Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
the latter was introduced as an ornamental plant in the 1930s).
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In an inter-
esting reversal of the biological invasion discourse that focuses on the Asian
carp taking over the Great Lakes, the United States is the source of Chong-
ming's greatest invasive species threats.
In many ways, what happened to Chongming Island after the bridge was
built is not geographically or historically unique to China. After all, nature
tourism was a key factor in garnering political support to begin the U.S.
national park system in the mid-nineteenth century. Visitors to Yosemite
brought back tales of grandeur, and painters like Albert Bierstadt promoted
the idea that epic landscapes were “America's cathedrals” (sometime liter-
ally painting a cross on epic faces of cliff s, valleys, and dramatic sunscapes).
h e paradox of destroying nature by opening and expanding access is an old
conundrum, of which Chongming's developers are well aware. In fact,
Dongtan's proponents explicitly cite the Everglades as its model, despite the
evisceration of the wetland ecosystems once opened to development in
southern Florida.
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Is Chongming ready for these changes? When I drove around in August
2009, a couple of months before the bridge opened, my cab was the only car
on the brand-new super highway. My cabdriver thought I was nuts for want-
ing to go out to visit the wetlands. But I served as a built-in audience for his
musings on his hometown. Our two hour long drive gave him a chance to
point out the local high school, which sends its graduates to prestigious uni-
versities like Fudan in Shanghai, and Beijing University. He pointed to the
new apartment block real estate developments that dotted the island, espe-
cially reveling in sharing the prices that struck my traveling companion as
more suitable for downtown Shanghai than rural Chongming. On our ride,
livestock occasionally ambled onto the road, and old people often stopped
and stared. I passed occasional slogans calling for Chongming to fi ght cli-
mate change, and lots of old people walking. As a very young man living in
the largest town on the island, my father would go only once a year to visit
