Has Shanghai changed?

Adam asked me this question in one of his recent emails. Here are what I have discovered:

Huge residential buildings:
Shanghai has about 20 million population and still growing. It seems to me that Shanghai's residential buildings are only going to be above 30 storeys. I found quite a lot of places looked like a 'cement forest'. And of course, if I compare to Europe, there are far less trees here. My family was asked to move out of where we lived - a 3 story house reasonably close to the city centre. And the subsidy we were given to move out is far less than how much an apartment of the same size costs in the same area. So the choices left are - either you buy an apartment and pay the rest on your own or live in 'rural Shanghai'. I read a post regarding CSR in China on @.net talking about this entire movement is about improving citizen's living conditions. However, I don't understand HOW it is working.

There is this typical architecture style in Shanghai called 'Shi Ku Men'. We have a new posh bar/restaurant area built entirely with such buildings called 'Xin Tian Di' - a must-go place for tourists and party place for expatriates or those who desperately want to date foreigners.

The irony is that on one hand, real estate investors want to build such tranditional Shanghai style area, and on the other hand, we are replacing tons of 'Shi Ku Men' residential buildings modern apartment buildings. And I failed to google pictures of 'Shi Ku Men' buildings - either the sites cannot be displayed or the pictures are all removed. Sigh~

One cannot speak Shanghai-nese in Shanghai any more:
I caught a subway yesterday and found that there are a lot of people living here coming from other parts of China. Shanghai people used to feel very superior over anyone else from China and we only speak Shanghai-nese. If anybody speaks Mandarin instead of Shanghai dialect, s/he might end up not getting a good service or not being able to get directions from the locals just because we don't like those not from this city.

However, those who are playing around real estate (especially apartments downtown) are exactly those NOT from this city. Unlike the past, a lot of people coming to Shanghai to become a construction worker or babysitter. Today they came to earn big bucks. They live in better area, nicer apartments, drive better cars, dine in better restaurants. They are simply richer.

4 subway lines already:
I used to only use Line 1 and Line 2 a lot. Yesterday I took line 4. The subway map looks a bit more complicated and sophisticated - as if we are soon catching up to be one of those world class cities - surely, we will be very soon. The infrastructure of this city continues to be the priority of our government.

I used to be very proud of being a born Shanghai-nese. Later on, I grew to love Beijing because how dynamic it is. I just came back for 3 days - way too early to judge if I still feel so much connected to my home city. I also have started to meet more people downtown which helps me to rediscover my own city.

I am pretty conditioned while residing in different places. I am so far patient with spending hours traveling on subways and buses, the chaos and the polution. Most of all, I really love eating Chinese food and spending time with my family. The only thing sucks so far is 'language' - I need some time to use my native language more eloquently. ;-)