As I will visit Shanghai this summer I was reading upon an article which reflects the China’s current architecture evolvement.
Shanghai, China’s commercial capital is starting to take on the chic of Paris, the sophistication of New York and the futuristic vibes of Tokyo. It already boasts the world’s fastest train (the Maglev that takes eight minutes to run the 30 km from Pudong airport into the city), the longest underwater pedestrian tunnel (under the Huangpu river) and the world’s tallest hotel-the 88-storey Grand Hyatt, complete with the world’s highest swimming pool and longest laundry chute.
Most interesting, it has Xintiandi, a two-hectare (nine-acre) complex of hip restaurants, bars and shops in an open, elegant, low-rise style that cost $170m to develop and is one of the first examples of China preserving its own architecture. Xintiandi’s houses are traditional shikumen (literally “stone gate”) built along narrow alleys that middle-class professionals flocked to for a sense of community and safety, and which made up 60% of the city’s residential housing between the 1880s and the 1940s.
Chinese architecture has rarely been this confident. In the old days, it was strictly governed by the emperor, who imposed restrictions on height, colour and design. Now China has the money and the talent-foreign architects who are now begging to work there, returning Chinese and home-grown graduates-to be different.
It is a huge opportunity. The current political system can still command huge resources; for those with government backing, there are few planning restrictions; and given the scale of internal migration-one-third of all Chinese will move into a new home over the next decade-China will be building whole new cities in the coming years. As long as it makes commercial sense, Mr Lo hazards that the mainland may well tear down a lot of the ugly buildings it has thrown up during the past 20 years and start again-which is exactly what happened in Hong Kong. And as their new model, China’s architects could proudly take Shanghai.
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My recent readings and thinkings are regarding the Hi-Tech and Telecommunication industries. Meanwhile a China’s leading telecoms-equipment manufacturer named Huawei is agressively pushing into international markets. In December, Huawei won an estimated $100m contract to build a third-generation (3G) wireless network for Telfort, a Dutch operator that has always used gear from Ericsson, the world’s largest telecoms-equipment firm. In January, Huawei won a $187m order for another 3G network, in Thailand, beating Ericsson and Motorola with a bid 46% below the operator’s original estimate.
Last week came evidence that Huawei can compete on more than just price. A report based on a survey of over 100 telecoms operators worldwide, carried out by Heavy Reading, a market-research firm, found that Huawei ranked eighth among wireline-equipment suppliers, up from 18th last year. (Cisco came top.) Most strikingly, Huawei ranked fourth in service and support. The report calls Huawei’s ascendancy “astounding” and says it has already surpassed several incumbent vendors in perceived market leadership.
I foresee great challenges and opportunities in this industry as we entering the “21st Century Network”. It will be an upbeaten “fight” which company can set the pace of technological innovation and which suppliers can follow. Moreover, some Chinese’s companies are pursuing to compete on quality rather then price, like Huawei and Haier, and in a broader range of industries as initially.
I’m particulary interested in how the developed-world rivals, meanwhile, are responding to the threat from Huawei and others. Finally, the outlook looks promising to keep watching closely.
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Last weekend I was working for Toyota at a Toyota Landcruiser event. As I was there, I was admiring the Toyota Megacruiser 4100 AT. This monster machine looks like a Hummer but it isn’t, it’s even slightly bigger.
In 1993 the Megacruiser is build on request of the Japanese army, meanwhile only seven Megacruisers where sold on the consumer market. However, there is tried to push the Megacruiser on the entire American consumer market but that didn’t work out very well, everyone still wanted a Hummer rather than a Megacruiser. hummm
Dimensions are: length x width, 550cm x 217cm
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