By Li Hongbing

Treasuring Up Memories of City for A Better Life

Set in the background of magnificent Lu Pu Bridge, a big willow stands lonely and quietly in the relic of Shanghai No.3 Steel Factory. Tower cranes are cleaning up the tiles and gravels one after another while the aiguilles of rooters are still clamoring to continue dismantlement.

Wild grass, whose height is almost the half of a person, grows madly in the relic.

Being once called "Back Bund", the place was full of shabby sheds and cabins. Just like a poor village in a modern city, the security, sanitation and face of town are unsatisfactory. The access here is blocked with ripraps now and few people come here. If you stand in the flappy dusts, a feeling of trance would rise in your heart as if the history of the city passed swiftly like a train just by your side. First, it came He Xing Ironworks several hundreds years ago. National steel industry appeared at the east bank of Huang Pu River like a toddling child. Then, shortly after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Shanghai No.3 Steel Factory, living up to everyone's expectations, recovered dramatically and began to produce steel which substantially supported the construction and met its urgent needs for a new China. And three years later, it will usher a new era here, in 2010 when the Shanghai World Expo will be held.

Little "Back Bund" is just an epitome of one-hundred-year history of Shanghai.

"Better City, Better Life", the theme of Shanghai Expo, becomes a meaningful metaphor and symbol.

To show the beauty of the city, we should reserve the memory of the city first. Just as Bai Wenhua, the director of Shanghai World Expo Land Holding Co., Ltd. said, we should protect the priceless historical relics while holding the Expo successfully.

For the sake of cherishing the history, Expoers are making efforts scrupulously. They are not pursuing to create a "brand-new" effect through tomorrow's Expo, but trying to reserve a dim image of Shanghai industry yesterday and to find some memories from today's remaining debris, so that Expo this time can be more significant with history as well as popular with the ordinary people of the city.

Spiritual Sustenance of An Old worker's nostalgia: From He Xing Ironworks to "He Xing Wharf"

One day in the end of 2006, Dai Dongsheng walked through the relic, which had been the hardware storehouse for hundreds of years and came to the wharf to overlook the river. There lay his tugboat with him for 30 years. He was the turbine captain of the boat at that time.

Already retired, but as an old worker of Shanghai No.3 Steel Factory who entered it in 1968, he always lingered around here for his deep passion for the factory. He didn’t want to leave here. The Expo will be held here so that the factory had to move, and the tugboat had been sold to an enterprise of Wenzhou which would take it tomorrow.

He looked at the tugboat with love-It contributed so much that it carried 1000 tons iron everyday from and to the factory.

He turned back and looked at the debris with bewildered eyes, "Our factory has made great contribution to the country including satellite launching. Our production, titanium steel, was unique when there was no such a stuff now called the Bao Steel yet. At that time, you could see a sea of workers, actually 30 thousand, when work began. What a lively occasion it was!"

Stamping his feet, he said, "Look at this wharf! It is brilliant! We have just had it decorated. Maybe it can be put to use when the Expo is held."

He said towards the river with hope,"Hey! When Expo comes, there will be passenger ships on the Huangpu River, right? I have the license so that maybe I can drive a passenger ship for the Expo." He pointed at an elder man, "He was our captain. Perhaps we fellows can make our contribution together for the Expo once more."

Dai Dongsheng introduced the plain hardware storehouse behind him with which he was very familiar, "It is the life-giver of our factory. Established in 1913 and once called the He Xing Ironworks, the factory was just a small workshop having only a small open hearth. However, the deep water brings us a prefect condition."

The Huangpu River makes a turn here to the "Back Bund". At the end of last century, the proprietor of the He Xing Ironworks got to know the convenience of it when Pu Dong Area was desolate yet. As we can see in the old photos, the hardware storehouse is still the most eye-catching among all the buildings by the River although it is dwarfed by those tall buildings and great mansions in the New Pudong Area.

The storehouse wasn't a cultural relic so that it should have been demolished. But fortunately, it was the Shanghai World Expo Land Holding Co., Ltd. which was responsible for the relocation that made it possible to survive, together with the workshop of special steel and the workshop of thick board after a careful research.

In the plan, the storehouse will become a comfortable entertainment center "He Xing Wharf" together with the wharf. Its beauty of simplicity inspires the creation of artists. The beauty, including that of even such scraped industrial facilities and accessories as working machines, oxygen balls, pumps, roller lines, roll steel bases, pipelines, converters, material vats, rolling mills is invaluable for Expoers.

Combined with both history and future, the place will have the functions of entertainment and recreation, catering and so on. Located by the Expo Celebration Plaza, the Expo Axes Avenue and the Entertainment Center and on the opposite side of the Expo New World (the former Jiangnan Dockyard), the ex-storehouse will become a sparkling scenic spot on the Expo Axes Avenue.

