Shenyang

Finally, a free afternoon to do nothing but relax and update this Beijing blog that is becoming increasingly more difficult to sustain – don’t expect another post any time in the near future. During the last two weeks, my time has been fully occupied, spending a few days each week on different business trips to the city of Shenyang.

Shenyang is the provincial capital of Liaoning Province and the transportation hub for Northeast China. This city of 7 million people was once the “Industrial Center” during China’s industrialization movement in the 1950’s focusing on steel production and chemical processing. After Deng Xioaping’s opening reforms, as the nation began to privatize, most of the state-owned enterprises in heavy industry went bankrupt in the region. This rust-belt city suffered for some time until the central government launched a set of initiatives and policy reforms to help “revitalize the Northeast” This “Pittsburg of China” is currently experiencing tremendous growth as MNCs expand into the city and as the disposable incomes of those living in the metropolitan area climb at an astounding rate.

My job is to research about Shenyang’s real estate markets (retail, residential, and office) and in doing so I have absorbed an incredible amount of information about the city. For example, Shenyang has become the retail hub for northeast China with currently more luxury and high-end retail space than Beijing. Since 90% of the companies in Shenyang are domestic firms that prioritize price of office space over quality, the majority of office buildings are crap – ugly low Grade B strata-titled towers. However, considering that all quality space is basically occupied, every developer and their mother has a Grade A office project in the works. And on the residential side of things, huge complexes are being erected to the south of the Hunnan River that bisects the city, where land is cheaper and where the Olympic Stadium (for soccer preliminaries) has been built. This second-tier city is going through a transformation that Beijing experienced maybe only 5 years ago. For someone like me, and especially for someone in real estate, this dynamic and fast-paced city is rather exhilarating. I prefer not to elaborate much further on property market activity and trends in Shenyang (mainly because that’s what I write about all week) but rather a few observations I made during my stay.

First of all, Shenyang gets a bad rap throughout China for its notorious organized crime syndicates and corrupt political leaders. In the past, I had heard of numerous shady business deals that were rooted in Shenyang, I had met a group of Shenyang gangster’s during a drunken escapade in Sanlitun (Beijing’s bar street), and before I left for the airport, my colleague advised me not to look at anybody directly in the eye unless I was indeed looking for trouble. I was expecting the worst… and was delighted to find the exact opposite. My encounters in Shenyang left me with a positive impression of the laobaixing (ordiary folk) of the city – in fact, they were friendlier and more hospitable than their Beijing counterparts. I spent a lot of time wondering the streets alone, exploring many run-down neighborhoods, chatting with old men playing chess, receiving smiles from xiaomaibu (convenient store) girls, and discussing my adoration for Shenyang with taxi drivers. One night, I stumbled upon two guys running a hole-in-the-wall chuanr (meat on a stick) joint, and because I was starving, I pulled up a stool and ordered 10 mutton chuanr. An hour and a few beers later, I found myself in a heated discussion over China’s new visa restrictions, Chinese soccer, and the pros and cons of living in Singapore. Before leaving, I told them that I would stop by during my next trip to the city and they said that a free bottle of Zero Beer (Shenyang’s local brew) would be waiting for me.

Shenyang may not be as international or as culturally dynamic as Beijing and thus the nightlife for an expat like myself may be limited to chuanr stands. However, with a bit of investigation, we were able to find one bar street – called XiTa Jie. This area, known as little Korea to the locals, is filled with Korean restaurants, Korean style bars (soju bars) and room saloons (KTVs where you can buy a girl for a night). This scene filled with neon lights and “girls for hire” did not surprise me at all. As I have mentioned before in my posts about Seoul and Dalian (another city with a high Korean population), Korean business men do not have any moral qualms with objectifying women as long as these women are not married. Korean wives, on the other hand, are expected to remain tolerant of this male-dominated practice which is deemed acceptable in a traditional society where ideology is focused around filial piety (obey thy husband, thy father, thy elder).

Lastly, I would like to say that Shenyang reinvigorated my love for life in China. Overshadowed by pollution, westernization, and of course Big Brother, Beijing has lost much of its glamour over the years. I came to China to learn Chinese, see the country modernize, and allow myself to grow with a global perspective. I believe that I have been successful in accomplishing much of this to a certain extent, but I can also see Beijing slowing down economically and beginning to plateau as a modern Asian city, too many people can speak English, and the familiarity of Beijing and its newly embraced sense of modernity is making life in Beijing somewhat monotonous. Perhaps, I’m just being a melancholy grouch today, but I am cogitating more and more how wonderful it would be to relocate to a second-tier city, where I can feel like I am in China again and find myself surrounded by the unfamiliar. Clearly, I am still at an age where personal discovery and free will are basic drivers that shape my existence – and while “stability and security” are still vying to dominate this approach to life, I should take advantage of my youth by maintaining a simple path towards personal enlightenment.

In other words, I am never complacent.