The phenomenon of modern China is unquestionably a lively topic among journalists and writers around the world. There are dozens and dozens of books and countless articles coming out on this subject every year. Having lived in Shanghai off and on for the last 2 years (and with many visits to this country over more than 30 years), I often reflect on how my perceptions of this city, and China at large, have changed over time. Certainly my views have become more nuanced and complex.

I'm afraid that when many people in the West today think of China they conjure negative images from the past that might feature gray, dystopian industrial cities and faceless workers toiling in sweat shops. This simplistic sort of view misses out not only on the reality of the life of most people here, but it also loses sight of the incredible social and economic transformation taking place in China. Shanghai, a wealthy and sophisticated city of 24 million people, may not be typical of much of China, but its varied complexity serves as a microcosm that contains a lot of what modern China is all about.

As is usual in my postings, I write here primarily about the physical characteristics of this city and how it measures up, really, to other cities around the world. It's one way to get a fix on modern China. 

I enter the fray here with caution. Because of its enormity, Shanghai is not a place succinctly described. It's a city of towering skyscrapers, broad, tree-lined avenues, and colossal infrastructure projects, with many areas clearly a part of the wealthy, developed world.  It's also a city still containing dense and often rather untidy older neighborhoods that might be more typical of the China of the past, and of less wealthy cities of central and western China. A unique aspect of Shanghai, and really its incredible treasure, is its extensive areas of European architecture dating from Shanghai’s period as an international trade and finance hub in the first half of the last century. Walking through the streets of the the former French Concession can lead one to nostalgia for cities in France or Germany. Nowhere else in East Asia has anything like it. ​​

For those familiar with East Asia and its development over the last half century, Shanghai  fits rather well into the familiar pattern of stunning growth and transformation of East Asia’s megacities. Following in the footsteps of trailblazer Tokyo (the first Asian capital to join the rich world), and the subsequent  rise of Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul and Taipei, Shanghai is very rapidly approaching the status of wealthy, developed world city. Its income per head is higher than several European Union countries, and life expectancy of its residents is as high as in Switzerland. In fact, no large US city can match Shanghai’s life expectancy. Its public education system is also one of the best in the world and Shanghai students score at the top of international PISA tests. Finally, Shanghai feels like a very safe city. Violent crime is rare. This is not something to be scoffed at in a country that just 30 years ago was deeply impoverished. The Chinese are clearly doing something right. 

Taking off my rose-tinted glasses for a moment, there are certainly challenges here. Pollution levels are too high (although generally much better than in Beijing), housing is very costly, there’s still a roughness around the edges in many parts of the city, and government control over the internet and media is highly frustrating. The air pollution requires checking pollution levels before deciding to go out and get some exercise (today it's not too bad). The high cost of housing diminishes living standards for many people. The great China firewall makes accessing any Google product, Facebook, and some western media (including the New York Times) impossible without a VPN, and even with one, shaky and slow. The positives of life in Shanghai, however, well outweigh the negatives, and I try to stay focused on those.

​I spend the bulk of my time in the older historic center, Here you can find delightful islands of civility, style and elegance – areas that would look at home in Singapore, Hong Kong or even Tokyo.  This is where many expatriates and the wealthiest Chinese live in luxury high rises, surrounded by glamorous retail stores and malls, and always near wonderful old structures from the last century. You find smartly paved sidewalks, cozy cafes and streets filled with imported cars. In fact, I’ve never seen so many Bentleys, Rolls Royces and Maseratis in any other city.

Every evening I take a bike ride to explore new areas of the center, and rarely come away without a new discovery, be it an interesting old building that seems like it's been transplanted from Europe, or a masterfully landscaped park tucked in between tall buildings. I should add here that Shanghai, although very densely populated, has many parks, and the city lavishes a lot of attention on them. They are beautifully maintained and use the highest quality materials. It can be an inspiration to any urban designer. 

The charm and elegance of this area, centered on the former French Concession, has received so much attention that I will limit myself to sharing just a few pictures below, not of famous buildings, but just typical run of the mill buildings so common to the streets here. 

The best way to get a glimpse of modern China (and to see where China is quickly heading as a country) is to move to the new areas of Shanghai that have been built in the last 10 or 15 years, and to those that are being newly built now. It's easy to see that the older, shoddier areas of the city are rapidly being demolished and replaced. I imagine that a visitor to Shanghai in 2030 will be hard pressed to find any of these unattractive places remaining.

This 'new' China is a very different world from both the historical center of Shanghai and the poor and disheveled neighborhoods of the past. Modern urban China, although often rather gray and characterless, is highly organized and generally tidy. The vast scale of development communicates both an urgency to get as many people as possible decently housed and physically connected as well as a phenomenal capacity for construction. Vast banks of tall residential buildings, sprawling centers of offices and governmental and cultural buildings, go on as far as the eye can see.

The very vastness and density of the city, which necessitates massively broad road systems, deprives much of the new city of human scale. This leaves many residential developments as islands unto themselves, with their own stores and restaurants. But whatever they may lack in charm, it is certainly hard to be unimpressed by the obvious rapidity of development and what that must mean to the average Chinese person. China is creating a new, much more livable and comfortable world for a huge portion of its population. In some ways, I think the metaphor of ‘taming the wilderness” is apt. China before the era of reforms and high economic growth was a vast territory of rather bleak poverty and maybe even hopelessness. This ‘wilderness’ is well on the way to being tamed, as first-world infrastructure, including modern housing, is taking over the landscape.  

Some more typical residential areas are pictured below.

