Featuring around 70 photographs documenting the most memorable moments that have happened in Shanghai from 1949 to 2019, a photo exhibition was inaugurated on May 10 at Yu Garden Hamburg, a landmark of Shanghai and Hamburg’s sistership over the past 33 years.

(Click here to see the exhibition online)

Themed “Moments in History, 70 Years of Shanghai,” the exhibition is to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. It displays the transformations Shanghai has gone through since it came under the control of the People’s Liberation Army of the Communist Party of China in May 1949 from Kuomintang rule. Milestones over the past decades are also presented, such as the opening up of Pudong and the success in hosting the first China International Import Expo (CIIE).

(People watch the photo exhibition at Yu Garden Hamburg. Photo/Song Shi)

The history of Shanghai’s urban development and the improvement of its people’s living conditions depicted in the pictures have triggered a strong resonance among many visitors who had been to Shanghai before.

“Shanghai, like Hamburg, is a fascinating city,” said Karen Pfeiffer from Colón Language Center in Hamburg. Due to her work, she has visited Shanghai many times, but the trips were always rushed. Thanks to the photo exhibition, she can know more about the city. “Now in our language center, we have more students learning Mandarin,” added Karen. It is her hope that people can have more understanding of Shanghai and China while learning the language.

(From left to right: Du Xiaohui, Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Hamburg, Zhou Huilin, director of the Publicity Department of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, and Corinna Nienstedt, head of the State Office of Senate Chancellery Hamburg, unveiled the photo exhibition on May 10.)

(Du Xiaohui, Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Hamburg, addresses at the opening ceremony of the photo exhibition.)

(He Jiliang, curator of the exhibition and chairman of Eastday, makes a speech.)

Hamburg is the second leg of the exhibition’s global tour. Hosted by Eastday and the Center for Modern Shanghai Studies (CMSS), the photo show will be open for public view until May 31. In the following months, it will tour Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg and other cities around the world, to let more people understand Shanghai and China.