Demolition of Shanghai's famous snack street draws mixed feelings
By Channel NewsAsia's China Correspondent Glenda Chong | Posted: 31 March 2009 0015 hrs

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SHANGHAI: Shanghai's famous Wujiang Snack Street, located in Jing'an district, will soon be replaced by skyscrapers.

Flip through any guide book on Shanghai and the Wujiang Snack Street is listed as a must-see for tourists. But come end-2009, reprints are in order. This is because the famous tourist attraction will soon be demolished to make way for up-market shopping malls.

Professor Dai Xingyi, director of Centre for Urban Environment Management Research, Fudan University, said: "A city should have multi-values. But if you judge the success of a city by its wealth, then we have made the city a single-value system.

"We value individuals or governments by the wealth they generate and in this vein, the removal of Wujiang Road is inevitable. Every local district government wants to attract foreign investment and in the process of building and creating high-end stuff, they are forced to drive low-end businesses away."

The western part of Wujiang Road has already been turned into a pedestrian mall with many restaurants. But some street vendors said they would not be able to move there.

"That part is for western-style restaurants, this is a snack street. We won't fit in there. We will continue operation till the last days and will only move when all the shops are shut," one vendor said.

While more famous food stalls - like the Xiao Yang Fried Dumpling Shop - have already found new locations, others are still looking.

The demolition of Wujiang Snack Street is drawing mixed feelings from locals and tourists.

A local resident said: "It's a great loss for Shanghai to do away with this place. It will be difficult to find another snack street because food from all over the country can be bought here. I hope they can preserve this place."

Another added: "The snack street is good. A lot of people visit this place. I come from another city and came specially to this place because it is famous. It'll be good if they can build another snack street nearby. If not, people will have no other place to go to if they want to eat snacks like these."

An American tourist remarked: "How do you stop it? ... It's sad to displace people and it has to move, but how do you stop money and progress? In America, it's the same thing. It's a shame."


- CNA/so