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A cornerstone of quality of life in any city is mobility. If people can't move smoothly and quickly from one part of a city to another, the daily commute becomes a wearying struggle and often the poor can't even reach jobs in business or wealthier areas. This is something I see often in the United States and Latin American countries, such as Mexico. I know of people in Mexico who require two hours each way via a combination of multiple buses to reach their jobs...this adds up to an expensive 4 hour daily commute. In America, the poor generally have to rely on totally substandard public transportation or on older cars that are prone to breakdown and repairs they can't afford. Research has shown that this is one of the key drivers of urban poverty. The toll poor transit options takes on people and families is heavy.

Shanghai is a case study of a city that has prioritized and excelled at world-class public transportation. It continues to expand the longest metro system in the world, and has shiny clean stations. For those off the metro grid, there are very decent and inexpensive buses that link to the metro. It's easy to get most anywhere in Shanghai by public transportation, although to use the buses it's very helpful to be able to read at least some Chinese characters.
 
For those relying on private cars or taxis, Shanghai's wide roads help minimize the worst sorts of traffic jams. As unappealing as these big streets are in terms of the pedestrian experience, they act like highways in the middle of cities and keep traffic moving..

As in every place I live, I tend to get around Shanghai by bicycle whenever the weather (and air quality) allows for this. Like most Chinese cities, Shanghai is well suited to bicyclists. Most major roads have specialized, very wide bicycle lanes, and even smaller streets are so heavily frequented by bicycles that drivers are accustomed to giving them space. That's not to say that bicycling, or driving for that matter, is for the faint of heart. To the uninitiated, Shanghai's streets are rather chaotic and little heed is paid to pedestrian crossing signals. Motorists seem to be willing to run down pedestrians, drive on the wrong side of the road without warning, or to just stop in the middle of the road to take time to think. Bicyclists follow similar rules and routinely run red lights and dart between cars (who rarely slow down for them) in a really crazy race to get somewhere fast. I'm honestly surprised at the very few accidents I see here.  

A pleasant thing about biking (and walking) in Shanghai is that you are almost always covered by a lovely canopy of trees. In the hot summer this makes city life so much more pleasant. The Chinese are tree crazy and I have to commend them on the huge number of trees they are caring for and constantly planting. Despite the incredible population density here, Shanghai is in many ways a green city.  
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Below are some pictures of bicycle lanes

​Probably the most surprising discovery for me in Shanghai is the leafy suburban neighborhoods that seem to have come straight out of Los Angeles or Atlanta (or even Beverly Hills).  Here you will find winding, tree-lined streets, well-manicured, grassy lawns, quiet cul-de-sacs, and community centers with swimming pools. My business partner and her family live in a development like this, next to the Shanghai American School. When you enter this place, Rancho Santa Fe, it’s hard to imagine you’re still in urban China. Children play on green lawns, ride their bicycles along very quiet and shaded streets, and the smell of neighborhood barbecues fill the air. One such development, a short walk from Rancho Santa Fe, is Forest Manor, a kind of Chinese Beverly Hills from what I can tell. Forest Manor was built to impress. There are imposing gates at the entrances, huge mansions lining broad, tree-lined streets, swimming pools, and tennis courts.  It’s an ostentatious show of wealth. This is something I haven't seen in other Asian capitals. It certainly doesn’t exist in Tokyo to the best of my knowledge.

​There is always a mystery to life in a radically foreign society where so much is so easy to misunderstand – and in the case of China, where the written language is generally incomprehensible to foreigners. Sometimes I like to think about how my perceptions of this country would change if suddenly all the signs were in German, English or Japanese. It would certainly make things more familiar and easier to understand - and it would probably shift my perceptions in a positive direction, as I associate those languages with high levels of development. Inundation in Chinese script and even the spoken language colors perceptions of strangeness and inaccessibility. This can be a major barrier to a full and independent life for foreigners here.

This barrier is a shame because it masks so many magical things just waiting for discovery. This includes the countless tasty dishes on menus of restaurants, the signs advertising services like acupuncture (what a difference that has made to me), and of course all the animated conversations taking place in this very talkative country. But being hidden also brings a sense of adventure in trying to understand and get below the surface. This makes for an exciting urban experience if you are open to it. 

Tokyo is arguably the greatest city in the world.  It is certainly the biggest and is a world leader in things ranging from safety (safer than Zurich) to the number of Michelin 3 star restaurants (more than Paris). 

What makes Tokyo so tantalizing to me is its unrivaled density of alluring features and its profusion of things to do and see.  The very structure of Tokyo is based upon adeptly and intensively utilizing every square meter of available space.  This intensity, flavored with Japanese culture, is the alchemy that creates this city's good life. 

The beauty of Tokyo is not the sort of beauty people associate with cities such as Paris.  Paris and Tokyo do have certain things in common, including incredible food, high culture, and general sophistication.  But Tokyo's beauty is not visible on a grand scale.  Instead it resides in the small details of every street. 

These details are evident on every street you walk along.  But in Tokyo's main shopping and entertainment districts, the density of detail is like nothing you will see anywhere else.  The picture to the right shows a street in Shibuya, with signs advertising fast food, convenience stores, restaurants, karaoke boxes and pachinko parlors among many other businesses.  It's a kind of madness that plays out on multiple levels in all the multi-storied buildings.  It's quite normal to go up 6 floors to visit your favorite bar.  The strangeness to most foreigners of the written Japanese language makes Tokyo appear even madder than it is.  But reading the language is like turning on the lights!  There is so much information. 

The intensity of details and features is not skin deep.  It penetrates into most any business you enter.  You can see it in the tightly-packed 24-hour convenience stores that are everywhere.  They are brimming with products and services often unlike those in any other country, with astounding variety, including prepared Japanese foods, an enormous variety of beverages, and a broad selection of groceries and toiletries.  While living in Japan for 10 years, I was always disappointed to come home and see the relatively barren, often dirty, 7-11 stores in the US.  I wondered how they could afford to utilize their retail space so poorly. 

