Observations From a Trip to Chinese Cities

Earlier this month, my wife and I took a short vocation and visited the following cities, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai & Suzhou. Hereby I would like to share my travel observations of these cities.

Vibrant Hong Kong

We travelled via Hong Kong’s MTR (Mass Transit Railway), alighted at Central MTR station and visited the Peak Tower (via the tram service). The avant-garde designed Peak Tower has a panoramic view of Hong Kong City that range from developed cityscape to lush greenery landscape.

After which, we walked a stretch of Hennessy Road, covering the distance of Central, Admiralty, Wang Chai and Causeway Bay MTR stations. Along the way, it was not uncommon to see chauffeured cars such as Rolls Royce, Bentley and Mercedes Benzs whizzing past.

Vibrancy was the word that came to my mind as I observed its packed electric trams, crowded sidewalks and eateries. However dripping water droplets from the multitudes of overhead air-conditioners along pedestrian walkways was a little annoying though.

For accommodation, we stayed in a windowless hotel room in the vicinity of Kowloon district (9 dragons). The hotel room was small but clean. At Kowloon MTR station, I was amazed to note that air travelers can have the option to do a city-check in of their luggage and take an express train ride to the airport.

Above Kowloon MTR station is the Elements, which is a bigger version of Ion Orchard which contains an indoor ice-skating ring. We also visited Temple Street, soaked ourselves in the atmosphere of its vibrant night market and enjoyed window browsing at the huge variety of food, gadgets, music CDs, hardware and apparels stalls.

Entrepot Guangzhou

After clearing the Chinese checkpoints, we arrived at Guangzhou city via train vis-à-vis Hong Kong’s Lo Wu frontier town. Upon walking out of the train station, I witnessed for myself a very crowded city, less developed than Hong Kong but no less vibrant.

During this period, we also experienced the heat wave in Guangzhou with day temperatures that exceeded 35 Degrees Celsius. I remembered that I perspired much as I explored the night streets of Guangzhou. Fortunately, Guangzhou Metro (GZMTR) stations were strategically located and their air-conditioned air offered some relief.

Along the way, I noticed the wholesale entrepot posturing of this city that boasted several wholesaler buildings that specialize in wholesaling textiles, leathers, garments, gadgets and sporting apparels. I am of the view that this is a possible place for aspiring business people to source out marketable goods. I also came across business people as far away, such as Africa seeking out opportunities in Guangzhou city.

Upon reaching the newly built Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport for my flight to Shanghai, I found the airport to be rather impressive and comparable to Changi Airport’s Terminal 2. It seems that Guangzhou city has set the stage to be well poised, in the global competition amongst cities.

Prosperous Shanghai

This is my first visit to Shanghai (excluding a transit stop I made at Shanghai Pudong International Airport for an earlier travel). We landed at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport which seemingly has an upgraded Changi Terminal 1 feel. This airport is conveniently connected to the Shanghai Metro Network, which has an extensive 13 lines network and is projected to be expanded to 22 lines by 2020.

We made our way via the Metro to Lujiazui, (financial district of Shanghai) and I took several photos of Oriental Pearl Tower which majestically stood by many other sky scrapers along the bank of HuangPu River. Across HuangPu River, I noted the red national flags of China flying high on European-styled buildings, previously known as ‘foreign concession’, territories that were once occupied and governed by foreign powers due to a series of unequal treaties China signed in the 19th century. Symbolically the ancient dragon has awakened.

On the other hand, I recalled a conversation I had with a cab driver about his life in Shanghai. Accordingly to him, the prosperity which people see of Shanghai is potentially skin-deep. He shared about the rich poor gap, lamented about the sky-high prices of Shanghai properties and shared that as a cab driver, he would consider himself very fortunate to earn about RMB4500 (SGD 938) each month. He further revealed that almost half of his earnings will go towards the education-related fees of his primary school going son. If what this cab driver shared is reflective of the general Shanghai situation, I foresee social challenges ahead.

Shanghai World Expo
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My wife and I visited Shanghai primarily for the on-going Shanghai World Expo. Due to time constraint and the long queues, we only managed to visit 5 pavilions (Japan’s, North Korea’s, Maldives’, China Joint Provincials’ and Singapore’s). Japan’s pavilion typically takes about 3 hours of queuing to enter. The pavilion was rather well managed, that showcased Japanese culture, cutting-edge technologies, vision-casting, and selected positive historical ties with China. I noted too a subtle apologetic posturing of Japan’s pavilion’s exhibits towards China in response to its WWII atrocities.

North Korea & Maldives’ pavilions were considered the smaller ones where no queuing was required. Basically both pavilions had simple lay outs, with very limited exhibits. As we were unable to secure limited day tickets to enter the main China pavilion, we visited China’s Joint Provincials’ pavilion instead, which exhibited themes and area cultures of respective Chinese provinces. I quite like the ice-theme of Heilongjiang province, particularly its computer stimulated ski games.

