In the Chinese economic success model, trade and investment are everything. The Chinese are especially obsessed with investment in infrastructure – arguably their best skill and asset. In shockingly quick time, Chinese cities have transformed themselves, built on the back of trade surplus money, cheap construction labour and heavy lending.
In 2013, Reuters photographer Carlos Berria published two images of the Shanghai skyline, twenty-six years apart from each other. The transformation was breath-taking enough to make it to all over the international press. In 1987, Shanghai’s financial district of Pudong was no more than a little swamp on the east China coast.
By 2013, the same area was packed with skyscrapers, rivalling downtown Manhattan and boasting the world’s second tallest tower – the Shanghai Tower – standing 125 stories high
Infrastructure is more important to the Chinese economy than most people realize on the outside. China’s economy is more…