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Just several minutes past 12:00 PM (noon time), the office became very quite. Everyone disappeared - to be more exact, escaped from the office. Only one lady doing the cleaning work are here, and me... I haven't had my lunch yet. It is an unusaul day. I never see office like this - no one in, in the middle of a normal Thursday.
It is not a normal Thursday. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is meeting in Shanghai. To ensure security of the meeting, the Raffles tower, along with many other office buildings in the area are closed. People are required to leave the building after 12:00 PM, and security people will come to check floor by floor, room by room.
Raffles tower is just 500 meters away from the Shanghai Government building. Security guys think it is the best place for people with a gun to shoot someone.
Look at the building in the middle - it is the government building, and the one on the right, with round corners, is Raffles Tower.
Above is the view from the building to government building, and the People's Square. If I am on higher floors, we can see better view.
Shanghai Cooperation Organization Meeting is Troublesome
It is not the first time Shanghai shutdown business to hold meetings. It is the case in APAC and other meetings. The original arrangement was, all office closes in Huangpu District and the Lujiazui area for three days, from Wed, to Friday. People come to work the previous weekend.
Many people don't like the plan, and boycotted the arrangement. Later, it is adjusted a little bit that it is SUGGESTED to close offices.
Yesterday and today, it is obvious not many people in Metro - I can easily get a seat in the morning, and not many cars. About 1 million government employees are on vacation these days, and some business also closes.
It is NOT a normal day. Big meeting in Shanghai means vacation for many people.
Let me run now. It is said elevator will be closed soon. I don't want to go downstairs by stairs, or caught by police.
I am the first one who wrote comment to this article. Exciting!!!
Posted by: Stone on June 15, 2006 7:18 PMHey is that a new building? I'm curious why it is named Raffles city since that is the name of the Father/ Founder of Singapore used mainly (almost certainly only) in Singapore and they use this name with due respect. I wonder if that building belongs to a Singapore enterprise.
Posted by: Josh on June 16, 2006 1:00 AMTo execute a day-time curfew in the commercial district of Shanghai for the meeting of SCO?
It just like putting a sign saying "temporary out of order" to the world market.
Posted by: stephen on June 16, 2006 2:22 AMJian Shuo, why didn't they have the meeting out in the countryside somewhere so they didn't have to shut down the city and prevent people from going to work? There is that big lake and yacht club west of Shanghai where they could have met.
Posted by: Bovemanm on June 16, 2006 2:27 AMJian Shou: Enjoy the rest of the week off!
Josh: Yes, Singapore developer and the building has been open for a few years now. Superior Puxi location since it's adjacent to the Metro Station and across the street from the People's Square. Nice shopping and eateries on lower floors. Jian Shou can fill you in the more details.
Bove: This is a top-level conference, Wuxi by Lake Tai with the yacht club would not have the facilities and infrastruture to handle it, think of the security alone.
Posted by: Ali on June 16, 2006 3:03 AMBy hosting the SCO meeting in the center of Shanghai City, Some one is trying to project an image of Shanghai as of the image of China to the meeting attendees.
Posted by: ILH on June 16, 2006 6:09 AMJosh, you are right. It is built, owned and managed by Captial Land, a Singapore real estate company. Thanks Ali for the information.
I cannot imagine to hold this meeting somewhere else than the central of the city. Simply by listening to Metro broadcasting about which station is closed, I get some idea about where the leaders are. Sometimes at Lujiazui, sometimes at the Science and Technology Museum, and sometimes in the city hall at People's Square.
Posted by: Jian Shuo Wang on June 16, 2006 9:01 AMVery few contries' goverments in the world are capable to have this kind of control power -- shutting down so much business activities for an international meeting. This is obviously a double-edged sword...
Posted by: JH on June 16, 2006 3:16 PMMan, that takes awesome power to completely lockdown all of Shanghai like that.
Posted by: Bovemanm on June 16, 2006 11:07 PMThat's what we need to do with government workers in Florida and the Gulf Coast who missed work due to hurricane evacuations. Force them to make it all up by working weekends and their vacation periods.
Now that would definitely make government more efficient and help reduce the deficit. Hen hao!!
Posted by: Bovemanm on June 16, 2006 11:44 PMThe good thing is that all six formal SCO members will take turn to host the meeting. Hopefully, people only need to experience the inconvenience once for every 5~6 years. But again, who knows there wouldn’t be other big meetings. Shanghai is a popular place these days.
I need to know How much could I spend for a month in Shanghai. I shall go to work in Raffles. If anyone can tell me, I weill appreciate
Posted by: CD on May 8, 2007 12:26 PMyes the developer is a singapore company, and the original raffles city has got strong history as it was on the very land where singapore founder Raffles laid foundation for the country's first school.
I'm not sure about Singapore respecting the name though. Unfortunately, they themselves are dropping their historical links. the chinese name will be now changed to be same as in Shanghai.
See
http://www.zaobao.com/yl/yl071006_515.html
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