"The red line" reveals a concern of dilemma, and workshop of special steel will become the Center of Entertainment

The red workshop of special steel, which is spacious inside, is not far away from hardware storehouse. In the early times, workers had to commute through it by bicycle. Ten years old as it is, the building was lucky enough to be reserved.

"Why shall we demolish all the buildings?" Bai Wenhua contradicted.

He, who used to organize and plan the reconstruction project of the Chang Shou Rd. as a leader of the Huangpu District with Chen Yifei, a late famous artist, has unique understanding of city construction, "Many cities are facing reconstruction, but they have be treated differently. When I was taking my further education in America, I appreciated Pittsburg's way of reconstruction very much. A lot of old houses were abandoned because of people could not afford to pay estate tax. The government took over all of them and used them to create a sense of history for service industry. The use of old workshop goes well with the very theme of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo--"Better City, Better Life".

Mr. Han zheng, Shanghai Acting Party Secretary of CPC and Mayor of Shanghai, appreciated the proposals for keeping the old buildings when he made an inspection tour of the workshop of special steel. There will become an entertainment center in the future-musical performances with gorgeous clothing will replace the flames of steel making in years. Memories of the city are connected elaborately and the dramatic changes play a role in the conversation between history and future.

In fact, careful people should notice that the proposals of Expo have been slated over and over again. Why? Because unnecessary demolitions and buildings of the houses can be avoided As a result, historical relics of Shanghai industry can be protected well enough , and people will live for a better life so that Expo is more human.

The survey on the Expo sites from the year 2003 onwards brings new concepts to the plan of the Expo. Power Station in Nanyang, for instance, is the earliest one in Shanghai. It will be transformed into a green power station instead of demolition and such elements as solar energy, wind energy and bioenergy, are added, which fully embodies the spirit of "Better City, Better Life".

The South Wharf village, a residential neighborhood for instance, should have been included the area of "the red line" for demolition. After taking into account the economic factors as well as the large size of would-be relocated people, the government reserved it.

The "red line", which represents the route to dismantle bypasses the high buildings as well as these newly built mansions carefully and finally , shrinks to a smaller size. Shen Lei from the Shanghai World Expo Land Holding Co., Ltd. said jokingly,"'The red line' is just like an earthworm as it comes inside and outside."

There are more and more buildings in the list of protection. Not only will the units of cultural heritage definitely be included in the protection list, but many old buildings of historical value as well. The planned protection area has increased as twice as that of two years ago.

Mr Bai Wenhua said, "It's the first time in our country to utilize the old buildings in such a great size which can be an instructive example. But a passive protection is unfavorable. There will be more positive effects on the protection of cultural heritage when it is integrated with innovation, which is also the idea for us to build a harmonious society. Through breathing new ideas into the work, human and nature, history and future will be more harmonious. This was, to say the least, what a large amount of resources can be saved!"

In the future, in the venue of the World Expo, there will appear such road names: Shanggang Road, Nandian road and etc. People are trying to retain the memory of history with various methods.

"Lorry, go slowly please!"-rescuing the old parts

In the World Expo Park, there will be many artistic models which will catch the eye of hundreds of thousands of workers of the Shanghai Steel Plant and warm their heart, such as their familiar double shackle and revolving gears.

Mr Huang Yinghao from the Shanghai Painting and Sculpture Institution is chairing this project. He and his friends are searching in the debris like junkmen for any part of unique structure. Any finding makes them hilarious as if they had found some treasure.

"We're trying our best to retain the elements of industrial civilization in the form of painting and sculpture. These art works include both the originally naive and nostalgic figure and the modern art taste." Huang said.

They are using their artists' eyes and hands to rescue the history from the debris."Even a distorted armor plate is more beautiful than a new one because it is filled with full sense of history."

They selected many anchors out of the former No.3 Printing and Dyeing Factory; many shackles of the flap doors out of the remains of Jiangnan Dockyard; a nice model of a machine tool out of the trashes of the Hualun Printing and Dyeing Factory. They even treasured up the first grab bucket used by Mr Bao Qifan, the famous "King of Grab Bucket."

Like competing with the lorry for time, Mr. Wang and his friends always worry whether some "treasures" are left unfound.

Watching the lorry leaving, he said, "Sometimes, I really want to yell to the lorry- go slowly, more slowly! Please!"

Even both the debris and the scene that is revealing itself before it are recorded. The Shanghai World Expo Land Holding Co., Ltd. went to great length to invite some painters to reproduce artistically the once existed life of the ordinary people.

Protected by the people dedicated to the world Expo, the memory of the city, under the banner of the Expo, is stretching and expanding. The story of Shanghai, which has already lasted for a hundred years, is still striking a warm chord with the current people.