A Tale of Three Cities

China map showing location of Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. When they leave on their mission to China November 11-19, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, our seven Student Ambassadors and 200 business, government and education leaders will be traveling to three of China’s most important and historic cities: Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.

China’s centers of political power, finance, commerce and industry, each city has its own vivid personality and compelling story.

Beijing

Like the Chinese symbols for Yin and Yang, the past and present are swirled tightly together in Beijing, a city where the ancient and Beijing, old and new the modern are always touching.

Stretch limousines and animal-drawn carts jockey for position on the same streets; soaring glass and steel skyscrapers share the same skyline with colorful and ornate pavilions and temples of wood and stone; modern highways twist and turn not far from the serpentine Great Wall, perhaps the world’s oldest beltway; and traditional open-air markets increasingly bustle in the shadows of western-style mega-marts.

The present and the past are intertwined in Beijing, each in a small way part of the other, each unable to exist without the other.

Ancient Beginnings

While there is archeological evidence that people inhabited the area more than 500,000 years ago, the city that the world knows today as Beijing began taking shape a few thousand years ago and has been called by many different names.

Around 1000 B.C., a primitive trading village known as Zhoukoudian sprang up in central China. Because it was an important trade center and a strategically located gateway to other regions, the area saw frequent military clashes as different rulers struggled to conquer and control it.

What’s in a Name?

In 350 B.C., during a lengthy period of territorial war, the city of Ji emerged. But as ruling dynasties changed, so did the name of the city, which has also been called Zhuojun, Youzhou, Nanjing, Yanjing, Zhongdu, Dadu, and Beiping.

The name Beijing, which means "northern capital" originated in the Ming Dynasty and carried through the Qing Dynasty, the final imperial dynasty that ended in 1911. Under the control of the Nationalist Party (1912-1949), the city again became known as Beiping, which means "Northern Peace" and was renamed Beijing after the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.

Westerners once called the city Peking, a pronunciation often attributed to French missionaries.

Beijing Today

The second-largest city in China and the nation’s capital, Beijing is the political, cultural, historical and intellectual heart of the Peoples Republic of China, as well as one of the nation’s main centers of industry and trade.

Located in the northeastern part of the country, Beijing is one of four independently administered municipalities in China and has 18 districts and counties. The city has an area of 6,500 square miles, stretching about 100 miles from east to west and 110 miles from north to south. It has a population of more than 15 million permanent and transient residents.

Beijing has a continental climate. Spring and autumn are short, summers are hot, and winters are long, dry and windy. Average temperatures range from 5° F to 100° F. The best time to visit Beijing is in May, September and October.

Without a doubt, Beijing is the educational epicenter of China, boasting more colleges and universities then any other Chinese city.

(An interesting sidelight, the University of Minnesota's prestigious Carlson School of Management partners with Lingnan (University) College, Sun Yat-sen University in Beijing to offer an executive masters of business administration degree. In 2005, this collaborative MBA program was ranked as the best joint executive MBA program in China according to 10 Chinese media organizations.)

Many Amazing Sights

Beijing is famous for its many museums and some of the world's best-known ancient and modern cultural attractions. The most popular scenic spots are often called the "Sixteen Sights of Beijing."

While not all are listed here, they include Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, the Fragrant Hill, Big Bell Temple, and the Ming Tombs.

Pollution’s Solutions

Heavy reliance on coal to generate power has turned Beijing into one of the world’s most polluted cities. In preparation for the 2008 Olympics, government leaders have vowed to clean up the city’s terribly polluted Beijing street scene air and water. While those conditions may be substantially improved in the short term with the right blend of conservation, cleaner-burning fuels, emission controls and cleanup technology, government officials may find it harder to restrain the Gobi Desert, which is gradually encroaching on the city.

So, You Say You Want a Revolution

The capital city of many different imperial rulers, Beijing has also been the cradle of China's modern political struggles.

On the heels of World War I, in what is known today as “The May 4th Movement” a few thousand students from universities throughout Beijing gathered in Tiananmen Square on May 4, 1919 in support of a nationalist movement to reunify a China torn apart by tribal factions, setting the stage for the long civil war between Nationalists and Communist forces.

