China's development from the view of a small city

[througheye]

The fast development of China in the past 3 decades benefit not only the mega cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, but also a lots of small cities and towns throughout the whole country and the normal peoples living in them. The members in PDF may have some knowledge about the big cities in China, however know very few about the other side of china. I would like to show some pictures of my hometown, a very small city in east china. Some pictures are taken myself, and others are from local forum.

The name of city is Shangyu (上虞). I think even most Chinese did not heard of this name before. The administration divisions of China have four levels: provincial level, prefecture level, county level and township level. Shangyu is a county-level city, which is a part of Zhejiang (province) and Shaoxin (prefecture-level city). There are more than 2000 county-level cities in China. The total population of Shangyu city is about 200,000 with another 600,000 peoples live in rural areas governed by the city.

The economics of Shangyu is ranked mid-up level in Zhejiang province. There are at least 10 county-level cities in Zhejiang are better than Shangyu. However, I am very pride of my hometown the hardworking peoples.

The location of Shangyu. 90 kilometers away from Hangzhou (capital of Zhejiang province)

Education of Shangyu
My elementary school. It's a public school run by local government. Pictures were taken 6 years ago. At weekend, there is no student in campus.
This is classroom building.

Science building

Theater

Playground

The education purpose of this school as stated on the wall. It means "let very child filled by the vitality".

My school encourages the student to create. The calligraphy, drawings and other art pieces created by the students are hanged on the wall and even painted on the whole wall.

 

[througheye]

Continuing.....

My high school, which I spent 6-years there.
Classroom building.

Another high school in the rural area (pictures from local forum).

 

[througheye]

Traffic infrastructures
When I was very young, it took me about 3 hours to Hangzhou (provincial capital) from my home. Now it takes about 30 minute by high speed railway.

High speed railway and highway across the rural area.

New bridge over Hangzhou Bay with length of 10 km and cost of $ 1 billion. There is another Hangzhou bay oversea bridge near Ningbo which is much longer (36 km).

 

[througheye]

Culture

Buddhism is still very popular in my hometown. There are many temples. Some of them are newly built.

The huge candle in a temple. ^_^

A temple in memory of a young girl, who lived about 2000 years ago.

Some local opera performance

 

[Darth Vader]

@througheye man your City is awesome Love to visit it 1 day

 

[througheye]

Public recreation and parks.

The statues in the park in memory of some famous scholars from Shangyu

 

[througheye]

Living

Some new apartments

Some town houses

 

[througheye]

Health care
The People's hospital is the largest hospital in the city.

 

[througheye]

Shopping

This is the largest and best shop 20 years ago.

Today's shopping mall. The largest has 120,000 square meters area. You can find many international brands shop, even some luxury brands like GUCCI and Cartier.

 

[througheye]

Bird view of the city

 

[througheye]

Night view of the city

 

[througheye]

Business and Travel

Office buildings

Exhibition Center

Five-diamond hotels

Convenience center which includes all departments of the government. Generally, you can finish all your business in just one-stop and no need to deal with 20 more offices and wait for months.

 

[StarCraft_ZT]

I remember that Shangyu was ranked one of top 10 richest county level city in China.

 

[througheye]

I remember that Shangyu was ranked one of top 10 richest county level city in China.

Can not be a serious rank. Even in Zhejiang province only, there are more than 10 cities richer than Shangyu, like Shaoxin, Zhuji,Yuyao,Cixi, Wenling, Xiaoshan, Yiwu, Haining and so on. No mention of other cities in Guangdong province and Jiangsu province.

 

[StarCraft_ZT]

Can not be a serious rank. Even in Zhejiang province only, there are more than 10 cities richer than Shangyu, like Shaoxin, Zhuji,Yuyao,Cixi, Wenling, Xiaoshan, Yiwu, Haining and so on. No mention of Guangdong province and Jiangsu province.

Too modest bro...
GDP per capital of Shangyu is already above $12,000 USD. Very nice and clean city, best place to live.
Most richest county level cities come from the province of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong and Shandong.

Besides Shangyu, I heard of Shaoxing, Yiwu, Haining. Would love to visit some day.