For example, in order to regulate the random drying of clothes by citizens during the World Expo, and to prevent the phenomenon of "ten thousand national flags" in the city, the government spent nearly 400,000 yuan to install a new type of goal drying rack and plastic leaf boards for the residents. , in order to play a certain role of shelter and beauty.Unexpectedly, the sound of the wind blowing on the leaf boards even affected the residents of the next-door community, so they had to be dismantled together.Moreover, due to the inconsistency between the new hangers and the original structure of the building, it is very inconvenient for residents to dry their clothes. Many residents abandoned them and left their clothes to dry in the corridors.

"The whole building is like scaffolding." Netizens discussed it on the Xinmin Forum.The rows of drying racks on the west side of Shanghai Ruifu North Building are very eye-catching, and are even dubbed by netizens as "the best group of drying racks in downtown Shanghai". The clothes hangers on Qinzhou South Road are about 2 meters high, each "span" is about 2 meters, and stand interspersed with street trees in a row, and are installed directly on the side of the road outside the surrounding wall.In this regard, Mr. Zhang, a resident, feels: "The random drying of the 'ten thousand national flags' has long been considered one of the indecent scenes in the city, but now people are encouraged to dry it at will on the side of the road. The scale of rows of rows is so large. Pedestrians are about to walk with wet clothes or underwear on, which is really a sight!" Ms. Lu, a resident, complained: "The original bicycle parking spot has been taken up."

The reason why the government does bad things with good intentions is actually very simple. It thinks that the problem of city appearance can be solved by replacing the clotheslines worth a few cents or a few dollars with hundreds of thousands of high-end clothes hangers.It is still a concept of "money is omnipotent".This concept can easily lead to the conclusion that "everything that is expensive is good". Although Shanghai has spent a lot of money on a series of infrastructure construction and city "image projects" for the smooth holding of the World Expo.But the voice of criticism has not stopped, and rationally and objectively proceeded from the concept of urbanization and money, stood at a distance, and calmly looked at this grand event at any cost.

Shanghai-based artist Chen Hangfeng was one of the few critics of the Expo.He exhibited his work "Bubble City, Bubble Life" in March 2010.An iron cage surrounds an uninterrupted stream of foam, nearly all of which eventually hits the wire mesh of the cage walls and bursts. “The Expo is like a dream machine, producing all kinds of utopian futuristic ideas that can never be realized,” he said.This work was part of a recent World Expo protest exhibition held at OV Gallery in Shanghai.Also on display is a collection of photographs of a home being demolished while the owner is challenging the demolition in court.

The British "Financial Times" commented: During the preparations for the World Expo, a large number of traditional houses and streets in Shanghai were demolished.It also includes Wujiang Road, a famous snack street in Shanghai, where people can eat squid skewers while eating two bites of the much-loved Shanghainese wontons.But the street was also demolished and redeveloped.Starbucks and Krispy Kreme are already on the street.A foreigner who has lived in Shanghai for a long time said: "Money has gradually dominated the city and emptied its soul." Filled with nondescript shopping malls, Starbucks (Starbucks) and ubiquitous Gucci (Gucci) stores, "now It’s hard to find interesting things in Shanghai.” Replacing "cheap" with "noble" is the idea of ​​Shanghai's transformation. She put gold on her face piece by piece, making the city more and more magnificent and more expensive.Gradually, you will find out—"The city makes life better"; perhaps, it just makes the life of the rich better. Shanghai was once known as the "Paris of the Orient", the headquarters of fashion and decadent art in the entire Asian continent. This is the view of Patti Wardmeer (FT Chinese website reporter in Shanghai).But at the same time, he believes that the thirst for luxury formed by decades of absence has made Shanghai no longer just hope to become the Paris of Asia, but to become Paris itself. From the western-style buildings on Fukaisen Road in the past and the "pigeon eggs" on Gordon Road to today's status quo where the world's major luxury brands gather in Shanghai.It is no exaggeration to say that Shanghai has become the luxury empire of tomorrow. 