Shanghai's decade of change through European eyes

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 ◆ Shanghai's decade of change through European eyes

Gerhard Mairhofer's first Shanghai visit did not impress him, but the second visit was completely different.

"It is lucky to be here to witness the making of a metropolis,"he says. "I have never seen a city in the world that has seen such rapid changes."

The general manager of Shanghai Krupp Stainless paid his first visit to Shanghai, China's industrial and financial hub, in 1989. In the decade after, the whole country, including Shanghai, underwent deep and widespread market reforms.

"There was no expressway, no cloverleaf junction in the city and traffic jams were so heavy that it took me two hours to go to the airport some 20 kilometers from downtown," Mairhofer recalls.

He found life boring as all the shops and department stores closed at 6:00 p.m. and few entertainment places were open to foreigners. He says Shanghai was far behind the rest of the world a decade ago.

However, confident of China's opening-up policy and huge potential market, the Germany-based stainless steel giant ThyssenKrupp Nirosta GmbH decided to establish a foothold here.

"I would never have thought that the city would take only ten years to catch up with the world," he says. "The city's infrastructure, such as traffic, public services, energy supply and telecommunications, has improved remarkably."

A number of large multinationals have gathered here, including GM, Kodak, Sharp, Bell, Siemens, IBM as well as Citibank, HSBC, Standard Charter and Commerz bank AG. Mairhofer thinks living in Shanghai is comparable with living in a modern European city, "except that it is a little bit crowded with a population of 16 million", he says.

International brand name clothes are sold in department stores and 24-hour shops can be seen on almost every corner.

Mairhofer's life is not as dull as 13 years ago with so many galleries, concerts and shows to see. He even has been to a Jose Carreras concert at a local theater.

"This is an energetic, sleepless city and not only foreigners, but also common Shanghai residents enjoy all it has to offer," he said. "People here are confident and outgoing with open minds.

"The houses of some of my Chinese colleagues are comfortable and pretty even in the eyes of a European," he adds.

Living in the southwest of Shanghai, Mairhofer thinks he and his family enjoy a comfortable life. Both his 13-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter go to a local German school, where they have made good friends and can learn Chinese.

Shanghai Krupp Stainless, located in Pudong District, is the largest joint venture of his German parent company in Asia, with its total investment at 1.4 billion US dollars.

The joint venture went into production in November last year. Among the 340 employees there are five foreigners.

The Chinese employees' productivity and capacity to learn are impressive, Mairhofer says.

"I would like to work and live in Shanghai in the future as the city gets better and better," he says.