Drug stores are equally full of density and surprises.  The picture above shows Matsumoto Kiyoshi, one of my favorites, in Yurakucho (near Tokyo Station).  I don't believe you can find intense organization and variety like this in any store outside of Japan.  Shelves and all available spaces, literally, are carefully and artfully filled with seemingly unending products.  This product variety, I believe, is partly due to Japan having a dualistic medical system based on both Western medicine and traditional Japanese medicine (similar to Chinese medicine).  I wonder if product developers from the US and Europe come to Japan for new product ideas.  The stores are full of them!

The retail abundance in convenience and drug stores is not an anomaly.  The remarkable cornucopia extends into many other types of businesses, from bountiful bookstores to exhaustively stocked do-it-yourself stores such as the eight-story-tall Tokyu Hands in Shibuya,. pictured at the right.

In my opinion, it's difficult to find retail rivaling Japan's abroad, at least when it comes to the variety and quality of products offered. 

I'm interested in Japan's hyper-developed retail spaces because, like Japanese cooking (which I wrote about in my last posting), they help provide a kind of framework for understanding the uniqueness of Tokyo and other Japanese cities.  They're a window into Japanese culture that showcase characteristics that permeate and define Tokyo's general physical environment and urban infrastructure.

A striking example of the Japanese approach to urban design is Ohashi Junction in Ikejiri-Ohashi.  This traffic management project includes a new covered highway interchange enmeshed in a complex of apartment buildings, retail outlets, a public library, a soccer field and a 'rooftop' park (including a rice paddy) extending along the cover of the circular junction (see the picture to the right).  This project exemplifies the detail-oriented, space intensive, innovative design that makes Tokyo unique. 

As this massive project was only minutes from where I stayed in Ikejiri-Ohashi, I had plenty of time to explore the details.  As you can see in the pictures below, very little space went to waste and high quality materials were used throughout.  I marveled at the pristine and seemingly perfect cement used throughout the structure.  If a project of this quality, complexity and innovativeness were to arise in New York or London, it would be world famous.  Nowhere else have I seen highway infrastructure so fully and tastefully integrated into the urban fabric that it actually improves a neighborhood. 

I took the elevator up to the Meguro Sky Garden above the interchange and ventured out into the lush landscaping high above the streets of Tokyo.  It was hard to imagine that I was walking on the roof of a highway junction.  The park space was comfortable, with plenty of places to sit and enjoy the view.  It was remarkable and a true green oasis in what would normally be a wasteland used only by vehicles. 

If you want to see what it's like to drive through the interchange and then further along a covered highway emerging in another part of Tokyo, check out this video.

Below are a few pictures I took on my walk around the project. 

Almost directly across the street from the Ohashi Junction project is the entrance to the Meguro Green Promenade, another example of unusual design and evidence of the surprising complexity and diversity of Tokyo.  I was in Ikejiri-Ohashi because the friends I stayed with live here, and I just happened to discover these things within five minutes of their home. 

The Green Promenade runs for several kilometers along the surface of a covered portion of the Meguro River and has been designed as a peaceful oasis in the middle of this hectic city.  It is filled with biodiversity and features a little stream with crystal-clear water which provides a home for small fish, crayfish and water striders. 

The surrounding landscaping is atypical, especially for Tokyo, in that it has a high level of plant, insect and animal biodiversity.  Although I was in the center of the biggest city in the world, I saw many birds, butterflies and other insect life.  This totally artificial creation has become an important refuge for nature.   

In the video below, you can walk with me along the Promenade. I need to improve my video-taking technique, but it's a glimpse into another part of Tokyo few visitors see. 

One day I went to visit my old central-Tokyo neighborhood of Bunkyo Ward (where I lived for 10 years), and was pleased to see the evidence of citizen involvement in maintaining the urban environment. 

The sign to the right is from a local non-profit in the Hongo neighborhood. The organization works to keep the streets clean and green.  This NPO (non-profit organization) is called something like "Towning Hongo" if translated into English.  This sign illustrates the flexibility and acquisitiveness of the Japanese language.  Japanese unabashedly appropriates words, acronyms and even grammatical phrases from foreign languages with no fear of diluting itself.  The Japanese may at times be a bit xenophobic, but their language isn't.  The top line of the sign reads "NPO Corporation 'Machi-ing' Hongo.

New citizen-based movements are taking to the streets as a reaction to poor economic conditions, lower government resources and a shift away from small, private businesses to chain stores and restaurants.  The locally owned stores were apparently better neighborhood stewards. 

Finally, a word on transport.  Tokyo has by far the most comprehensive and complex public transportation network in the world.   It is as dense and complex as everything else in this city but makes getting around very easy and stress-free (except, perhaps, during rush hour).  Tokyoites tend to take public transport, walk or ride their bicycles instead of driving cars. 

This city is also connected with all other major cities in Japan by the world-famous bullet train system (picture at left).  The stations and trains are spotless and trains are almost always perfectly on time. 

Below is a map of the full Tokyo metropolitan commuter rail network, including subways and the many other private rail lines Tokyoites use to get around their metro area.  There are over 1000 stations.  No system anywhere else comes close in scale. 

The miracles of the Japanese kitchen, particularly in the home of a highly skilled cook, begin in a place like you see in the picture to the left.  The kitchen is a densely packed space, assembled with function, not aesthetics, in mind.  There are dozens of tools and utensils that would puzzle most anyone from outside this East Asian island.  But somehow the complex orchestration of cooking items becomes a thing of beauty - particularly when you understand the nuanced delicacies that emerge from this space.  This is the kitchen of my dear friend, the extraordinarily talented cook, Sachiko Onishi.  Sachiko was surprised that I wanted to take pictures of her kitchen.  It's a place I had become very used to over the many years I lived in Tokyo.

