There are two main takeaways from today’s experiences in Shanghai, and they are related to each other.  The first is that going to certain parts of Shanghai feels like stepping into the future.  The second is that urban planning is much more complex and insane and thorough than I assumed it would be.

This morning, we visited the Lujiazui area of Shanghai.  It is the fancy financial district with lots of banking and financial towers, the location of three of the tallest towers in China (including the new Shanghai Tower, which is fabulous and also terrifying!).  We went to the observation deck at the top of the Shanghai World Financial Center, which was impressive but unfortunately not as exciting as I expected it to be, mostly  because there was a glare on the windows and the “glass floor” was very disappointing.  However, the morning was incredible simply because the walk around Lujiazui actually felt like strolling in a futuristic city – the roads are wide but cars are sparse, there are clean and wide pedestrian bridges throughout the entire area, the skyscrapers are numerous and sleek and shiny, and the people are all dressed in fancy business outfits.  It honestly felt like walking around in a movie set in the future.

Our lecture in the afternoon was a perfect compliment to the time-travel-like experience in Lujiazui.  We took a trip to Tongji University’s graduate campus, where we were given a lecture on urban planning inside the super-posh IKEA-esque modern and colorful Sino-Finnish center.  Urban planning is a subject in which I have absolutely no background, but I found the lecture fascinating.  The professor gave an enthusiastic and lengthy talk on general Shanghai urban planning and more specifically on his experience planning the 2010 World Expo (which I attended!  It was really amazing).  Although I didn’t understand the more abstract urban planning concepts and technical economic jargon in his presentation, it was interesting to learn about the immense amount and diversity of consideration that goes into planning cities.  I did not get the chance to ask questions related to my research topic (I wanted to ask about how urban planners accommodate mass amounts of rural-to-urban migration into their plans for housing), but I will send questions later.  I was not at all disappointed in the lecture, because it really fit nicely into the morning experience.  Having attended the lecture, it now makes much more sense why Lujiazui (and comparable areas in Tokyo, Taipei, Seoul, etc.) feel so futuristic – they’re planned with the future in mind.