8.6 billion US dollars, accounting for 1/4 of the total global luxury consumer market.This is as of January 2009, the total amount of luxury consumption in China.According to the British consulting firm OC&C, by 2010, the scale of China's luxury goods market will reach 12 billion US dollars. In contrast, under the influence of the financial crisis, the growth rate of luxury consumption in Europe is only half of that in 2007, the United States is basically the same as before, and Japan has a negative growth rate.But "the economic downturn has not had a great impact on mainland China, and the market still has great potential for development." said Christophe Cais, executive director of Albatross Consulting, a luxury goods market research company in Asia. As a result, China's luxury consumption submarine is rapidly surfacing.How important does Shanghai play on this flagship? According to the survey results of nearly 1,000 respondents with an average annual income of 243,000 yuan in 21 first- and second-tier cities across the country in the "2009 China Luxury Report", Shanghai was elected as the first choice destination for luxury consumption by mainland consumers with the highest number of votes. .33.3% of consumers in East China regard Shanghai as the first choice for luxury consumption, and about 10% of consumers in South China, West China and North China each choose to buy luxury goods in Shanghai. On a Monday night in 2010, it rained moderately.In the LV store on the first floor of Hang Lung Plaza, customers are shopping for bags, shoes, and clothes at the counter. Within half an hour, the salesperson has already issued multiple shopping cash registers.A female salesperson on the second floor of the store said: "Our store's business has been very good. Today is Monday and it rains, so there are not many customers. The passenger flow will increase significantly on weekends. In order to provide customers with a comfortable shopping environment, the flow of people was once restricted. " In the eyes of these consumers, Shanghai is undoubtedly the luxury capital of China.Huge luxury advertisements can be seen everywhere among the high-rise buildings, and many grand flagship stores of big brands always have display windows full of distance, non-stop fashion shows, non-stop celebrity parties, everything that can be seen in front of you proves that Shanghai is a hot spot for luxury consumption. In the 1980s, radar advertisements were often seen in this city.At that time, the brand's watches had not yet been sold in mainland China, but its promotion had already begun.Today, the more luxurious Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin watches have already arrived in Shanghai. In the eyes of Wang Ling, managing director of Dieyi Public Relations Company, Shanghai is the first choice for luxury brands to enter the Chinese market.As the public relations company that undertakes the most luxury brand promotions and activities in China, Dieyi PR has developed and grown almost like the history of international luxury brands entering the Chinese market.Wang Ling said: "Shanghai is a city with a very high degree of openness, and its degree of integration with international standards is also one of the best in China. Everyone accepts information about luxury goods very quickly. The behavior and style of Shanghainese people are also very consistent with international practices. For luxury brands, Shanghai is the easiest city for them to enter." Therefore, from No. 798 to No. 806 in the west section of Huaihai Middle Road, several famous watch shops opened in succession: Jaeger-LeCoultre, Piaget, Cartier, Montblanc, Roger Dubius, and Breguet. In June 2009, Gucci opened a 2,000-square-meter flagship store in China on the Golden Eagle Shopping Plaza in the diamond area of ​​Shanghai. This is the fifth store of this luxury brand in Shanghai and the first among many stores in the mainland. This is a specialty store that adopts the latest store design concept of Frida Giannini, the creative director of the brand.In Gucci's sales system, only stores located in world-famous cities such as New York, Rome, Munich, Hong Kong and London can enjoy this treatment.At the same time, news of LV's entry into Lippo Plaza and Armani's entry into Hong Kong Plaza also spread one after another... It is an indisputable fact that the world's major luxury brands have seized Shanghai Bund.And just as Wang Ling said, between the city of Shanghai and luxury goods, it is bastard who looks at mung beans, and the more he looks at them, the more pleasing to the eye.They love each other deeply. Available but not required, this is the consistent definition of Luxury in all authoritative English dictionaries.The word has two meanings: "things that create pleasure and comfort" and "things that are expensive at a great price".In Western culture, there is a clear division of goods - "luxury goods" and "necessities".Just like the commodities in China today, there is an obvious definition - "high-end goods" and "high-end goods".To sum up, as the name suggests, "luxury" embodies the characteristics of high quality, high price and non-essential. Obviously, Shanghai Bund is so keen on making itself a fashion capital and a haven of luxury, not because of its "non-essential" features, but because of its "high-end" quality and price.It seems that when these most expensive goods in the world appear in the shop windows on the streets of Shanghai, the city will be able to connect with