It may be odd that I'm writing about a Japanese kitchen in a blog focused on urban design, but I was struck with the parallels between this Japanese kitchen and the lively and engaging urban spaces in Tokyo.  And furthering the culinary link, while in China and Japan on this trip, I spent a lot of time thinking about food, and how good food and good urban spaces have certain key things in common.  More on this later.

First a look at a kitchen drawer to the right, with a collection of rice bowls, bowls for miso soup, and small tea cups. Note that the high-quality bowls and cups are not matching, as would be common in the US or Europe.  Instead each is unique, providing additional variety and aesthetic pleasure to a meal. 

In the pictures below you get a peek into four cupboards in Sachiko's kitchen.  Here are arrayed the widely varied set of dishes required for Japanese cuisine.  The Japanese do not generally eat meals on one large plate.  Instead, each individual food item (and in a typical Japanese meal there are many items) has its own, often small, dish. 

You can see that even the western-style coffee and tea cups hanging in one cabinet are different and not matching.  It's an extra pleasure to have a different, beautiful cup with your coffee every morning. The visual and tactile dimension of dishes is very important to the Japanese. 

Let me add that while staying with Sachiko's family for 10 days, the morning coffee was meticulously and artfully prepared by Sachiko's husband, my good friend Nozomu. 

Good food in Japan is an obsession.  It's a very popular conversation topic and the Japanese seem to always be in search of great new culinary treats. 

One of the keys to good Japanese cooking is a fine balancing of quality, fresh ingredients in complex combinations of subtle flavors, smells and satisfying textures.

The picture above is a very simple example of the unexpected combinations that Sachiko puts together that taste simply amazing.  This is probably not a dish that Sachiko would like me to post, because it was something she just threw together quickly, but it shows her sophisticated understanding of food and how flavors, smells and textures complement each other.  There is a bowl of miso soup at the top right, cucumbers with miso paste top left, and a plate of Japanese-style fried rice featuring natto (a strong-smelling, sticky form of fermented soy beans) and chirimen jako (chewy, dried baby sardines).  It was bliss.

A visit to any local Japanese supermarket illustrates how blessed the Japanese are with thousands of sophisticated ingredients.  There is an extraordinary range of picture-perfect vegetables, mushrooms and fruits.  There is a huge selection of very fresh seafood.  And then there are the many aisles filled with all sorts of other ingredients, ranging from sauces and condiments to dozens of types of dried seaweed and kelp.

A typical American faced with a basket filled with a normal day's food shopping in Japan would be at a loss.  I don't imagine they would find anything edible or have any clue how to put together a meal using the ingredients.  I smiled while recently standing in line and peering into the shopping baskets of those around me.  It was marvelous to see so many people with an intimate connection to cooking and what I imagined to be an ability to prepare an excellent meal using all sorts of fresh seafood and vegetables. 

Below is a sampling of the types of delicious food Sachiko prepares at home on a daily basis.

So back to my thoughts on the Japanese kitchen, cooking and urban design.  When I experience a neighborhood that feels great, like Sachiko's kitchen it's not some austerely designed sanitary creation of an architect or urban planner.  Instead it's a messy combination of elements that have evolved together and whose sum is greater than its parts. 

A great neighborhood has a variety of shops, businesses, restaurants and residential buildings, and lots of people of all sorts walking, shopping, riding their bicycles and even passing by in buses and cars.  No single element (like a huge road with speeding cars) should dominate the scene.  It may not always be pretty, but it will be comfortable, convenient and engaging.  People will be drawn to a good neighborhood.  In Tokyo there are so many neighborhoods of this kind, tightly packed with attractive and enticing features, and with a constant stream of people engaged in many different activities.  Neighborhoods such as this are exciting and make you feel like you're in the midst of something wonderful. 

The elements and features that make up a wonderful neighborhood are much like the ingredients found in great food. Quality ingredients skillfully combined, and served in beautiful dishes, create excellent cuisine.  Likewise, the quality and complexity of elements, naturally fused over years, create wonderful neighborhoods.  In my next posting on Tokyo, I will go into the details of the 'recipe' for a good neighborhood. 

To close,  I share a picture of Sachiko and her family.  They are my good friends of nearly 20 years and were kind enough to host me while I stayed in Tokyo this last time. 

In the picture to the right, we are just about to enjoy a dinner of oden, one of my favorite winter foods in Japan.

Nozomu (the family intellectual) sits on the left. Sachiko (the gifted chef and one of the highest energy people I have ever met) on the right.  And Rui (their very kind, smart and hospitable son) in front.  Life is good with friends like these. 

I've got my biases. One of them is that urban greening and infrastructure design is way ahead in the rich world, particularly in northern Europe and countries like Singapore and Australia. 

Travel, however, melts away prejudices.  My recent three-week stay in China certainly altered my elitist views associating beautiful city infrastructure and urban greening with the so-called rich world.

China is on many peoples' minds.  I believe it's a generally poorly understood country that, due to its growing economic and political power, tends to give rise to fears in other countries.  In this sense, China is a bigger version of the demonized Japan of the 1970s and 80s.  While I think fears of China are misplaced - China's rise offers more benefits than disadvantages to the rest of the world - I can see how its rapid move into the future could be unnerving to some.  Some of the nasty side effects of its massive industrialization are alarming, particularly the air and water pollution.  But on the whole, I would say its advances are positively breathtaking.  Based on decades of living and traveling in East Asia, I believe China's future is quite bright and shows clear parallels to the rapid economic rise of countries such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, albeit on an enormous scale. 

