| If I must generalize, Shanghai is the commercial center of China, while Beijing is the political center.
Being a large country and historically "diverse" in its political power and cultural regionality, China has at least these two metropolitans, if not more (Tianjin, Chongqing, Xi'an, Guanzhou etc.). If we look around the world, industrialized nations have a mixed set up. France and England are very much centralized around Paris and London, where both cities are commercial as well as political centers. Some of the historically less centralized countries have a wider choices of cities to boast: with Germany having Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Duesseldorf due to its history of principalities; America has New York, LA, Chicago, Dallas, DC, SF due to its expansionist history. Having said that, the residents of both Shanghai and Beijing are very proud of their cities; none yielding to the other. Shanghai still makes about 20% of China's GDP with only 1% of its population; Beijing boasts a high percentage of government officials as their permanent residents (not necessarily productive but with political power/pull.) On the issue of city planning, Beijing used to be China's showcase city, having hosted the Asian Game, many international guests, and now managed to host the summer Olympics in 2008. Yet during the recent decade, China has been emphasizing a re-building of Shanghai (thanks to the Shanghainese who became the country's President and Prime Minister of China during the 90's), in order to attract business away from HongKong and other international financial centers. As the Summer Olympics in Bejing boasted a budget of 15 billion dollars, Shanghai's World Expo plans to spend double of that. It will be hard to decide which city is "better" to live in. I am sure both attract its own group of faithful followers, as do many other cities around the world. |
Beijing is Cultural Center