Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center

Indeed, it was pure serendipity – finding and enjoying things not sought for.

With the recent holiday trip to Shanghai after passing the recently concluded Environmental Planner
Licensure Examination, visiting the well-renowned Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center was never
part of our itinerary. I just came across a Tourist Book showcasing the top tourist spots of the city,
including the said center which was opened during the World Expo 2010. Without second thoughts, we
planned our visit to Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center.

The Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center is a six-storey building located at the People’s Square
with a total area of over 3,600 square meters. It was built to showcase the achievement of the city
planning from ancient times to the present and even future developments.

The basement level portrayed how Shanghai was built and planned during ancient times. The first storey
showed a scale model of how the Huangpo river was used to develop to become a tourist attraction
nowadays, called The Bund. What caught my interest was the scale model of Shanghai showing its
existing approved infrastructure, buildings, development and even showcasing the planned
development of the city.

The Master Plan of Shanghai started at early 1920s and it was only implemented in the 1980s after a
series of careful study and a number of drafts has been made. The plan bears the theme, “ City, People,
Environment and Development”. It was a collaborative effort between the Construction and
Engineering Bureau and known architects of China to craft a plan to address the challenges of the city
which includes increasing population density, congestion and scarcity in human settlements as a result
of people flocking from rural areas to the city. This is what I learned during a video presentation about
Shanghai’s Urban planning.

To address the population density and scarcity in human settlements, I observed that Shanghai built a
number of high storey buildings accommodating thousands of households. Congestion and traffic was
perhaps addressed with the creation of conventional subways with intersecting 16 lines and having
metro trains with a speed of 35-40km/hr all over Shanghai. Moreover, take also into account the
presence of Maglev Train or the Magnetic Levitation train, the fastest commercially operating train
having a speed of 430kph.This explains why I didn’t notice any traffic in their major roads, perhaps, it is
due to the fact that most of the transportation activity was happening at the subway.

As we casually stroll and explore the streets of Shanghai, we can’t help but notice (and admire) how the
city was planned as one of the walkable cities in the world. One can notice the wide path for (estimate
of 4 meters) with a designated area/path for the blind. The streets were lined with greens adding a cozy
ambience to the place. This a