In my recent three-week stay in China, I visited Hangzhou and Shanghai.  It would be odd to classify either of these two cities as 'poor' and typical of the developing world.  Although China is ranked at the same per capita income level as countries such as Colombia and Thailand, in terms of physical infrastructure Chinese cities have more in common with those in far wealthier countries.  As a matter of fact, I believe statistics on China (at least regarding the coastal areas) are misleading.  This country is far ahead of where most people think it is. 

In this posting I will focus in particular on Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province in eastern China.  It's a city I knew little about and which I had never before visited.   Hangzhou came as a surprise. It enchanted me with its beauty, exuberance of green and sense of order and well-being. 

Hangzhou is a mid-sized Chinese city of 6 million people but, according to the Chinese government, it has a metropolitan area population of 21 million.  Yes, 21 million. Population numbers in China are mind-boggling.  Nearby Shanghai (only an hour away) has a metro population of 23 million.  Ningbo, Suzhou and Nanjing, also within roughly an hour of Hangzhou, each has a metro area population at or near 10 million.  These cities, like Hangzhou, have populations in the range of a Paris or London, but remain virtually unknown to much of the outside world.  They deserve (and will get) more attention.

The history of Hangzhou stretches back over 2000 years of Chinese history.  Marco Polo claimed to have visited Hangzhou when it was the capital of China, saying that it was 'greater than any city in the world'. It lies at the southern end of the famous "Grand Canal" (see map above), the largest artificial waterway in the world (built in the 6th and 7th centuries A.D.), which wends its way over 1700 kilometers from Hangzhou to Beijing. 

This ancient city must be one of the most pleasant in China.  I arrived from steamy Hong Kong in an ideal season.  The autumn weather was not too warm and the blooming sweet osmanthus filled the air with a captivating scent - so good I wanted to taste it (and in fact there are sweets based on osmanthus flowers here).  It was a magical experience.  

I quickly came to the conclusion that Hangzhou is, in many respects, a nicer place to live than very rich Hong Kong.  There is a sense of open space here and an incredible proliferation of green wherever you look. 

Hangzhou has also protected many  historical areas and structures, especially around the beautiful West Lake.  Further away from the lake, however, it's less likely to find much of anything old.  Rapid growth has meant the redevelopment of much of the city.  The upwardly mobile Chinese prefer new, modern streets that are as clean as those you would find in Japan.  And I must say these streetscapes are well-designed and well-built (see picture above). But the loss of the older neighborhoods is sad in that the streets and alleyways in these areas are especially vibrant.  They are abuzz with life and activity, and there seems to be more leeway in these places to stretch out and relax, whether it be people sitting on a curbside or restaurants extending their tables and chairs out onto the pavement.  Somehow these older streets are the 'authentic' China to me. 

Below you can see a couple of scenes from back streets and alleys, the places I would typically go to find a fresh bowl of steaming noodles or dumplings.  Although these are really remnants of the past in Hangzhou, they are alive with energy.  And it's interesting to note that like all streets in Hangzhou, they are tree-lined.  The Chinese have been at the street-tree planting thing for a long while.

City planners in Hangzhou  are the most determined group of tree enthusiasts I've ever come across.  The evidence surrounds you.  Rarely have I visited a city, anywhere in the world, that has lavished so much attention and care on the planting and maintenance of trees, both in parks and along streets and roads. 

Tree planting is not done haphazardly.  Instead planting areas for trees are large and well-designed.  The Chinese seem to be well-versed in the latest research on urban tree planting and landscape architecture.  Trees here won't suffer from lack of space as they grow.  The landscaping along the edges of streets was also impressive, and brought back memories of super-organized Singapore. 

You would be hard pressed to find a large American city that lavishes as much care on its trees and landscaping,  and universally uses such a high quality of materials in the construction of its streetscapes.

Below are some pictures of tree-lined streets in Hangzhou.

As I mention above, the city of Hangzhou pays close attention to the choice of materials it uses on new sidewalks and pedestrian streets.  Instead of poured concrete or asphalt, sidewalks and other pedestrian surfaces tend to be paved with carefully laid, high-quality paving stones.  The streets and landscaped areas are also edged with stone curbs.  It gives the city a classy feeling and a sense that it is being built for the long term.  Things may move fast in China, but that does not necessarily mean that things are done shoddily.  See some paving examples below. 

I noticed many urban greening innovations while in Hangzhou.  The city is doing its best to green areas that normally are barren and lifeless. 

At the right is an example of planters placed on top of the barrier along the edge of a highway bridge.  These planters are filled with flowering bushes, and include an irrigation system. 

Another typical eyesore that the Chinese manage to green are multi-level parking garages.  I saw planters placed along the edge of all levels of parking garages, where the cascade of plants and bushes camouflages the structure.  These parking garages were transformed from urban blight to vertical gardens that can be green centerpieces of their neighborhoods.  For years I've wondered why unsightly parking garages have to mar our cities.  There is a solution. 

When considering urban quality of life, it's impossible to leave out ease of mobility in and between cities.  China provides an excellent example of how good transport is planned and developed.  This country is investing heavily in public transportation, ranging from new subways to high-speed intercity trains.  It is arguably developing one of the world's most sophisticated transport systems, on par with countries such as Japan and Germany.   

Shanghai already has a very extensive (and still growing) modern subway system.  Hangzhou has built its first hyper-modern subway line, and has 6 more lines under construction or planned.  You can see an entrance to the metro and a shiny subway station platform in the two pictures below.     

