SURGE CITY
上海灘頭再掀繁華潮It’s boomtime in boomtown again – Shanghai is sprouting new hotels, revamped malls and new art districts. CATHY ADAMS samples the highs, the lows and the stratospherics有十里洋場之稱的上海，近日再展新姿，全新酒店、經翻新的商場及新藝術園區如雨後春筍般湧現。Cathy Adams親歷其境，見證其中的紙醉金迷
Shanghai is boomtown once more. CATHY ADAMS explores its new hotels, new malls and new art districts
封面故事 上海灘頭再掀繁華潮
十里洋場新事物紛紛湧現。Cathy Adams前往當地的新酒店、新購物商場及新藝術園區探索一番
The first chapter of Stella Dong’s Shanghai: The Rise and Fall of a Decadent City is called ‘ The Ugly Daughter Rises’. The second line of her novel goes:
‘At the peak of its spectacular career, the swamp-ridden metropolis surely ranked as the most pleasure-mad, rapacious, corrupt, strife-ridden, licentious, squalid and decadent city in the world.’
Standing on the balcony of newly redesigned, bronze-and-gold, turbo-luxe shopping mall Plaza 66, on Nanjing Xi Lu in Shanghai’s Jing’an district, watching David LaChapelle take photos, pâtissier Pierre Marcolini swoon over a pile of macarons, pastry chef Janice Wong create an ‘edible art installation’ and Alicia Keys belt out Empire State of Mind during her 15-minute set, Shanghai still lives up to two of those adjectives: pleasure-mad and decadent.
I mean, this mall isn’t even opening – it’s been operating for 16 years. It’s just had a very expensive facelift – that involved installing a Very Important Customer lounge for fancy clientele – and thrown the mother of all parties to celebrate it.
( The toilets even have paper with the end folded into a little triangle, like in hotels.) There’s a new hashtag – #HomeToLuxury – to talk about it.
At Plaza 66’s opening night, a red carpet welcomes influencers, celebrities and most of Shanghai high society to watch the proverbial ribbon-cutting. Despite the wellpublicised tax on luxury goods in China, consumerism – and confidence – in China’s most populous and bombastic city has had a gigantic shot in the arm. But don’t just take Plaza 66’s word for it.
Shanghai is in the midst of a new wave of building: new architecture, new creative zones, new neighbourhoods. Not forgetting new hotels. Sexy, sleek and cosmopolitan hotel brands are again sprouting everywhere.
This is 2017. Welcome to Shanghai’s third boom.
‘Shanghai was a waking dream where everything I could imagine had already been taken to its extreme.’ – JG Ballard
Over the past two years, Shanghai’s seen a handful of landmark new towers topped out: the curved, copper-fronted Bund Finance Centre, designed by Foster + Partners and Heatherwick Studios; and the very serious, businessy New Bund Trade Centre. The most significant of the city’s new clutch of supertalls is the twisty, vitreous Shanghai Tower. At 632 metres tall, it’s China’s tallest and most ambitious building.
I zipped up in a super-fast lift, paying 180RMB (HK$210) for the privilege, to peer down at the world from the 119thfloor viewing deck. It was a clearish day in Shanghai. I looked down at the curve of the Huangpu river and across to the Bund, where the colonial art deco buildings sat upright like the furniture of a doll’s house. The skyscrapers of futuristic Lujiazui beneath – which rise higher than London’s Shard, New York’s Empire State Building, Chicago’s Willis Tower – looked like matchsticks.
Closer to earth, I went on to explore Shanghai’s gentrifying low-rise areas, with the help of Sam Braybon of tour operator Bespoke Travel.
‘ When the Shanghai Tower opened, that was the last piece in Shanghai’s puzzle,’ Sam tells me. ‘Almost all of the new subway lines are finished. The next stage is to improve what’s already here.’
We’re in Egg, a tiny coffee shop just off Wulumuqi Lu in the tree-flecked French Concession. Shanghainese and imported creatives are tapping away on Macbooks. While everywhere else in Shanghai has become glassier and edgier, not much has changed in the golden square enveloping Wulumuqi Lu, Anfu Lu and Wuyuan Lu. The tiny cabin selling Feiyue trainers, where I bought my now battered shoes seven years ago, is still here. Expats and families are zipping around on rented Mobikes, buying cheap bunches of jasmine from roadside sellers and checking into the area’s massage parlours. (Need a hangover cure? Grab coffee at Anfu Lu’s Amokka followed by a treatment at Zen Massage on Wuyuan Lu.)
