A cross-section of urban life in Jinan

I mentioned before that it is difficult to characterise the City of Jinan. After almost a week I don't yet have a mental map of the city’s layout. Our hotel is almost at the geographical centre of town on the edge of a huge square (second only to Tiananmen square in Beijing) where kite flyers come to play. All around buildings are either being constructed or knocked down. There isn’t a single style or theme to the buildings around the central square but the neon and plate glass facades owe much to Hong Kong and New York – a clear indication of Jinan's aspirations. Holes in the skyline are temporarily plugged with billboards printed with images from architect's computer models offering a utopian forward looking vision of buildings which will, no doubt, exist in a year or two.

From here we invariably travel in a chauffeur driven car with darkened windows either to other parts of the city or out to other cities or restaurants. We never know in which direction we are travelling but our driver seems to have a comprehensive knowledge of every street and the ability to navigate the traitorous Jinan traffic.

As we leave the central business district the buildings become more variable. The most modern and impressive sky scrapers inevitably belong to banks or more sober government buildings and huge screens celebrate the immanent arrival, in Jinan, of the Asia games. However, never have I seen such a clear example of the city as an organism independent of the will of the planners.

Whilst Jinan's reconstruction is comprehensive; its architectural vision clear and its scale impressive, the economic realities of life in China mean that where there is the potential for wealth (however small) urban weeds, or perhaps wild flowers (depending on your perspective) grow. Shanty towns of barbeque bars, bakeries, cloths shops and electronics stores fill up the in-between spaces of the city with temporary looking buildings made from concrete blocks and plywood. You won't see these on the architects plans.

Moving to the outskirts of the city through high rise tenement blocks in various states of disrepair and destruction we reach the outskirts. Jinan is surrounded by mountains and wooded hills and, in the UK these would be the leafy suburbs with expensive detached houses making use of the gradients for views. Not in China. The scale of development means that developers can’t afford the luxury of such low density housing. Instead whole hills have been erased to make way for new university campuses, new sports stadia an new high rises to cater for workers in the many factories.

The ‘suburbs’ eventually bleed into ‘rural’ areas. The agriculture is on an industrial scale (it would have to be just to grow the amount of food we have eaten in the last few days). Whilst villages in these areas consist of lover density detached courtyard houses – they are generally basic and in poor repair. A glimpse through a window in one of these dwellings shows that they are basic – with perhaps a few dining type chairs and a table.

And then we reach the outskirts of another city...