Urban Planning on Display

A look at a Shanghai museum focusing on urban planning.

1 minute read

January 29, 2008, 11:00 AM PST

By Nate Berg


"Figures coming out of China are mind-boggling whether it's energy consumption and production, car sales or the frenzy of development. For example, China is using about 50 percent of the world's cement production each year. But is there a plan?"

"To put it all in perspective, a visit to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition is far more interesting than its dry name suggests, even if it doesn't address the stickier issues like, what will this frenzy of development mean for the the people who live within the Shanghai city limits now?"

"The Shanghai Urban Exhibition Center is a five floor museum at the eastern end of Renmin Square or People's Square."

"The main attraction of the exhibit is definitely the third floor. It's a room-sized model of central Shanghai in the year 2020."

"Next you can step inside a virtual display of the future, as you take a simulated tour of Shanghai on highways yet to be constructed over a city in the process of being built. It's a video projected all around you in what really feels like three dimensions."

Monday, January 28, 2008 in International Herald Tribune

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