華裔女作家董碧方的《著作 上海：一個墮落城市的浮沉》的第一章，題〈為 醜陋女兒抬頭〉。書中第二句道寫 ： 這個沼澤處處的大都市，在處一繁於 片 華興顛盛的 峰之時，確是世上最瘋狂地追求逸樂取、巧奪豪 、腐滿敗、充衝突、放蕩、墮落廢與頹 的城市。
位於上海南京西區路 安 的恒隆廣場剛剛經過重新設計，以青銅黃與 金二色為主調，是一個極致奢華的物購 中心。我站在商高場處的台陽 上，看著攝影師David LaChapelle正在走來走去忙， 著攝拍 照片，糕點廚名Pierre Marcolini陶面醉於 前堆疊得高高的蛋白杏，仁餅 甜點師黃慧嫻則專志心致 在埋首創作一件「可供食用的藝術置裝 」，而歌手Alicia Keys則為一眾嘉賓獻唱15分鐘， 括高歌一曲《Empire State of Mind》。瘋狂地 追求逸樂和頹廢這兩組形詞容 ，今時今日仍然適用於上海這個城市身上。
我說是想 的 ，這個商場非並 剛剛開幕，而是已經營運了16年，只是最近進行了價值不菲的翻新工程而已工（ 程括為尊貴顧客增設全的新 VIC貴室賓。） 現在翻新大功告成便， 舉辦一個超級型大派對大肆慶祝番就一 。 連商洗間場 手內提供的廁紙也很講究，末端摺成小三角形，跟酒店看，齊 毫不馬虎場。商 甚至在社交平台上新增了名為# HomeToLuxury （奢華之家）的主題標籤。
恒隆廣場重新開幕那晚，場地鋪上紅地毯，歡迎一眾要人、名以人 及上海大部分上流社會人士光出臨， 席剪綵儀式儘。 管中國奢對 侈徵品 稅是眾所周知的事實，但身處中國人口最稠密與最浮華的城市裡，這地方所展現的消費主義及信心有如一支強心針過。不 也不要單恒看 隆廣場的片面現象。
上海正湧現一般新建築浪潮新： 建築風格創、新意園、區新社區。別忘了還有新酒店上。 海各處再度紛紛出現多個極具吸引力、時尚雅國致和 際化的酒店品牌。
這是2017年迎。歡 來到上海第三個繁華的年代。
「依我所見，上海就是一個如夢似幻的地方，把我一切可以想像到的都已推到極致英家。」– 國作 JGBallard
過去兩上年， 海有多座新標大全 地 式樓進行平頂儀式外，灘金融中心便是其中之一。中心由敦斯倫 赫 維克工作室與福斯特建築事務所聯合設計，銅青 色外牆呈現弧形線條。另外還有看上一去 本正經、商業氣息濃厚的前灘貿易中心。而於市內新一批的摩天大樓之中，最惹人注目的便是上海中心大厦。外型曲折的大廈樓高米632 ，採用幕玻璃 牆，屬國中 第一高樓，可見其雄心壯志。
我付了180元人民幣（ 210港元）後，踏進超高速電梯，旋即抵達119樓觀的 景台。那天，上海氣天朗 清。我低頭看著蜿蜒曲折的黃，浦江 還有彼岸的外灘，那裡有不少充滿殖民時代裝飾藝術風格的建築，宛如玩具屋內齊整的家具。而下方陸家嘴的摩天大樓則未屬派來 ，比倫敦片碎 大廈、約紐 帝國大廈，以及芝加哥威利斯大廈還要高，看起來就像火柴枝一般。
回地到 面之後我， 在Bespoke Travel旅行社導遊Sam Braybon的協下助探， 索上海經中產化後的低層建築地區。
Sam告訴我：「當上海中心大厦落成之時，就如在上這海 幅拼圖中下放 最後一塊。幾乎所新有 的地鐵線都經已竣工，上海的下一階段發就展 是善改 現已存在的各種設施。」
我坐位們 在 於烏魯木齊路的旁 小咖啡店Egg裡面這， 裡於屬綠意盎然的法租界段地 。上海人及外地創意人才都埋首於各的自 Macbook中手， 指於鍵盤上不停敲打。當上海其他所有地方都變得愈來愈前
Where Shanghai is changing is where it all began: the Bund.
It’s no longer just the strip of art deco former embassies staring down the boiledsweet-wrapped Oriental Pearl Tower – it’s gone up, down, east and west.
‘New York may be the city that never sleeps, but Shanghai doesn’t even sit down, and not just because there is no room.’ – Patricia Marx
I bypass the gritty South Bund – which in 2010 welcomed the design-friendly Waterhouse hotel with a tall lobby, Kafka quotes tattooed onto the stone walls and one of the city’s unexpectedly good roof terraces; as well as the Power Station of Art, a concrete leviathan of a gallery, filled with obscure contemporary installations.