In terms of intercity mobility, China has built the world's most extensive, and most heavily traveled, high-speed train network.  This has all come in only the last seven years.  There are now over 12,000 kilometers of these elevated train lines, and the network is expected to grow 50% by 2015.  I took a high-speed train from Hangzhou to Shanghai, leaving from the shiny, new Hangzhou East Train Station, pictured above.  The experience was not very different from taking a shinkansen (bullet train) in Japan, although the Chinese have still not cultivated polite queuing behavior.  This is one of the interesting contrasts you find in China - strikingly modern infrastructure but a civic culture still catching up. 

An unpleasant reality of life in Chinese cities, Hangzhou being no exception, is very bad air quality.  Heavy industry and coal-fired power plants make the air hazy and unhealthy to breathe.  I didn't really notice the bad air in Hangzhou or Shanghai, but I was aghast at the haze I saw when I left Hangzhou by train.  A heavy smog hangs over the countryside.  Some of this may have simply been water vapor evaporating from rice paddies, but it's obvious that the country has an air-quality crisis on its hands. 

The rapidly growing numbers of automobiles on Chinese roads (more cars are sold in China than in any other country) is exacerbating this air pollution problem.  Some cities are trying to limit car ownership through license plate lotteries, and Hangzhou is considering this, as well.  But as the city is a center for auto manufacturing, strong limits are unlikely. 

A bright spot is the universal system of bike lanes on all major roads in Hangzhou.  Biking in this city is a pleasure as you are totally separated from automobile traffic on wide, well-paved bicycle lanes surrounded by lush green landscaping.  These lanes are at least double if not triple the width you would find in a city like Amsterdam.  There are separate traffic lights for bicycles and even covered shelters at intersections for bicyclists waiting in the rain or strong sun. 

Hangzhou also has the world's largest bicycle sharing system, with (as of January of last year) over 66,000 bicycles available at 2,700 stations.  The Citi Bike system in New York, by contrast, has about 6,000 bicycles. Hangzhou plans to extend the system to 175,000 bicycles by 2020.  You can see a bike-sharing station in the picture above. 

The most famous tourist attraction in Hangzhou is West Lake.  It's been a source of inspiration to Chinese artists and writers throughout China's history and historically an inspiration to gardeners even in Japan and Korea.  It's now a UNESCO World Heritage Site,

The temples, pagodas and gardens around West Lake make up a rare, ethereally enchanting place.  For me, the closest parallel to the otherworldly beauty of this area is the fringe of temples along the edges of Kyoto in Japan.

The rather vast area of picturesque landscape and mountains surrounding the lake (more than 8,000 acres) give Hangzhou a green heart and I think may be the inspiration for the well-tended greenery throughout the city. 

A special characteristic of Hangzhou, and a showcase of its horticultural genius, is the well-tended parks along its many canals.  These canal-hugging parks run all over the city and go on for kilometer after kilometer, offering a very quiet refuge from the noise and commotion of the city. 

I was amazed at how carefully designed and constructed these parks are. One day I rode my rented bicycle for hours following canal after canal.  I filmed a video of my ride along one canal, and you can see this below. 

Please note a few things about the video before taking the plunge.  It was taken while riding a bicycle and is rather shaky.  This can make for a nausea-inducing experience (maybe best not to watch it in full-screen mode).  The bicycle I rented had extremely squeaky brakes, and you can hear these throughout the recording.  Finally, I was suffering from a nasty sore throat and am clearing my throat often while I speak.  In its defense, the video gives you a great picture of a part of Hangzhou that most tourists never see.

As usual, I end with a glimpse of a few of the tasty meals I had in Hangzhou.  China is a country with a serious food culture.  Hangzhou is filled with restaurants of all kinds and levels and I must say the food is absolutely delicious.  Somehow I hadn't expected the food here to be so good.  But it was mouthwateringly tasty.

On the left, a local restaurant with scrumptuous food and a convivial atmosphere.  The men at the left really wanted to talk, although they could speak very little English.  We enjoyed a few beers together.  My friend Ting, who guided me through the culinary scene in Hangzhou, is a bit camera shy but joined me for many of my most memorable meals.  I want to extend my thanks here to Ting and the many other Chinese people who welcomed me and spoke with me about urban greening in Hangzhou.


Below are pictures of a few simple dishes, all very inexpensive, but very delicious. 

India is a notoriously chaotic place.  That chaos hit me head on upon arrival on my latest trip to the country.  

I arrived in Mumbai on a flight from Bahrain and soon discovered that my luggage had not arrived with me.  There was no information from the airline (Jet Airways) nor agents to help.  Large numbers of angry passengers, seemingly resigned to this sort of thing in India, stood in a long line near customs waiting to provide their details and sign a rather comically complicated, needlessly long form.  I was finally told that I would have my bags delivered the following morning.  In fact, it took seven days to be reunited with my things and I was promised (but never received) the whopping equivalent of US$20 in compensation.  

Adding to the stress of not having any of my things for a week, the place I'd arranged to stay for a month in Bandra (an inner suburb of Mumbai) rather suddenly informed me I would have to vacate.  There had been a change of plans (another tenant was moving in) and I was to leave.  No effort was made to help me find new lodging.  I was basically out on the street in Mumbai with no clothing.  Compounding the discomfort was a serious Dengue fever outbreak, along with the normal endemic malaria.

My anarchic entry into India somehow provides a fitting segue into a description of the upscale Mumbai district of Bandra.

Nowhere else on earth but India will you find such astounding contrasts: vertigo inspiring heights of wealth surrounded by harrowing depths of poverty, restaurants brimming with mouth-watering delicacies and starving children begging for crumbs, tree-lined avenues with luxury apartment high rises and crammed, steamy slums amid piles of garbage, with no water and almost no room to lie down. 