Singapore Pavilion @ the World Expo
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Regardless of the comments I read about how uninspiring our Singapore’s pavilion is, I told my wife that it is a ‘duty’ to visit our very own national pavilion. As we walked from Zone A towards Singapore’s pavilion in Zone B, upon seeing our flag fluttering high in the distance, my heart swelled with national pride :) Alongside many others (presumably largely Chinese nationals), we queued patiently for about an hour and a half before entering Singapore’s circular pavilion.

Upon viewing Singapore’s pavilion’s exhibits myself, there is a degree of validity about the reported comments. For instance, the spiral walk upwards towards Singapore’s pavilion amphitheatre, dry statistical figures on empty walls could certainly have been better presented. With spaces aplenty, it was a pity that we did not make full use of those spaces to exhibit more photos or 3D exhibits about Singapore. After waiting for about 15 minutes to enter the amphitheatre, I overheard the following comments of two irritated Chinese nationals, ‘这到底是什么馆的 – What kind of pavilion is this?’ and the reply was ‘这是骗人的馆 – This is a pavilion that cheats people’. Not knowing how to respond, I merely kept quiet…

Fortunately, I am of the view that Singapore’s face saving moment is our well composed and excellently pre-recorded mandarin MTV by our fellow Singaporean artistes - JJ Lim, Tanya Chua, Ah Du & Stephanie Sun. The other aspect which I appreciated was Singapore pavilion’s tropical roof top garden offers not just lush tropical greenery but also that of a panoramic view, overseeing other countries’ pavilions in Zone B, subtlety symbolic of Singapore’s role in international trade & finance.

Industrializing Suzhou

Suzhou Industrial Park
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Leaving Shanghai, we took the bullet train from Shanghai Railway station to Suzhou. The entire 120km journey was very smooth and we reached Suzhou’s railway station in just under 40 minutes. Suzhou has some similarities to that of Singapore, a neat and green city, also unlike other Chinese cities there are no hanging cables, presumably these cables are buried underground (just like Singapore).

I had wanted to visit Suzhou because I wanted to observe how Singapore purportedly lost more than SGD 130 million. This is a conservative estimate according to a 1999 AFP news report [1]. Talking to a cab driver, I enquired about the Singapore-Suzhou Industrial Park. He replied ‘那不是个新加坡搞失败的工业区嘛? 中国政府接管之后，工业区才开始赚钱呀！ – Isn’t that a failed project by Singapore? The industrial park only became profitable upon Chinese government taking over of its operations！’

I recalled reading from the papers that that Singapore’s stake in the park was reduced from an originally 70% to a mere 35%. However I am unable to verify if this is still the case [2]. Curious, I asked my friend who has been based in Suzhou for several years, if there are any signboards or symbols to showcase Singapore’s participation in Suzhou Industrial Park? My friend was surprised by my question but we were game enough to drive around Suzhou in search for such signboards or symbols.

Eventually we managed to find the following: 1) An obscure Merlion statue in a remote corner of a Suzhou’s park 2) Singapore’s flag flying symbolically side-by-side that of China’s flag (along other international flags) in the same park. 3) A faded signboard indicating the mandarin words ‘China-Singapore: Suzhou Industrial Park’ 4) Walled posters surrounding a construction project that indicate the mandarin words ‘China-Singapore: Suzhou Industrial Park’.

My friend however assured me that there is a museum that archived the developmental process of Suzhou Industrial Project, which detailed about Singapore’s original participation in the project. Frankly, that assurance did not go down well with me. The reason is because after millions of dollars, Singapore only ‘earned’ our rightful place in a museum? Sigh.

Historical Suzhou
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The other interesting aspect of Suzhou is the richness of its historical legacy. The ancient city of Suzhou was where the Wu Kingdom (AD 220 – AD280) once stood. I also visited Shan Tang Street, a 1000-odd year ancient street and the Suzhou Museum, which has a segment on Prince Zhong’s Residence, a leader of the Taiping Rebellion (1850 – 1864).

Grave Challenges For Singapore

Given the nature of increasingly cities-to-cities, instead of country-to-country type of global competition, it is definitely crucial for a small country like ours to try our best to stay ahead. I believe the original strategic intention of Singapore-Suzhou Industrial Park was to achieve just that, despite of our dismissal performance there.

As such it is not unnatural for Singaporeans to experience discomforts as we read about Singapore’s other project involvements with China such as: 1) Singapore-Tianjin Eco-City 2) Singapore-Liaoning Economic and Trade Council 3) Sino-Singapore Knowledge City in Guangzhou.