The ‘new’ Bund is further west: Shanghai’s latest creative zone. Critics might argue that China’s ‘build galleries, add artists’ formula is inorganic, but on a soupy Saturday afternoon the families, photography crews and dog-walking couples zipping around on orange Mobikes didn’t seem to care.
The riverside Longhua Dadao links galleries YUZ, West Bund Art Centre and the Shanghai Centre of Photography, but the most high profile is the newish Long Museum. Atelier Deshaus’ concrete hangar has attracted some big-name artists since it opened last year. This month, British artist Sir Antony Gormley’s embryonic bodies are hanging and lounging in his Still Moving exhibition (running until 26 November), its first outing in mainland China.
Then there’s the North Bund in Hongkou, home to mainland China’s newest W Hotel (and the first rooftop pool overlooking glittery Pudong – see box on page 39) as well as Shanghai’s new cruise terminal.
The regenerated Bund will have a job dragging people away from Nanjing Xi Lu, the buzzy commercial road that’s always had one eye on a good time. Home to Plaza 66, the neighbourhood is also where, earlier this year, Swire (also owners of Cathay Pacific) opened its HKRI Taikoo Hui shopping and entertainment complex. The mall is also art-friendly, with exhibitions such as the V&A London’s Shoes: Pleasure and Pain (until 5 November).
Soon to join HKRI Taikoo Hui’s mix of 衛，建築變得更五十之光 色 際，由烏魯木齊路安、 福路及五原路構成的方形段地 內則
沒起多大變化，相當難得我。 那雙現已殘破不飛堪的 躍動運 鞋就， 是七年前在這裡的一家小店內買的。小店子至今依然健在外。僑拖和 兒帶女的家庭，踏著透微過 信租用的摩公拜 共單車呼嘯而過有， 人購買於路旁兜售的廉宜茉莉花光，或 顧區內的按摩店。（想要解宿妙醉的 方首往嗎？ 先前 安福路的Amokka喝杯咖啡後，然再到五原路的Zen Massage享受按程摩療 。）
上海的繁源華自外灘，這個地方亦歷經改；變這裡不再只是與猶如糖果砌成的東方明珠塔遙遙對望、充滿裝飾藝術風格建築的前大使館區，而是向上下、、東全、西方位伸展擴充。
「紐約可能是不之眠城，但上海甚至連坐下來也不會，而箇中原因並非只是缺乏空
間。美」– 國作家PatriciaMarx
我繞過作風踏實的南外灘，水舍上海南外灘酒店這就在 裡。酒店於2010年開幕，非常視重 設計風格。大堂高樓底 ，石牆上刻有卡夫卡的語錄，屋頂有市個 內數一數二的優美陽台，令人出乎意料之外。上海代當藝術博物館亦在南外灘，這座以凝混 土建構的龐大藝廊內，放滿種各 艱澀難的懂 當代藝術展品。
再向西面走就是「新」外灘，那上是 海最新的創意園。區評論者可能認為中這國種「興建藝廊，再將藝術家送進去」的公式太人工化，但在一個密雲的期星 六下午，看著街上有有的老 少 家庭、攝影隊、帶著狗散步的情侶以及踏著色拜橙 摩 公共單車飛馳而過的人，看他們 來對這個問似題乎不太關心。
沿河岸的龍華大連道 接余德耀美術館西、 岸藝術中心和上海藝攝影 術中心，但最高調的可說是新落成的龍博物館。博物館由舍大 建築設計事務所負責設計，突顯富凝質的混土感 拱形空間。自去年啟用以來，博物館吸引了多位大名鼎鼎的藝術家展出作品。本月，博物館正舉辦國英 藝安術家東尼．日姆雷的爵士 首個中國內地展覽，名為《 方中移動》（展日覽至期 11月26日） ，場地之內可見形如胚胎的人體雕塑懸掛和散置其中。
再走到就 北外灘的虹口區國，中 內地最新的W酒（店 設有首個可俯瞰璀璨浦東的頂樓泳池－－參閱39頁另文）和上海全新的郵輪碼頭坐就 落這在裡。
商區業京人南 西路 頭湧湧，人們總是留意那裡有什麼玩樂好去處。灘而外 經革新後，便肩負起將這些人吸引過來的任除重 。了廣恒隆 場選址於外灘，太古集國團（ 泰航空亦是集團旗下員成 ）於今年較早時候亦於這裡開興設 業太古匯綜合物購 娛樂中心。這個購物亦中心 會舉行藝術展覽，例如敦倫V&A博物館的《Shoes: Pleasure and Pain》展覽就在此展出，月至11 5日為方太。 古酒店居「 舍系列」的鏞舍亦即將加入興業太古
匯的高級零售店與餐廳行列，我認為這
WHERE SHANGHAI IS CHANGING IS WHERE IT ALL BEGAN: THE BUND上海的繁華源自外灘，這個地方亦歷經改變