Following World War II, triumphant Communist Leader Mao Zedong proclaimed the creation of the People's Republic of China, again from Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. And after decades of Communist rule, the first public cries for democracy emanated from Beijing in 1989 – again from students, again from Tiananmen Square – in an act of defiance that ended in bloody military action.

Shanghai

As much as Beijing is a symbol of China’s ancient past, Shanghai is a symbol of China’s very modern future.

Shanghai, whose name literally means "on the sea," has neither the long history nor the regal legacy of Beijing. In fact, this quiet fishing village located in the Yangtze River delta only began its rise to prominence in the early 1840s, after the British humiliated the Qing Dynasty and wrested control of the Shanghai strategic port town from Chinese rule.

Here’s the abbreviated version of how that conquest came about:

Trading in Addiction

By the 1830s, in what can only be described as a brazen and massive drug-trafficking effort, British traders had been shipping tons of India-grown opium into Canton (known today as Guangzhou), where the drug was traded for tea and other goods.

As the drug spread throughout China, so did mass addiction, rampant social problems and unmitigated misery, which prompted the imperial government to outlaw opium in 1836.

In his new capacity as imperial commissioner at Canton, an official named Lin Tse-hsü wrote British Queen Victoria and asked her to cease the opium trade, rightly observing that opium had been made illegal in England precisely to avoid the ills that had beset China.

When Britain refused Lin’s plea, Lin began an aggressive crackdown on opium dens and British traffickers, and threatened to expel the British from China. Chinese sailors tried to force British merchant ships to go back home in late 1839, triggering what became known as the Opium Wars.

England responded by sending warships to the region. Terribly overmatched, the Chinese suffered a humiliating defeat and in 1842 accepted a highly unfavorable treaty that forced the Chinese to relinquish control of five excellent trading ports, including Shanghai.

From the Doldrums to Dazzling to Declining

Under the colonial influence of the British – and later the French and Americans, as well – Shanghai began its transformation from a sleepy fishing village to a sophisticated and international city. By the early 1920s, Shanghai was widely known as the "Paris of the East" and the "Whore of the Orient," a chic and self-indulgent playground for the world’s wealthy.

As one historian put it: Shanghai was "the most pleasure-mad, rapacious, corrupt, strife-ridden, licentious, squalid and decadent city in the world...Morality, as every Shanghai resident knew, was irrelevant."

The city also was a thriving trade and industrial center, ushering in a period of prosperity for some and abject misery for many others. As the gap between rich and poor widened, Shanghai became a hotbed of social and political discontent. With the overthrow of the last imperial dynasty by the Nationalist Party, the Marxist (Communist) thought that had begun spreading among China’s intellectuals flourished in Shanghai, which became the birthplace of the Communist Party in 1921.

World War II (including invasion by the Japanese) and a civil war between Nationalists and Communists would take place before the People's Republic of China emerged in 1949. Under tight Communist rule, which shunned the lavish excesses that built the city, and shut off from the rest of the world, the once-brilliant Shanghai lost its luster and fell into decline.

A City Reborn

When China embarked on a series of economic reforms in the late 1970s, it triggered Shanghai’s renaissance. In 1990, the Chinese government officially decided to make the city the engine that would drive its struggling economy into a more free-market, capitalist system.

Today, Shanghai (also called "Hu" or “Shen” for short) is the largest city in China (population: 19 million), its largest seaport, and the nation’s center of finance, manufacturing, technology, foreign trade, modern culture and education.

Often referred to as “The Dragon’s Head,” a reference to its growing ferocity as an economic power, Shanghai attracts millions of dollars in investment as foreign companies race to build factories in the city. The Pearl Tower in fog. More than 300 of the world's Fortune 500 companies have invested there.

The city’s colorful skyline, which boasts the Pearl Tower, is among the most beautiful and distinct in the world. Shanghai is an ideal shopping center, especially for technology, Chinese jewelry and art. The city has well more than a thousand restaurants to appeal to every taste.

