Sunday, March 09, 2008
Mickey in Chuansha?
What was unofficially official for months, or even years, is now official: Disney plans to build a them park near the town of Chuangsha, in Pudong. All that remains is approval from the central government. Located only several kms from where I live, I decided to explore this city further. (See here for some previous pictures.)
The 200,000+ inhabitants are mostly blue collar, and I was told that until not too long ago, local gangs ruled the streets. Fortunately, that's improved significantly. Nevertheless, there's still some cultural places; on my journey today, I came across a handful of buildings that reflect the city's many ideologies of the past century.
I first biked to Chuansha's public park, with its large pagoda. Then on to a revolutionary war memorial (I was the only visitor), followed by a visit to the former home of one of Chuansha's famous political figures, Huang Yanpei. I then stumbles upon an old Catholic church (built by French Jesuits in 1874) and a small Protestant church, built by American missionaries in 1935), both hidden in obscure small alleys. The Protestant congregation had grown to over a thousand worshipers, so they now rent a large warehouse nearby, hoping and praying to find a piece of land for their own building in the future. They also told me proudly that Song Meiling was born nearby the church building in Chuansha. One of China's three famous sisters (all educated in Shanghai and the USA), she later married Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Nationalist Party, and played a influential role in Chinese politics and history.
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3 comments:
can you tell more about the exact location of the chuansha catholic church. i want to visit someday, i live near lotus brand mall near chuansha
sorry for the late reply. if you leave me your email address, i will reply and i won't publish your comment on this blog.
there's quite a lot to see in chuansha and those rural places in pudong. i live in zhangjiang hi-tech park and recently got a bike. would love to start my exploration on a bike from now on... perhaps every morning.
between, are you still exploring pudong on a bike these days?
Cheers,
Cintia
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