Shanghai in Crisis on the Eve of Its Expo

Reaching Shanghai from the sea is an unforgettable experience. The first impression is one of hugeness, since Shanghai harbor is truly immense. Huge is the line of ships either anchored or moored in the port. Huge is its muddy river flowing into the sea, brown with pollution. Impossibly tall cranes dominate the view. Seventy kilometers inland from the Huangpu's delta, you can find the Bund, the mythical mall harking back to colonial times. Next to Huangpu, the Yangtse, Asia's longest river, also flows into the China Sea. On the islands of its delta lies an immense container terminal, linked to the mainland by the world's third largest bridge. Thus the port of Shanghai port is not only huge, it's also very modern, since it harbors the last-generation megaships carrying containers and containers of goods to and from China. Shanghai moved 30 million TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) of merchandise last year, almost as much as Singapore, the world's top commercial port. Shanghai is also a hub for the shipment of coal and ferrous minerals: in 2008, it moved 500 million tons of the stuff. This is but a confirmation of Shanghai's historical role as China's gateway to the world, providing the most important trading and shipping outlet for mainland production. The crisis is affecting life at the port, normally bustling with activity. Too many cranes are idle, several ships have been moored for months, stacks of containers are piling up. Over the first half of 2009, the port's activity has shrunk by 15.6%. Imports into the harbor have dropped by 21.3%, while exports by only 5.3%. What's surprising is that Shanghai has been adversely affected more than the other Chinese coastal cities, and all this at the eve of the World Expo, scheduled to be held in the Chinese metropolis in 2010. Foreign capital is taking other routes. The city has become an extremely crowded megalopolis, paralyzed by traffic and suffocated by smog. Its real estate bubble is likely to burst soon. Shanghai once ran faster than China, but now, bitten by the crisis, it is in search for a new identity, as it waits for a recovery in global demand in the not-so-distant future, and for the touristic and commercial success of the Expo in the short term.