Shanghai has one of the most developed educational systems in the country. The city has developed a complete education system from kindergarten, elementary and vocational education, to adult teaching programs. There are more than fifty institutions of higher learning.

As is the case with many cities worldwide, Shanghai’s phenomenal growth has come at a cost: overcrowding, urban sprawl, traffic gridlock, occasional power shortages and serious air, water and noise pollution.

Despite the obstacles, Shanghai’s growth, progress and transformation is likely to continue at a breakneck pace and its influence in China – and the world – will only grow.

Hong Kong

Because of the mix of cultural forces that have shaped and built the region, people often refer to Hong Kong as the place where East meets West. Indeed, throughout much of its modern history, Hong Kong has been part of – and caught between – two very different worlds.

Made up of two Chinese characters, Heung and Gong, the name Hong Kong means “fragrant harbor.” This collection of peninsulas and islands located on the southeastern tip of China has ancient roots as a tiny fishing village, trade outpost for salt and pearl, and a safe haven for pirates. Later, the sparsely settled region became a safe haven for refugees from other parts of China as the Mongols invaded and conquered the country.

East Meets West

Hong Kong had its first contact with European traders in the early 1500s, when Portuguese merchants sailed onto the horizon. The Portuguese traded up and down the coast, importing tea, silk and other goods into Europe.

As demand for those goods grew, other European traders were drawn to the region. By 1699, the British East India Company sailed to China, setting the stage for the eventual British colonization of Hong Kong. Hong Kong night scene Trade developed so quickly that in little more than a decade, the British East India Company had established a trading post in Hong Kong.

Following the Opium Wars, Hong Kong Island became a British colony in 1843. Later, in 1898, the British also extracted a 99-year lease on a large tract of land known as the “New Territories.”

With one of the world’s finest deepwater harbors under its control and a large supply of ready laborers, the British quickly developed Hong Kong into a thriving trade center, first building strong shipping, textile and other manufacturing industries and later developing truly world-class banking and financial services industries.

Today, Hong Kong consists of Hong Kong Island, the New Territories and more than 260 outlying islands. It remains one of the leading – and most wealthy – trade centers in the world. But its time under British control has come to a close.

One Country, Two Systems

After lengthy negotiations with the People's Republic of China, the British government relinquished control of Hong Kong at midnight on July 1, 1997, as the 99-year British lease on the territory expired.

Having lived so long in a free and capitalist society, the people of Hong Kong were very nervous about becoming part of the People's Republic of China. Some wanted to remain separate. They were afraid the Colorful Hong Kong street scene Communist government would take away the freedom of speech, religion and political association that were cherished in Hong Kong but repressed on the mainland under Communist rule.

To help calm some of those fears, the British and Chinese governments struck an agreement in 1984 that allowed for “one country but two systems” when Hong Kong once again became part of the People's Republic of China.

Under the agreement, Hong Kong became a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, with a guarantee that its economic, judicial and social systems would remain unchanged by the Communist central government for 50 years. Today, Hong Kong is largely self-governing, except of national defense and foreign affairs.

The transition has been difficult at times, occasionally sparking mass protests by pro-democracy factions concerned about heavy-handed interference from the central government. Such struggles are likely to continue as the relationship evolves.

Hong Kong’s Vital Stats

Hong Kong boasts some of the best dining and nightlife in the world, and it is a haven for people who love to shop till they drop. Whether you want the latest fashions from around the world or traditional Chinese clothing, a modern shopping mall or an old-world market setting, popular chain stores or elite boutiques, Hong Kong has them all.

But Hong Kong is more than skyscrapers and shopping. It has many sandy beaches, woodlands and mountains.

Less than 15 percent of the land is developed because of its hilly to mountainous terrain, meaning that Hong Kong’s nearly 7 million residents are densely packed together.

The region’s very poor soil means there is little farming; Hong Kong must import most of its food. Air pollution and a lack of drinking water are two of its more serious environmental problems.