Dongpo Road, Hangzhou in Spring 2006
IMG_0778
Originally uploaded by stephen in motion.
Yesterday's news on the massive urban transformation in Shanghai certainly reminds me of the above photo which I came across in Flickr's Hangzhou stream a while ago.
It is a photo of Dong Po Road, a street which I used to frequent and learn a great deal about the lives of many ordinary Chinese people when I was in Hangzhou a couple of years ago.
The photo captures a brand new set of architecture that was built in less than a year since I left the city.
I must say the new buildings look really nice ----- modern, stylish and upscale. Certainly very different from the plain and ugly match-box like three storey buildings that were there before, and I can no longer recognize the neighbourhood on this road. It is great a sense of loss that I cannot describe in words.
But the good old memories of the old Dong Po road will continue to live in my mind.
Sometimes I wonder how all the people whom I met on this road, but no longer in touch with, are doing nowadays?
Further reading
Tales of people whom I encountered on Dong Po Road prior to the re-development (these are entries that I like best and I can't believe my writings were so much better back then!):
Juice Lady's Personal Story
The Loser of Urban Redevelopment
Loser of Urban Redevelopment II
Technorati Tags: hangzhou, urban development
