Shanghai would be breathtaking if you had any breath

SHANGHAI -- You want to talk about a happening place ....

Sunday’s Shanghai Daily reported that 98% of downtown — and you can’t believe how big downtown is — is now covered by a state-of-the-art 3G mobile phone network so people on the street can stream TV coverage of Friday’s opening ceremonies in Beijing.

Meanwhile, China Mobile’s local branch is renting handsets to tourists for 10 yuan — $1.46 — a day.

With an estimated 20 million inhabitants, this city is more the size of a U.S. county. At 2,400 square miles, imagine something 60% the size of Los Angeles County (4,000 square miles). But instead of downtown, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Ventura Blvd., and all the other cities and residential areas with houses, yards and malls, there are high-rises.

Not only are so many of the downtown buildings new, they're spectacular. Architects here are seemingly uninterested in building something utilitarian and rectangular with lines that just go straight up and down.

On its way to Sunday's exhibition game against Russia, the U.S. men’s basketball team passed the soaring curves of Shanghai Stadium, which will host some preliminary Olympic soccer games. It's a little surprising to learn it holds 80,000 people because it looks big enough to hold 125,000.

With Coach Mike Krzyzewski giving his team Monday off before its final exhibition here against Australia, I rode up the Orient Pearl TV tower, one of the tallest in the world (No. 3 or 4, depending on which list, with the CN Tower in Toronto No. 1) right across the Yangtze River from the Bank of China Building which Ethan Hunts jumps off in "Mission: Impossible III."

The view is breathtaking even if you can see so little of it through the haze. The word "breathtaking" is ironic because that's downside of all this growth, breathing. By local standards, Los Angeles is like Fargo, N.D.

-- Mark Heisler

Photo: Deron Williams, right, claps hands with a young patient during a USA men's basketball team visit to the Shanghai Children's Medical Center on Monday. Teammates Michael Redd and Tayshaun Prince also visited. Credit: Liu Jin / AFP / Getty Images

Comments

[James]

Is it possible for any western writer to visit China and not make a huge dig at the air quality? I mean, my god! We get it o.k.? Do you think New York in the 1880's would have been any better? Give 'em a break...

[ohioblue]

Yes, but we weren't able to visit NYC in 1880. Until you've experienced Shanghai, or Guangzhou, or Hangzhou with air so thick with particulate pollution that it seems like you should be able to slice it, box it, and send it home, you haven't really seen poor air quality. It's like breathing pure diesel exhaust.

[Ryan]

Los Angeles County is not the largest county size-wise. Measured in population -- yes, I guess it is. San Bernardino County is way bigger at 20,105 square miles!

[alvin]

"At 2,400 square miles, imagine something 60% the size of Los Angeles County, the biggest in the U.S. with 4,000 square miles."

LAC might be the most populous, but it is not the biggest measured by land area. San Bernardino County is 5x the size.

[hope]

i'm an asian that lives in hong kong. the air across the border, which is china, is bad. period. we get the environmental runoff here every day-- and when the factories shut for an extended period of time, you can see it.
you don't have to be a westerner to work that out.
and by the way, its not new york in the 1880's. its the 21st century. china should know better, and it does. it just can't be bothered to do anything about it.. yet.

[Tim]

I've been to both Shanghai and Beijing. The air could be better, but it's like LA on a bad day. Nothing we haven't all experienced a thousand times.

[christine]

James, have you been to China? The air is truly horrible!

I totally agree with Heisler. Shanghai makes New York City feel like a village!

[Gil Fish]

The smog really is spectacular in the worst way. Much worse in Beijing. No wonder every one there walks in measured paces. Shanghai is truly the anti-LA in terms of architecture and vision. No unreasonable zoning restrictions, no neighborhood associations killing the bigger picture or politicians looking out for their fiefdom. LA can't even see the benefit of extending the Red Line 8 miles let alone thinking of putting a Mag-Lev Bullet Train like Shanghai.

[Noel Conner]

Please Remember, LA "smog" during the 1984 Olympics was just as newsworthy to foreign press.n I understand your frustration but when you experience the sheer weight of the air in Bejing, you can't help but have it populate a conversation.

[Winston from Shanghai]

I was born and raised and have been living in Shanghai more than 30 years. I lived in NJ and NYC for 6 years as well. When I first came back from the States, I really felt the air in Shanghai was a bit worse. Then I got used to it. Honestly speaking it's been better day by day. And one thing is for sure, the life expectancy for the residents in Shanghai is around 80 for both male and female, which I believe is much higher than the average in the US, which I last heard was around 76. We've still got a long way to go. When you westerners move all your manufacturings here in China, the by-products they produce is pollution. We're actually sacrificing ourselves to make cheap goods for you, so that you can live a better and healthier life. So please give us a break. Thank you.