It turns out that in a few years only electrically-powered cars will be used in the Chinese megapolises.
It always provokes some interest when the media starts talking about the big fund market being very overrated. The analyzers are certain that the Chinese market is a balloon and soon this balloon will crack.
The main idea, which is being repeated over Bloomberg and CNBC, is that the Shanghai index has increased with about 100% over the last year, according to the analyzers, without any fundamental reason. Such sudden movements of the indexes, increasingly occurring through the years, lead to statements of famous investors that this is the next balloon, i.e. there will be a big correction soon (check up – the American market has been growing for the last six years, although a great decrease is forecasted within the past 3-4 years.)
That was one of the reasons I wanted to learn more about the market and to spend a week in the financial center of China – Shanghai. I like megapolises and the fact, that this city has had an impetuous development at the beginning of the 20th century, in addition to the agitated development during the last 30 years, had me wanting to go there and see things for myself.
After all, the thing that made me decide to go there was the invitation I received from a friend, who has been living there for the past 10 years. This way I had the possibility to see the city as a native.
So, at the beginning of May, after a flight through Doha, I found myself at the Shanghai airport, where my friend was waiting for me. While being transported by car to his apartment, which is located in the historical part of Shanghai (the French Concession), I was amazed by the high endless residential housing estates and buildings, aligned in a “creepy” way. I felt as if I was in a scene from George Orwell’s books.
My perception of the city was quickly changed, when I saw its symbols – the skyscrapers around the television tower in their entire brilliance. Shanghai is a city of contrasts – you can see the most magnificent buildings, created by an architectural and engineering genius and then some miserable, fallen into decay houses and they all will be on the same street. As I was explained, these people were just waiting to meet to the construction entrepreneurs, who might purchase the land of their ruined houses. Then after a while there might be standing the next skyscraper.
Taking the subway in such kind of city gives me not only a fast and convenient way of going from one place to another, but allows me also to observe the citizens in a ’static’ position. The subway is definitely very comfortable for foreigners, because everything is translated in English and it allowed me to be on my way without having much of a stress.
It was very interesting that the most common phone was the iPhone. According to my observations, the users of these iPhones were much more than the ones, travelling by London underground. The enormous Apple shops were located in the most famous parts of Shanghai. I knew that the development of the company comes mainly from China (the sales are 70% in the last years and the Chinese market is now the biggest market for the Apple products), and having in mind the interest of the middle class for the Apple products, I started to reckon that Apple Watch will be successful too.
Of course, Shanghai is not China. Nobody notices the foreigners there (even when you are much taller than the locals), as there will be people in the small towns, who would like to take pictures with you, just because they have never seen a man of another race.
The economical boom here is a reality. There are so many issues – during the time I spent there, they were making changes to the software for censorship in Internet and it was impossible to open a foreign web sites. The only site, which I used regularly was the site of ATP. It gave me the opportunity to follow the play of Grigor Dimitrov in Istanbul.
Another interesting to me thing was to figure out that life without Google is much more complicated. I was prepared not to use any of Google’s services, but the fact that Google Maps wasn’t working on my phone was the most insurmountable of all. I had to get used to employ the Apple Maps App. It was a surprise for me to find out that in Shanghai that application works much better than in Europe.
Two things make life unpleasant here – the smog and the movement of the cars.
During my stay, it was hard to decide if the air was dirty or the bad visibility was just because of the humidity, which leads to much worse visibility than the one in Europe. One thing is certain – the air in Shanghai is more clean than the air in Beijing, because the financial capital is located by the Ocean site and the winds are “cleaning” it.
There are many stress ordeals for the pedestrians in the megapolis. For example the pedestrianized zone is very dangerous – nobody stops even if you are crossing the street, i.e. the drivers expect the pedestrian to ‘’fly over”, which is accompanied by a nervous pushing of the klaxon. Actually, most of the people in Shanghai are driving while pushing it. I was explained that the cacophony now can not be compared with the one before bringing in the penalty for using klaxons without a reason.
The drivers are very aggressive to each other and if you are using a taxi, you have to hold on tight, because everyone is trying to pass either from your left of your right side too closely and this all is accompanied with sudden stops and starts.
Besides, there are electrically-powered motorcycles everywhere (classical motors are used very rarely). People using them everywhere can come closer to you without making any noise. They drive on the sidewalk too and do not turn on their headlights, because they rely on the city.
You can be very impressed by how this motors have seized the entire city, although they almost run over me a few times, while driving on the sidewalk. I think I saw the future, because what I saw was showing that in the foreseeable future the electrically-powered motorbikes will be everywhere in the big cities.
That has already happened in Shanghai by means of regulation. The fee for the registration of a gasoline driven automobile or a motorbike may be above 10 thousand US dollars (62 thousand yuan).
The prize of the registration plate in Shanghai varies and is determined on an auction. It is a privilege now to drive an electrically powered motorbike without any registration.
China is a very big producer of electrically powered cars. It is not hard to imagine the government defining a lower fee for the registration of the automobiles, if it takes a decision to enforce a new law against the pollution in big cities. And then a few years later only electrically-powered cars will be used in China’s megapolises.
I know for all of lovers of classical cars this seems unattainable, however Elon Musk has already built the second largest network for recharging electrically powered Tesla cars in China for a reason.
Author: Lubomir Lekov