This is urban India.  It's an often startlingly ugly urban reality that many in the upper classes willfully ignore.   But an area such as Bandra is also a thrillingly lively place where the classes mix and where there is a sense of possibility infused into the complex urban jumble. 

Bandra is a wealthy area in Mumbai, part of the city's so-called Suburban District to the north of the city center (see maps below).  In many parts, it's a trendy residential zone that is also a center of upscale shops, fancy restaurants, cheaper markets and a lot more.  It includes many Christian churches and schools originating in the time that it was a Christian settlement.  Along the sea, it has a rather ramshackle, but popular, promenade (which is sadly marred by the refuse and human excrement deposited openly along its edges).  All in all, Bandra is an eye-opening amalgam that is always busy with life, but that somehow becomes most attractive at night. 

A surprising, and refreshing thing really, about Bandra is that although the classes are clearly segregated by neighborhood and the types of buildings in which they live, there is a rather comprehensive mix of people and businesses of all social strata here.  Unlike most wealthy areas in the world (some African cities being an exception), luxury apartment blocks will often be cheek-by jowl with crumbling wooden shacks that serve as all sorts of small businesses.  Bandra also has its share of older, decaying apartment buildings that although rather unpleasant to look at, must by the standards of slum dwellers look heavenly. 

A thought that plagued me throughout my stay was, how is it that the millions of forgotten poor continue to go along with a system that offers them so very little?  I can't escape the thought that a city like Mumbai is a powder keg that could explode at any time, particularly if there is a serious economic shock.  

There is no doubt that the difficult circumstances I faced impacted my experience this time around in India.  I want to make clear that in so many ways this is an unusually fascinating and exciting place.  There is a hum of energy in the air, a complexity to the streets that make them worthy of hours of exploration, a food culture on display that is one of the best in the world and, most importantly, many wonderfully welcoming and kind people. 

In my rather short stay of 9 days, I met academics, city planners and volunteers all involved in making Mumbai a better place to live.  I'm grateful for the time they gave me. 

While living in Berlin last summer I conceived of a research project that would take me across Asia, a continent that I spent a good part of my life in, but about which I have never written.  This was a large gap in my research about the 'green divide' and I decided to revisit some representative cities in the Middle East, South Asia and East Asia. 

Istanbul struck me as an ideal starting point from Berlin.  It's a city that straddles both Europe and Asia, combines both European and non-European characteristics, and is a global megacity where I was sure I could learn a lot.  It turned out to be an unexpectedly good choice that changed my thinking about developing world cities on many fronts. 

As with most every other city I've been to, Istanbul is a place that tourist attractions do not define or explain.  My previous short visit to the city followed the typical tourist itinerary of a few days in the old city, visiting the Egyptian Bazaar and nearby mosques, drinking tea and smoking the hookah.  This time around I rented an apartment for a month in the centrally located Beyoglu neighborhood, the historically European (ethnically and culturally) enclave of Istanbul.  It made an ideal base for exploring the far reaches of the city as this area, including Taksim Square, is the major hub of much of the city's transit.   My goal for the month was to meet as many people involved in urban studies and planning (academics, activists, government officials), and visit as many neighborhoods and parts of the city, as I could in a month.  Very quickly a new identity emerged from the mists of the tourist fog and I realized that I'd been hostage to an image of the country and city quite at odds with reality

Istanbul is a a huge, modern Mediterranean city that has more in common with Rome than with Cairo or other Middle Eastern cities.  It is an elegant, hilly city surrounded by the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus and the Black Sea.  Water is rarely far away.  Maybe most surprisingly, it is enveloped in expansive green forests like you might expect to see around some cities in Central Europe.  Few cities in the world have as much forest within their borders as Istanbul (although this forest is shrinking).  I would never have imagined it. 

Below on the left is a map of the Balkans, including the region around Istanbul.  Istanbul really is a European city.  On the right: a closer view of the Istanbul region.  The city is perched along the Bosporus, which connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara.  It's easy to see its strategic historical position with control of movement between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and between Europe and Asia.

In addition to it's surprisingly green environs, Istanbul also surprised me with a higher level of organization and quality of infrastructure, including parks, than most other cities at this income level.  Mexico City or Sao Paolo (cities with a similar GDP per head), are far behind, both in terms of the quality of their streets and other public infrastructure.  Istanbul just looks far more developed and livable than cities in many of Turkey's economic peers.  As I talked with people about this, an explanation emerged:  the city has an ancient urban culture and has been a part of European history for thousands of years.  Istanbulites take pride in the central city and the city invests to keep it livable and attractive.  I believe another part of the explanation for the feeling of organization and well-being lies in the relatively low income inequality in Turkey.  Istanbul is certainly a city of contrasts.  Impressively wealthy areas line the waterfront contrasting with areas of poverty further inland.  But with a GINI coefficient quite a bit lower than Mexico's or Brazil's, the contrasts are not as extreme and there seem to be relatively few parts of the population totally left behind by Turkey's strong economic growth. 

As delighted as I was with Istanbul, any city of this size has problems, and Istanbul has most problems typical of large urban areas.  Two things in particular, however, conspire to diminish the quality of life here:  the city's high population density and its growing dependence on the automobile. 

Istanbul's population density is readily apparent, as much of its large population is squeezed into neighborhoods along the coastline.  City neighborhoods tend to have multistory apartment blocks lining narrow streets.  And with a rapidly growing number of cars, these streets are overtaxed and bogged down with traffic for much of the day. 

