Shanghai and Hong Kong are very much like blood sisters. Shanghai is called the Lustrous Pearl of the Orient; Hong Kong, the Pearl of the East. Like two stars on the China coast, the two cities have a lot in common, in terms of geography, history, and challenges. Strategically placed at the mouth of the Yangtze River and Pearl River estuaries, both cities command the physical and social capital of rich hinterlands. They also bear witness to the turbulent history of China as their destiny is linked to western forays into Qing China on her knees. The momentous stroke that rewrote their history is of course the Opium War and the Treaty of Nanking (1842). Foremost among the humiliations were territorial concessions. Hong Kong was ceded to Britain as a colony, a status that was to last until 1997. The same treaty also turned Shanghai into a treaty port and semicolony, when the principle of extra-territoriality took the physical form of the international settlements. However infamous the past may be, the insulation from the most vicious wars and turmoil that besieged the China heartland was the key to Shanghai and Hong Kong's success. In the process, the twins evolved into the great hubs of trade and industry unmatched by any other Chinese city. Of equal importance has been the absorption of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, among them entrepreneurs, intellectuals, revolutionaries, artisans, and ordinary people. The mixing of the most adventurous and enterprising elements from within China and from all over the world underlaid the fantastic blending of cultures and practices. This not only turned them into great metropolises, but it also gave a big push to China's modernization. At the same time, unbridled growth in the context of cultural bastardy sired many social problemsâdrugs, crime, prostitution, poverty, and exploitationâthat bestowed both with an aura of exotic decadence.
