China Revisited: Even in Three Weeks There is Tremendous Change

Dr. Tsu Yao can trace his family history back hundreds of years. His father was one of the first few to go the world-famous Tsinghua University, which had its beginnings in bloodshed, mayhem, and forgiveness. (see post one.) Dr. Yao was born in Beijing in 1932, two weeks before Japan attacked Shanghai, and his family spent much of WWII (1937-45) in search of safety and good schooling. (see post two.) After the war, when the Chinese civil war broke out, the family moved yet again—this time to New York. Dr. Yao, who had lived in Hong Kong and Shanghai—both very cosmopolitan areas—found that while New York was not too different, the Carolinas, with their “white” and “colored” drinking fountains, were.  (see post three.)

Dr. Yao graduated from Princeton in 1957, obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from Columbia, and went to MIT in 1964 to do his post-doctorate.  When his career in physics wasn’t moving forward, he joined the Bank Of America in their long-term-planning and risk management team. “My background in math and theoretical physics was a help.”

He went back to China for the first time in 1995 on a tour. He’d been gone for 46 years, but his house was still standing in the French Concession—although it was no longer called that. 

His street, which used to be Avenue Foch (named after a famous French Field Marshall) :

was now called Yan’an Street (named after the WWII Communist capitol in the center of China) :

Also, the electricity was now a uniform 110V.

“Mao’s idea was that Shanghai was such a feudal--and later colonial-- place. He was just going to let it rot. The city was essentially neglected. There was no new construction between 1949-79. For 30 years nothing changed. When we went back in 1995 it was just starting to change. The first subway had been built. “

That subway ran right through the street Dr. Yao had grown up on—Avenue Foch/Yan’an Street. Also, a new airport was in the works. When he entered the country, he came in to the old Hongqiao airport in the southwest part of Shanghai.  By the time he left, the current international airport was open in Pudong, and he flew out of there.  “So even in those three weeks, there was already tremendous change.”

Since 1995 he’s been back about every four or five years. Each time “it just completely changed. Especially the high-rise buildings. In 1949, the highest building was the Peace Hotel (at ten stories.)" 

Peace Hotel 1949

"Now there are probably 100 times as many high-rise buildings.” 

And the Peace Hotel is dwarfed by hundreds of tall buildings, including the second tallest building in the world:

Shanghai Tower stands tall at 121 stories

(…to be continued…News about China is Recent Phenomenon.)