I am not saying that Singapore should completely back off from such projects. However are we applying our experiences gained from the insights of our failure in Suzhou Industrial Park? I recommend fellow Singaporeans to read an excellent scholarly article by Han Minli on the ‘The China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park: Can the Singapore Model of Development be Exported?’[3], so that we can better understand Singapore’s role in the Suzhou Industrial Park project.

Then again upon reading SM Goh’s comments on the Sino-Singapore Knowledge City in Guangzhou being a commercially driven but government supported project is a model which he would like to see more in the future (instead of previously governmentally driven ones). [4] SM Goh’s comment rang an alarm within me. The reason is because this joint development is by the Guangzhou Development District and Singbridge International, which is but wholly-owned by Temasek Holdings. Gulp. Is this our understanding of being ‘commercially’ driven? I am deeply concerned…

Links:
[1] Losses in Singapore Suzhou project to hit US$90 million, (Agence France-Presse, September 15, 1999)

[2] Suzhou Industrial Park (Wikipedia article on SIP)

[3] The China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park: Can the Singapore Model of Development be Exported? (Han Minli: National University of Singapore, M.Soc Sci (Political Science) 2008)

[4] Singaporeans should continue to give feedback, says SM Goh (CNA, 2nd July 2010)

[5] Groundbreaking ceremony for Sino-S'pore Guangzhou Knowledge City (CNA, 30th June 2010)

So That We Pay Even More?

I refer to the news article ‘Satellite navigation ERP and electric cars possible on future road system’ (CNA, 30th June 2010)

I had wanted to pen down my personal experience regarding the effectiveness of our ERP system for a while. There are two ERP gantries, one along BKE (before PIE Exit) and the other along PIE (after Lonnie Road Exit) which I have to pass through each morning as I commute to work. Inevitably, it is almost a daily occurrence (except during school holidays) to face bottleneck congestions along BKE’s PIE Exit and Steven Road’s Exit, at times it slows down to a snail crawl.

During such moments of waiting, I will almost certainly lament and question about the effectiveness of ERP gantries, other than their precision abilities to make cash deduction. To satisfy myself, I decided to read up on the possible reasons for our persistent road congestions during peak hours.

Below are some interesting facts I uncovered:

[1] Singapore's car population grew by 9 per cent to 514,685 units (in 2007) – overtaking 2006's record rise of 7.4 per cent. The unusual expansion was three times the allowable 3 per cent growth cap put in place by the Government. The growth in car numbers is putting a strain on the road infrastructure; and the Land Transport Authority has been raising electronic road-pricing rates and erecting more ERP gantries. (15 Jan 2008, Straits Times)

[2] There are 800,000 vehicles on the road as of January 2010 (11 Mar 2010, CNA)

[3] Transport Minister Raymond Lim said ‘The reason is that we persistently over-projected every year. Let’s say last year we over-projected for the current year, if we over-project again, we add to the problem’. Minster Lim was responding to the over projection on the estimate of the number of cars to be de-registered or scrapped each year. (11 Mar 2010, CNA)

[4] Singapore has a total of 150km of Expressways in 1998. This figure remained unchanged till 2007, where 3km more was added upon it. In 2008, it became 161km (Presumably this increase is due to the construction of KPE) (2009, Year book of Statistics)

[5] Singapore has a total of 1,983km of local roads in 1998. In 2008, it became 2,043km. (2009, Year book of Statistics)

It is rather appalling to note that considering our vehicle population growth rate, our overall local roads grew by a mere 3% over a 10 years period (1998 – 2009) and expressways grew by just 7% over a 10 years period (1998 – 2009). In this aspect, perhaps our transport ministry has overlooked the need to increase our roads to cope with the increasing population needs.

It is also apparent that the car regulation system which our Minister himself acknowledged its limitations is still in place. Nevertheless, the government continued to dish out COEs since May 1990. Now, they are proudly announcing the possibility to implement the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) so as to be more effective in the fee collection for using our roads. Such state of the art technological implementation will no doubt boast Singapore’s name globally. However it will be a real mockery if our roads are not systematically improved and traffic conditions are to remain unchanged.

The revenue generated from COE and ERP collections has significantly improved our state coffers, and perhaps that is one of the reasons, such extravagant GNSS implementation can be indulged upon. While I am not against technological improvements, I propose that the monies be better spent on giving our roads systems a long overdue overhaul instead.

I say, build more tunnel roads with more lanes. In this way, drivers will be shielded from the expensive GNSS radars!

News Links:
[1] Car population up 9% despite slowdown in car sales (CNA, 15th Jan 2008)
[2] & [3] LTA announces changes to Vehicle Quota System (11 Mar 2010, CNA)
[4] & [5] Transport & Communications (Singapore Year book 2009)
[6] Satellite navigation ERP and electric cars possible on future road system (CNA, 30th June 2010)