What a market of 650,000,000 can bring to consumers.

by fulltimestudent 5 Replies latest social current

• 

  fulltimestudent

  Imagine a nation like the USA with a population of 650,000,000 jammed into the same geographical area. That vision allows us to see what may be the future in contemporary China. Particularly so, as there are another 650,000,000 ready/wanting to move into that same vision. Its actually hard to imagine, which is the reason so many western commentators trip over themselves in making forecasts about China. What has happened there is unprecedented in human history.

  Allow me one point to illustrate my argument. Shanghai is already an exciting city, both in the entertainment and business senses. (the daughter of an acquaintance, doing a 2 year languange course at a university near Shanghai, and with some experience of New York in her recent life, calls Shanghai, the 'world's best party place,' I'm not quite sure of what she has experienced, as the party scene is not quite my personal scene. More importantly, Shanghai is an important business centre and the Chinese government's intention is to make it even more important).

  But it's only about 30 years ago, that many western commentators were laughing at what they called the stupidity of the Chinese government, when high-rise office buildings started to appear in Pudong (an area on the other side of the Huangpu River opposite the Bund and the area known as Puxi, which had been the western world's financial centre in pre-1949 China.)

  If you can't visualise it, here's an illustrated map:

  

  The western commentator's laughed because there were no tenants in the office buildings, and yet more were being built. No-on laughs today - Pudong is only one area of thriving financial/manufacturing activity in Shanghai. Shanghai is also the home of the world's largeest port and two other large ports nearby.

  Rank	Port	Country	Measure	2011 [1] kiloton	2010 [2] kiloton	2009 [3] kiloton	2008 [4] kiloton	2007 [5] kiloton	2006 [6] kiloton	2005 [7] kiloton	2004 [8] kiloton
  1	Shanghai	China	MT	590,439	534,371	505,715	508,000	561,446	537.0	443,000	378,962
  2	Singapore	Singapore	FT	531,176	501,566	472,300	515,415	483,616	448.5	423,267	393,418
  3	Tianjin	China	MT	459,941	400,000	381,110	365,163	309,465	257.6	245,100	206,161
  4	Rotterdam	Netherlands	MT	434,551	429,926	386,957	421,136	401,181	378.4	376,600	352,563
  5	Guangzhou	China	MT	431,000	425,600	364,000	347,000	341,363	302.8	241,700	215,190
  6	Qingdao	China	MT	372,000	350,120	274,304	278,271	265,020	224.2	184,300	161,650
  7	Ningbo	China	MT	348,911	408,180	371,540	361,850	471,630	309.7	272,400	225,850
  8	Qinhuangdao	China	MT	284,600	276,815	243,850	252,000	245,964	204.9	167,500	150,320
  9	Busan	South Korea	RT	281,513	262,963	226,182	241,683	243,564	217.9	217,200	219,760

  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world's_busiest_ports_by_cargo_tonnage

  No-one laughs today at Shanghai. And please remember that in south China, the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hongkong centre (also called the Pearly River delta) is likely as large a business area as Shanghai.

  I'll post some more (my own piks) of what is happening in Shanghai on a different thread. What I wanted to discuss in this thread, is what a market similar to the USA, but with a 650,000,000 size can bring to the market place.

  And to show that I want to jump up (from Shanghai) the Yangzi River, take a cruise ship if you want a slow leisurely trip, or if you're in a hurry, take a very fast train and cover the 300 km in as little (no stops) as 73 minutes. There are over 250 scheduled services leaving Shanghai's three main terminus stations each day to the city of Nanjing
• 

  fulltimestudent

  As we leave Shanghai, reflect on these two piks. The first is from Wikimedia and shows Pudong Construction sites in 2009.

  

  and the second shows Pudong in the early evening. The tallest building on the right is the Shanghai Tower (designed by American Architectural firm, Gensler, with Jun Xia leading the design team) with 121 floors and 632 metres high.

  
• 

  JWdaughter

  It looks a little overwhelming to me.

  How many JWs in Shanghai, anyway?
• 

  fulltimestudent

  JWdaughter:

  It looks a little overwhelming to me.

  How many JWs in Shanghai, anyway?

  The crowds in China can make you feel overwhelmed, though I've found them reasonably good-humoured. I'm not small and I can't quite describe the feeling of being picked up by a crush of people and moved forward by a crowd pushing into a carriage on a subway train.

  As to how many JW's in Shanghai, only the WTS knows the answer and its unlikely they'd tell us. But I believe there must be JWs in Shanghai, why? Well, we know there are JWs in China, (in fact there are perhaps 100 million Christians (of all brands) in China). And, since Shanghai was, (prior to 1949 and before that WW2), a western controlled city, there must have been witnesses preaching there. I've seen an experience of a conversion from as early as the late 1890's.

  Someone else may have a better memory than I have for that sort of detail.
• 

  fulltimestudent

  The population statistics for the area around Shanghai are:

  1. Shanghai - 23 million.

  2. Jiangsu Province- 80 Million (Includes the city of Nanjing-about 8 million, and Suzhou- about 10,000,000)

  3. Zhejiang Province- 55 million (includes the major cities of Hangzhou and Ningbo- with another major port)

  That makes nearly 160 million with the major centres now (by fast train) only about one hour from Shanghai.

  All these cities are transforming at a fast pace. New construction is happening all across the area. And the new buildings reflect the rising aspirations of the people who will live in these new developments.

  Here's a new development that's just started in Nanjing:

  Note: These are Artist's impressions.

  

  

  

  It's interesting that the Chinese design team has enough self-confidence to call itself MAD Architects.

  ArchDaily ( Reference: http://www.archdaily.com/tag/mad-architects/ ) recently wrote of Ma Yansong (The Principal), in these words.

  2014 seems to be the year of Ma Yansong , as the founder of MAD Architects , who was recently named a Young Global Leader , has now been listed as one of the top 100 most creative people in business by Fast Company. Ranked at 53, the Beijing-based architect was the only architect featured on the list.
• 

  fulltimestudent

  Ma Yansong says that his design philosophy is based on the ancient Chinese concept of Shan-shui whuch translates as: Mountains and water

  Here's a recently completed hotel designed by MAD Architects, (and managed by the Sheraton chain).

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz6aVGNkn8Q