the international community. Therefore, Shanghai can't wait to hold the luxury exhibition in 2006.3,000 tycoons from all over the world attended the meeting, and more than half of the mainland tycoons on the Hurun Rich List attended.This "world's top life experience summit", literally translated from English Millionaire Fair, the name of the exhibition is "Millionaire's Grand Meeting".The world's top brands, art treasures, private yachts and top world jewelry are gathered here. Due to the gathering of celebrities such as Carina Lau, Hu Jun, Yang Caini and many rich people, the tickets for the opening ceremony, which are not sold to the public, have been sold at a sky-high price of 1,500 yuan. .In order to ensure the safety of the rich and luxurious exhibitors, 5 million yuan was spent on security expenses alone. The exhibition lasted for 3 days, with 10,000 visitors and 7 million yuan in ticket sales.The products on display are even more valuable - a mansion worth 250 million yuan, jewelry worth 200 million yuan, and a dog necklace worth 500,000 yuan... Even the supermodel Meng Guangmei exclaimed: "I didn't expect it to be such an exhibition at first, so I didn't prepare much for it." Go in, go in and take a look, the feeling can only be described in one word, that is shame." How many people can afford such extravagant "Shanghai"? Just think about it with your toes and you will know the answer.But Shanghai is still defending luxury consumption as a "thorn" that stimulates people's nerves: Some media say that luxury goods cannot be rejected just because many people look down on medical care and poor children cannot go to school.Because "luxury goods themselves are morally neutral, canceling the exhibition will only lose the opportunity to connect with international high-end exhibition activities. To criticize the Shanghai Luxury Show is to use the right gun to hit the wrong target. If the rich The source of wealth is legitimate, and no one can force the rich to consume according to the standards of ordinary people.” I don't know whether it is the "progress" of Shanghai or the misfortune of the general public in this city to have such enthusiasm for becoming an "international metropolis".Shanghai has a total resident population of 18.8846 million (data from the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Statistics in 2008). How many people can afford the above-mentioned expensive life?Let's look at a set of data and compare them more intuitively: In 2006, the per capita income of the United States was 36,276 US dollars, while the per capita income of Shanghai in the same year was 15,641 yuan, or about 2,306 US dollars.If compared with Manhattan, the wealthiest district in New York, this sense of disparity may be even more profound.According to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the first quarter of 2007 in Manhattan, New York City, the per capita weekly salary was US$2,821, and the per capita annual salary was close to US$147,000.This is the gap-Shanghai can move all the high-end goods in New York into its own house, and paste the house full of gold, but the price is that the people who live in the house have to pay higher rent for it. Because the benefits in front of us are naked: Colliers International released the 2009 spring global store report, pointing out that Shanghai entered the top 50 for the first time in the global store rent ranking; among them, although the rent of high-quality street stores in Hong Kong fell by 3.8% year-on-year, the year-on-year The rent still reaches US$1,192 per square foot (1 square meter = 10.763 square feet), which is the highest rent level in Asia and ranks third in the world; while the rent of shops on Nanjing West Road in Shanghai has risen to US$245 per square foot per year , and began to climb steadily from the second quarter of 2008. The facts are clear at a glance.Making money and making more money is the highest purpose of this "golden house". Therefore, in July 2009, the Yimei Fashion Plaza in the Jing'an Temple commercial district, which had been booming for seven years, was closed for renovation.After the shopping mall was completed in 2002, it has gradually become a popular underground shopping mall and has always been popular with young people.However, relevant people believe that its business style and product categories do not match the surrounding high-end business atmosphere.For this reason, among the nearly 300 shops, some shops catering to middle-aged people and students will be gradually eliminated, and transformed into mid-to-high-end retail malls for white-collar people.Regarding this transformation, many citizens are worried, "Jing'an kiosk is gone, if Yimei also departs from the parity route, will the Jing'an Temple business district be farther and farther away from the public?" And this kind of worry also applies to Shanghai itself. Is this increasingly high-end and expensive city getting farther and farther away from the common people?Maybe one day when you wake up, you find sadly that this expensive "golden house" can no longer allow you to live poetically.