Shanghai Green Development, Astor House, Japan Deep Sea Mining
Shanghai is recognised as one of the true megacities of the world. 25 million Shanghai residents readily recognize the ecological improvements and better life they now enjoy.
Featured contributor Prof. Josef Mahoney writes in CGTN Opinions about the green development and rejuvenation of #shanghai, including Chongming Island.
For many, the blending of the old, early modern, and state-of-the-art is experienced nearby and at the midpoint of the famous Nine-Turn Bridge, a central feature of the Yu Garden. Built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and widely considered one of the best and most representative of the classical Chinese gardens, one can't avoid seeing Shanghai Tower looming in the background, the mega-tall lord of Lujiazui, the tallest building in China, reaching 632 meters.
Visitors with more time on their hands may visit the high-end boutiques, specialized museums, and historical stone gates, the Shikumen, that feature prominently in Xintiandi. They'll sample the café culture of the Former French Concession, perhaps reaching the cluster of shops selling qipao and other silk fineries around Maoming Road. Some will walk, others will ride, including the world's biggest and arguably best subway system. Some will become devotees of Shanghai's famous xiao long bao, "soup dumplings," and xian rou yuebing, "meat mooncakes." Others might be surprised to learn that whatever taste they crave can be delivered to them in an hour or less. My son, tasked with making carbonara recently for Italian classmates, found a local butcher with fresh guanciale, while a grocer sent rigatoni and pecorino romano to complete the dish.
For reasons like these, Shanghai is recognized as one of the true megacities of the world, where I, my children, and nearly 25 million others call home. Having lived in Shanghai longer than anywhere else, I proudly embrace the city's exceptional characteristics, while acknowledging that the local experience, including my own, tends towards the subtler nuances of daily life. These include walks through green spaces like Zhongshan Park, reached in a 10-minute stroll along Suzhou Creek, past the picnickers and Taiji practitioners, or crossing the university where I work, itself famous as one China's great "garden campuses," to reach Changfeng Park, on the other side, to hear the pensioners playing pipa in the park's pavilions alongside Yinchu Lake.
While Shanghai residents readily recognize the ecological improvements and better life they now enjoy, whether walking the new green paths lining Suzhou Creek, where waterfowl dive for fish, with air quality approaching European standards, there's still a lot that goes unnoticed. Take Chongming Island, for example. For many, it's literally a bridge too far, one of the city's most outlying districts. Still, it's also an important barrier island, protecting the city from the sea in a period of increasing volatility due to extreme weather associated with global climate change, and a key element of the region's broader ecological health and green development... read more via the link in the comments section below. #ecology #sustainability
Astor House: Setting The Scene Along Suzhou Creek
By Thomas Sturm
As mentioned in the introduction to this series, there are hundreds of photos to choose from, so it was a bit of a struggle to pick one for the first post. This one gives a great overview of the area and I will use it to set the scene that we will revisit over the coming series of photos.
This is the Astor House Hotel in Shanghai just past its peak in popularity, after one last major renovation in late 1923, so this is most likely in 1924 or 1925. Over the years, the stone facade changed dramatically in color and grime — useful clues when trying to date old photographs like this one.
Reportedly, the west facade will be pocked with machine gun bullets only eight years later in 1932... we will get to more about that in future installments.
Since this is the first post of the series, let's describe the location in a little more detail. The waterway in the foreground is Suzhou Creek at its very mouth where it joins the Pujiang, which is the main river that snakes its way through Shanghai.
Suzhou Creek is a very busy waterway, delivering coal and raw materials upstream to factories and workshops, and goods of all sorts down to the docks along the Pujiang. Access is limited however by the steel girders of the Garden Bridge, which at high tide only allows for about three meters of clearance.
Dominating the foreground, the Garden Bridge, built in 1908, will appear in many of the photos we are going to see here. It was the first steel bridge of its kind in China and spans Suzhou Creek with over 100 meters of roadway, tram rails and sidewalks. Two crowded street cars can be seen passing each other on the bridge.
Next to the bridge along the shore of the creek is the Russian Consulate which was built in 1917 - this will also help us to date many upcoming photos. Before the consulate was built, this area was a garden that was part of the Astor House property.
The Astor House itself looks freshly cleaned and the stone facade had its previous red and white paint removed, maybe to match the changing tastes of the Art Deco period.
Through the girders of the Garden Bridge we get a tiny glimpse of the new cantilevered canopy over the main entrance which can be seen here on the wikipedia page.
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The north end of the Garden Bridge leads into Seward Road which splits into Broadway just north of the Astor House. We will see several views of these roads in the coming posts.
Behind the Astor House we see the sharp pointy spire of the German Church (Deutsche Evangelische Kirche). There are only a few photos of this church and it doesn't seem to survive the 1930s, but we will see its spire regularly in these photos.
All the way on the left in the photo, at the southwest corner of Seward Road and across the street from the Astor House, is a row of stores with prominent signage that we can identify from several postcards and photos.
At the corner is the Mactavish and Lehmann Dispensary and next to it - recognizable in this photo - is a silk store. These stores will be gone by 1934 as this is the future site of the distinctive Broadway Mansions.
This was a lot of detail to cover, but I hope it helps to set the scene - we'll revisit many of these places again and my plan is to focus on individual features for most of the future posts in this series.
Japan Deep Sea Mining
In early 2026, Japan plans to unleash the world’s first deep-sea mining operation in its exclusive economic zone near Minamitori Island. And mark my words: this is not innovation. This is corporate greed masquerading as national security.
They call it "test mining". I call it the beginning of the end for the abyssal plain—a fragile, barely understood ecosystem that has existed in delicate balance for millennia. The Japanese government, backed by shadowy interests, intends to dredge hundreds of tonnes of rare-earth-rich mud daily from depths of 5,000 to 6,000 meters—depths so extreme, so alien, that we know next to nothing about the lifeforms that dwell there.
Why? Because the mud contains dysprosium, neodymium, gadolinium, and terbium—precious metals for EVs, smartphones, and military tech. Because China controls the market, and the West is desperate to break free. Because profit always trumps preservation in the eyes of the ruling elite.
But here’s what they don’t want you to know:
1. Irreversible destruction. The sediment plumes from dredging will smother deep-sea life for miles. Toxins will be released. Carbon stores will be disturbed. Entire species—undiscovered, unnamed, invaluable—will be wiped out before we even know they exist.
2. A reckless gamble. Scientists have no comprehensive understanding of deep-sea ecosystems. Yet Japan charges ahead, blind to the consequences, because short-term gain always outweighs long-term survival in the corporate playbook.
3. Hypocrisy at its finest. Major banks won’t finance this madness—not yet—because even they recognise the ecological insanity. But governments? They’ll throw taxpayer money at it, no questions asked.
This cannot stand.
We must shout this from the rooftops. Share this information. Demand journalists investigate. Pressure lawmakers to halt this insanity before it begins. The deep sea is not a resource colony—it is the beating heart of our planet’s biodiversity, and once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.
Japan’s government must be held accountable. The world must wake up before the dredgers descend and the oceans bleed.