Edward Denison and Guang Yu Ren, authors of Building Shanghai and Modernism in China, take the Foreign Secretary on a tour of Shanghai

Edward Denison and Guang Yu Ren, authors of Building Shanghai (Wiley 2006) - and the forthcoming Modernism in China (Wiley, July 2008) - took the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband on a tour of Shanghai, during his official visit to China, on Tuesday 26th February.

Read Edward Denison's account of the event...

On Monday 25th February, the Foreign Secretary, the Right Honourable David Miliband, arrived in Shanghai at the start of a five day official visit to China. The Foreign Secretary was travelling with a delegation of government officials and advisors to discuss issues relating to urban migration, globalisation and climate change with their Chinese counterparts in the cities of Shanghai, Chongqing and Beijing.

With a strong personal desire to experience firsthand the life of local people, Mr Miliband had requested that he spend an hour of his first morning in Shanghai walking around a part of the city so as to get a true sense of life in this famous and huge metropolis. The British Consul to Shanghai, Ms Carma Elliot, enlisted the help of Wiley authors, Edward Denison and Guang Yu Ren, who wrote a definitive book about the urban history of Shanghai published by Wiley in 2006: ‘Building Shanghai – The Story of China’s Gateway’. Edward and Guang Yu live between Shanghai and London and are in the process of completing a new book for Wiley on the history of early twentieth century architecture in China: ‘Modernism in China – Architectural Visions and Revolutions’.

Edward and Guang Yu took a group of 15 delegates on a one-hour tour of the former downtown characterised by its tortuous roads lined with neo-classical buildings constructed predominantly in the early twentieth century, and along the Bund where they were given a historical overview of the major buildings including the former British Consulate and views of the adjacent business district of Pudong with its idiosyncratic skyscrapers that on this particular morning were obscured by the overcast and rather chilly weather. The group included the Foreign Secretary; the British Ambassador to China, Sir William Ehrman; the British Consul in Shanghai; the Special Representative for Climate Change, John Ashton; and media representatives, including a journalist from BBC Radio.

The brief tour was designed to give the delegates a flavour of Shanghai, especially during rush-hour when the Shanghainese in this part of the city feverishly go about their business, buying takeaway breakfast from the numerous makeshift roadside stalls. The Foreign Secretary was almost tempted to buy one of these dishes, a typical Shanghai snack similar to a crepe but filled with spring onion, washed down with warm soy milk, but the queue was too long and time did not permit!

The areas of Shanghai around which the delegates walked are currently at the forefront of major redevelopment and rehabilitation for the Shanghai Expo in 2010, a major international event expected to draw over 70 million visitors to the city in a matter of months and one which the Shanghai Municipal Government hopes to use as a catalyst to radically improve the city and to address the critical issues facing the city in the future, including those that the Foreign Secretary and his delegation had come to China to discuss.

Photo caption: The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, and his wife, Ms Louise Shackelton, and the British Ambassador to China, Sir William Ehrman, who were presented copies of ‘Building Shanghai – The Story of China’s Gateway’ (Wiley 2006) by authors Edward Denison (centre right) and Guang Yu Ren (left) after their guided tour of downtown Shanghai on Tuesday 26th February.

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