Editor Pick
"China's Number One Street"
- July 17, 2000
- Rated 4 of 5 by
afb from New York, New York
'China's Number One Street' is a pageantry of materialism. More festive than any Broadway, brighter than any Times Square, funner than any Sunset Strip, this Miracle Mile is a strip of fast food chains, malls, flashy billboards, and heavy spending. Economic expansion seems to already have had its Westernizing effect on Nanjing Road; one will find amid the flags and lights and traffic all the familiar advertisements for Coke and Pepsi, fast food chains, perfume and makeup companies, clothing designers and electronic products.
This is a concentrated spending extravaganza unlike anything the United States or any Western Eupropean capital has been able to unleash. Consumerism reigns, sustaining a furious pace for six, seven long blocks. Over-crowding is experienced in the extreme -- one gets the sense at street level that there is indeed too much of everything. Drowning in color, over-stimulated by the smells, fresh fruit drinks and candy, Whoppers, confused by labrynthian mall entrances and myriad mini vendors, the fifteen minute walk can feel like a day long trek for senses. The best way to get a good view of the commotion is to climb on top of one of the few overpasses. Above is the best perspective to have, to see down the long stretch of global marketing success, to realize that in this feast of high-spending there is probably nothing you, no, there is nothing anyone needs for sale on the street. Yet the solid attraction of American brand names, the plastic luster of franchise marketing comes clear in such density.
In the distance, where the street ends, through the haze of moped and bus exhaust, stands the Bund, and then Huangpu River, and the rocketship-like Oriental Pearl TV Tower. There is no other street like this in Shanghai, in fact, there is no other street like this in China. And only a block or two away in Shanghai one will be back to the narrow lanes with tiny restaurants lined with murky fish tanks and ramshackle shops selling fried bread and boiled eggs.
From journal High and low in Shanghai