Popular protest in Shanghai is not that common, so we took today also the opportunity of visiting Lincoln Street. (See also my entry on 15 February.) Residents have been resisting the demolishing of their beautiful neighborhood, and according to the frequent media reports they succeeded in their struggle against the district government of the Hongkou district, even with the help of the municipal authorities.
But what we saw did no look good. The people did confirmed their houses would not be demolished, but many of the inhabitants had left anyway, and the roofs and interior of their house were often destroyed. The beautiful trees that had dominated the quiet neighborhood were gone and skyscrapers came up next door. In the best case the houses would be taken over by the nouveau rich in the city, who would pay up to 5 million Renminbi to redo the houses.
Still signs of protest everywhere: slogans with quotes from former president Jiang Zemin, praising an illegal communist newspapers that had been founded in the neighborhood.
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