The city is complicit in this expansion of automobile transport.  Its investments in bigger roads encourages more car usage, and comes at the expense of open spaces and forests. The automobile-traffic clogged streets hinder movement in buses, by far the most common form of public transport in Istanbul.  While there is one bus rapid transit line in the city (with dedicated lanes not shared with cars), it is not well integrated with the rest of the city's transport infrastructure and is itself overcrowded. 

The rapid growth of the city over the last decades, encouraged by expanded automobile infrastructure, has led to a massive loss in green cover over the last 35 years.  The pictures below, courtesy of an academic researcher in Istanbul, show how the city's (and region's) forest cover has dramatically shrunk since 1977.

The reliance on the automobile in this densely populated city has not only led to a dramatic decline in forest cover, but has distorted the structure of neighborhoods.  In a city where streets and sidewalks make up a large percentage of available public space (there are not many parks in central areas), city sidewalks are often almost comically marginalized to make space for cars and car parking.  The images below show some typically vestigial sidewalks in Istanbul providing practically no room for pedestrians to walk.  This situation is often aggravated with the most confounding design and placement of bus stop shelters which totally block the sidewalk and force pedestrians to enter the busy street to pass. 

But as I write above, Istanbul strikes me as a highly organized, efficiently managed city.  Everywhere I looked I noted impressive infrastructure improvements, ranging from new subways and bridges to expansive new parklands along the waterfront.  The streetscapes themselves are being renewed with better sidewalks and newly laid brick streets.  .  There is a certain amount of dissatisfaction among many groups with the ruling party's conservative policies in Turkey, but it's hard to deny this government's success in making massive improvements to the physical structure of Istanbul.  In a city growing and evolving as rapidly as Istanbul, mistakes are naturally being made.  I will go into some of these further below.  But first, I share some pictures below of newly redesigned streets with protected sidewalks and carefully laid pavement bricks and stones.  These new streets are not the exception in Istanbul, but are becoming the rule. 

The city is also managing to plant trees in the sorts of narrow streets that typically remain treeless elsewhere.  In cities around the world urban planners tell me that there is no place to plant trees in narrow streets like those found in many poor districts (particularly informal neighborhoods).  But Istanbul provides a great model for what can be done. The pictures below come from several different neighborhoods in the city.  . 

Trees on streets provide many benefits, but they don't transform streets into areas where children can play safely and where people can spend leisurely afternoons away from the crowds and noise of the city.  Accessible parks are an essential part of the good life in any city, and this is an area where Istanbul has traditionally lagged.  The current administration recognized this shortcoming of the city and has embarked on an ambitious park-building program the scale of which I've seen nowhere other than China.  Vast areas of the city's shoreline, areas along highways, and significant portions of any new development are now being devoted to parkland and green spaces.  Even crowded, poor neighborhoods are getting new small parks.  I'm not exaggerating to say the developments are remarkable and impressive.  Detractors may say that these parks are cosmetic cover ups or used to direct attention away from land grabs elsewhere. But from what I could see, no matter the government's intentions, these are real parks used by large numbers of people.  Below are some images of Istanbul's well-tended parks and green spaces.

Where the city may be failing in its modernization and upgrading efforts is in the poorest parts of the city, informal settlements known as gecekondu ('geh-jay-kondoo'). This terms means something like 'built overnight' in Turkish.


Gecekondu are found throughout and all around Istanbul.  I visited several, but in this section will write about the gecekondu I encountered in the Tuzla district. 

A position I had rigidly maintained for years was that the 'Green Divide' (the unequal distribution of urban trees and green space in favor of the wealthy) uniformly exists across cities around the world.  Before coming to Istanbul, as I discussed my upcoming research with academics here, I was typically confronted with disagreement on this thesis.  I assumed that there was some communication problem, as many Turkish academics are not accustomed to using English.  How could it be that the poor would have street trees and green spaces while those of higher economic classes didn't?  This went against everything I had witnessed in urban Latin America, Africa and even the United States.  But in Istanbul the poorest really DO have more green, as you can see in the pictures below. 

Sadly, the somehow charming, green gecekondu settlements are under threat and are being dismantled, often replaced with soulless high-rise apartment blocks totally set apart from nature and dislocated from the pre-existing social fabric.  It's as if the Turks had learned nothing from decades of misguided urban redevelopment in Europe and North America. 

In Tuzla I saw widespread destruction of homes, especially along major streets.  I wondered what had become of the families who had built their Istanbul lives here.  There was no indication of what would follow this demolition, but with the rapid growth of this city, I imagine that cleared areas along wide thoroughfares would be converted to a mix of high-rise commercial and residential use. 

As a gecekondu neighborhood develops, population density increases and the settlements gradually take on the dense character of much of the rest of the city.  Trees and small garden plots disappear, and the buildings become taller and taller.  In some cases, gecekondu are destroyed to make way for highrise developments like those pictured below.  They seem like human warehouses to me.    You can see a couple of examples in Tuzla below. 

A feature of Istanbul that sets it apart from many other cities is its countless beautiful staircases, which connect neighborhoods and bring people up into the hills of the city, or down to the sea. 

The most wonderful thing about the staircases is that there are, of course, no cars.  They are in fact a model for what the streets of Istanbul could be like if they were pedestrianized. 

Staircases provide much needed, car-free public space in the city, and I would always see people sitting on these city staircases, especially in the evenings.  Often large groups gather here, enjoying a beer and sometimes even a barbecue while taking in the view..  

Below are a few shots of some staircases I climbed. 

People make all the difference.  My productive time in Istanbul was made possible by the dozens of extremely kind and generous Turks I met.  I don't believe I've ever met such a universally giving and hospitable group of people in all my travels.  `

A small sampling of the wonderful people who helped me in my research and who often became friends. 

And as usually, I include some pictures of the wonderful Turkish food I enjoyed.