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Test – Two Asian World Cities: Shanghai and Singapore [CA v1.1] Use the following documents to write an essay (of 1 or 2 pages) about Two Asian World Cities: Shanghai and Singapore.
Table of Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
"The World's 50 Busiest Container-Shipping Seaports in 2012" (map)...................1 Map of Singapore....................................................................................................2 Map of Shanghai.....................................................................................................2 "Shanghai: Can the Fastest-Growing City in the World Keep it Up?" (article)..........3 "Singapore: Miracle at the Center of the World" (article)........................................5 "Singapore-Pasir Panjang Terminal" (photogr.)........................................................7
1. "The World's 50 Busiest Container-Shipping Seaports in 2012" (map)
(Source : http://vizual-statistix.tumblr.com/post/66724553145/in-august-i-mapped-the-busiest-air-travel-routes; http://www.worldshipping.org/about-the-industry/global-trade/top-50-world-container-ports)
Data:
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2. Map of Singapore
(Source: http://www.singaporetouristguide.net/map-of-singapore.jpg)
3. Map of Shanghai
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4. "Shanghai: Can the Fastest-Growing City in the World Keep it Up?" (article) "If China is, as Jeffrey Sachs has said, the "most successful development story in world history," then Shanghai is the apotheosis of global development. A picture says a thousand words, but in the case of Shanghai, the following two pictures say so much more. The first image below is dated 1990. The second is from 2010. In a city whose GDP grew by double-digits every year for more than 20 consecutive years, this is what transformational growth looks like:
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There is a wonderful anecdote in Fareed Zakaria's book, The Post-American World, where he describes two trips to Pudong, to the east of the Shanghai [...]. In the mid-1990s, the district was mostly farmland. Today it is the global financial center of China, only slightly smaller than the entire city of Chicago, and 'densely studded with towers of glass and steel and lit like a Christmas tree every night'. […] Shanghai is projected to become perhaps the world's most economically powerful city in the next two decades. Already the size of Finland, the metro's GDP is growing faster than every big city in the world, according to the Brookings Institution. […] By 2025, the McKinsey Global Institute projects that Shanghai will grow faster than every other city, leapfrogging London to become the third richest metro in the world. […] the city has tremendous advantages. It is China's largest destination for college-educated talent. It is a magnet for foreign direct investment. It sits at the center of a network of smaller cities like Pudong. As the national financial and industrial hub, it is the best positioned metro in China" (The Editors, "Shanghai: Can the Fastest-Growing City in the World Keep it Up? [Part III of our special report on the most
5/7 important cities in the world]", The Atlantic, May 10, 2012)
5. "Singapore: Miracle at the Center of the World" (article) "Today Singapore is a model […] It is, by various counts, the easiest place in the world to do business, the best port of access for the vibrant Asian market, the world's leader in high-tech exports, and the globe's most impressive assortment of human capital.
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Singapore is about as rich as the United States on a per capita basis, but whereas America's wealth comes from within, Singapore's wealth depends on others. The United States is a huge consumer-based services-driven economy. Singapore is a small, export-based, manufacturing-heavy state. At a time when the United States is debating building a wall to keep out Mexicans, Singapore's wealth is predicated on attracting businesses and foreign workers. […] Half of Singapore's export revenue comes from four sources: Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and China. In the World Bank's measure of exports share of GDP, the United States finished near last place with 13% in 2010. Meanwhile, Singapore finished second with 211%. This might be overstating things, since export value is difficult to track in global supply chains and Singapore (like Hong Kong) is such a popular port. But according to the state's own figures, net exports of goods and services accounted for nearly 30% of GDP in 2011. The vast majority came from mineral fuels, electronics, and chemicals". (The Editors, "Singapore: Miracle at the Center of the World", The Atlantic, May 12, 2012)
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6. "Singapore-Pasir Panjang Terminal" (photogr.)
(Source: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1632699&page=17)
