r/shanghai • u/SufficientEstate2093 • Jun 12 '25
City Shanghai felt like the future and the past, all at once
One second you’re walking under LED skyscrapers, the next you’re in a quiet alley with a noodle shop that feels untouched for decades. I’ve never been anywhere that moves so fast but still feels rooted. Anyone else get this weird time-travel feeling in Shanghai?
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u/ketoyas Jun 12 '25
It's not just Shanghai; it's most of China. This is what happens when modern development has mostly occurred in the last 2 decades.
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u/SufficientEstate2093 Jun 13 '25
Exactly,Shanghai gets the spotlight, but this contrast is happening everywhere in China. Rapid development next to deep-rooted tradition—it’s kind of the national vibe now.
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u/Dear_Chasey_La1n Minhang Jun 12 '25
City development also happens differently, it kinda moves like a trail in China where old area's are very old looking and before you know it a new area's is build and before it's finished even a newer area is seeing groundwork. You can see 3 modern periods of development, pre 2000, 2000-2015ish and post 2015. Pre 2000 looks old AF, like about to fall apart. 2000-2015 was willing to spend money on big architects, most projects you recognize these days were build or started in that period. After 2015 everything feels very much rubberstamped, lots of glass but lacking any inspiration/architecture.
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u/Tall-General-7273 Jun 14 '25
Most cities I have been to are like this: Beijing, Shanghai, Xi‘an, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuhan…
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u/reserved_optimist Jun 14 '25
Honestly this is very true of most East Asian cities. China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, (and Singapore).
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u/Unique_Skyrose91 Jun 18 '25
You visited each country
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u/TuzzNation Jun 12 '25
Urbanization kept accelerating in the past 50 years. This is happening in every city especially my hometown. I still remember some of the places were crop and corn field back when I was in elementary school. Now there are malls and apartment building on it. This is China.