China in my own eyes after COVID19 pandemic

Published: July 03,2023

By Gerald Mbanda

Shanghai City. Photo credit. @Gerald Mbanda

I have been to China for a ten days visit that took me to the cities of Shanghai, Hangzhou, XI’an and Beijing. It is difficult to know that these cities were once in a lockdown and everything came to a standstill like in other countries around the world. Life is back to normal and the country is open to foreign visitors and tourists.

Shanghai City

Shanghai, is a global financial hub located on China’s central coast, and is China’s biggest city with an estimated population of 29 million.  Across the Huangpu River rises high modern architectural buildings including 632m Shanghai Tower and the Oriental Pearl TV Tower which are part of the tourist attractions in Shanghai.

The famous East Nanjing walking street was busy with hundreds of local and foreign tourists. It is the street that fascinates me most where traffic police pays much attention to the safety of pedestrians.

East Nanjing Street. Photo: Gerald Mbanda

Photo: Gerald Mbanda

While in Shanghai, I sent photographs of the city to two friends one living in Montreal-Canada and another in Manchester- UK. Both of them told me how they had seen for the time that China has such a beautiful city. When I moved to other cities of Hangzhou, X’Ian and Beijing, my friends who live in developed countries confessed that they had never seen such images of China in media in their countries.  This is when I realized that people living in western countries have been deliberately kept in the dark on the real image of China. 

Available statistics indicate that in 2022, revenues from inbound tourism in Shanghai amounted to about 1.72 billion U.S. dollars, a decrease from 3.59 billion U.S. dollars in the previous year. In 2023, the revenue is expected to increase as tourists have again increased after removal of COVID19 restrictions. 

Hangzhou City

Photo courtesy: Internet

Hangzhou is the capital city of Zhejiang Province located in the central eastern coast of China.   Alibaba group of companies is located in the city as well as the famous West Lake, surrounded by ancient temples and gardens. 

Hangzhou is ranked as one of the most scenic cities in China with her beauty praised in all ages. There is an old Chinese saying that; “in heaven there is paradise; on earth there are Suzhou and Hangzhou.” The beauty of Hangzhou stretches for centuries in history. In the 13 century, European explorer Marco Polo, who visited the city is said to have described it as, “beyond dispute the finest and noblest [city] in the world.” Marco Polodid not only fall in love with Hangzhou but also was highly impressed by China’s cultural customs, great wealth and complex social structure.

He was impressed with the Kingdom of Hangzhou that was using paper money at the time, had efficient communication system, coal burning, gunpowder and porcelain. Marco Polo described the king’s palace in Hangzhou as large enough to accommodate 10,000 persons, and magnificently decorated, “On every wall and every ceiling nothing met the eye but a blaze of gold and brilliant color.” Marco Polo must have realized that the development of China at the time,before foreign invasion and interference was far ahead most of the European countries he had visited.

Dating back more than 2,200 years, Hangzhou city was the capital of the Wu and Yue states in the 10th century for 5 dynasties. According to history records, it was during the Tang Dynasty that Hangzhou really flourished, coming to a peak in the Song Dynasty when it became the capital of a united China. Later in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, that is when the city is said to have had rapid grown and expanded into a commercial hub.

Photo: Gerald Mbanda

The day I arrived at West Lake, was on June 22, which was a public holiday to celebrate The Dragon Boat Festival, which in Chinese culture, is a folk festival integrating worship of gods hand ancestors, praying for good luck and warding off evil spirits. The Lake was crowded with many visitors and tourists who took boat rides at intervals. 

Fabulous symphony performance on West Lake- Hangzhou.Photo: Gerald Mbanda.  

The spectacular performance “on water” of West Lake  is exciting to watch exhibiting a combination of art, high level creativity and technology which makes the place look more like a dream land. The evening West Lake show organized by the famous art Director Zhang Yimou, is a tourist attraction of its own kind. It is something that is not easy for me to describe by mere words and I would just say it’s a must-see!

Photo: Gerald Mbanda

Apart from the West Lake tour, tea cultural tour is a unique famous tourist attraction with rolling green hills of tea plantations. The tea cultural tour starts from picking up tea leaves under the guidance of local farmers, and then enjoy the varied processes of making tea products, with a traditional art – tea ceremony performance which showcases the rich content of tea culture. In 2021, Hangzhou city raked in total tourism revenue of 85 million USD.

Hangzhou is considered as one of the greener cities in the world, where city leaders have been focused on building and maintaining an environmentally-friendly infrastructure. They have cut levels of car ownership, build and promote a growing metro network. Hangzhou has two museums dedicated to environmental protection namely; a Low-Carbon Museum and a Green Building Museum. The city hasthe largest bike-share schemes in the world, which is eight times as many rental bikes as London, reducing carbon emission and making air quality fresh and healthy. 

 Hangzhou attaches much importance to the construction of “Silicon Valley in Paradise” and the development of high and new technology industries, among which the “the Information Port and New Pharmacy Port”, Hangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, Hangzhou High-New Technological Industries Development Zone, and High Education Park are the backbones.

Visiting the cities of Shanghai and Hangzhou is an eye opener to a country that is developing high and new technology industries, building futuristic, beautiful, clean and green cities. Impressive economic development and improved well-being of the Chinese people is visibly seen when you visit China. 

Gerald Mbanda is a Researcher and publisher on China and Africa.  

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