♪ ♪ ♪ what are our expectations? which of the things we desire are within reach?

if not now, when? and will there be some left for me? ♪ ♪ i took a walk through this beautiful world ♪ ♪ felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪ ♪ found some something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha, la, la, la, la,

♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, china's younger generation is driving a growth in consumption. >> this is where the real power is -- china. ♪ >> if you live in manhattan like i do and you think you live in the center of the world, this place, shanghai, will confront you with a very different reality. turn down a side street, it's an ancient culture. a centuries-old mix of cultural traditions, smells, flavors. a block away, this. an ultra modern, clanging cash register, levels of wealth, luxury, the sheer volume of things and services unimaginable by the greediest, most bourgeois of capitalist imperialists.

the city is split by the huangpu river, a tributary of the yangtze. in the older section which features the bund and the newer built-up section of pudong. the thing i know for sure about china is that i will never know china. it's too big, too old, too diverse, too deep. there's simply not enough time. that's for me the joy of china, facing a learning curve that impossibly steep. the certain knowledge that even if i dedicated my life to learning about china i'd die mostly ignorant. that's exciting. it's too much. and it's changing so fast. ♪ china has a population of around 1.3 billion people. and the number of them joining the explosive middle class demanding their share of all that good stuff, infrastructure, the clothes, the cars, the gas, the fuel to fill them, it's the

engine that might well drive the whole world. >> you like chinese food? >> very much, yes. >> okay. what do you want? >> of course. some good dumplings. >> professor xiao lin is an economist and the current dean of the college of economics and management at shanghai jiao tong university. like so many people you meet here, he's chinese but was educated in american universities and has taught at yale, duke and arizona state. >> so you forgive me, economics are not my area of expertise. i wallow in ignorance. but china looks different every time i come. it's changing so, so, so quickly. how did that happen? >> china enjoy this long period of peace.

no serious enemy. no major wars. >> right. >> so the manufacturing industry really took off. internally, it's reform and open-door policy. every country willing to trade with china. >> there's certainly no doubt that at this point we -- our destinies are inextricably bound up, we are hopelessly -- our economies are hopelessly intermingled. if one fails, the effect would be disastrous. >> global impact. >> to say the least. >> it's certainly -- >> [ speaking in chinese ] >> this is what i was waiting for. >> xiaolongbao, literally small steaming basket buns. but i translate them in my head to pillows of happiness that will scald your tongue and throat if you don't know what you're doing. look, there are a lot of reasons

to come to china and to shanghai in particular, but these babies, done right, these things alone are worth the trip. ground pork and shrimp, folded exactly and always 20 times inside freshly made, individually rolled out dough. as they're steamed, the delicious, delicious fat renders into a soup of the gods which then, if you're not careful, causes unforgettable maxillofacial damage as it changes your life forever. >> so good. >> in the china of the future, places like that, fushan jiao long, will be even more packed. by chinese, by ex-pats, by visitors looking for the deeply satisfying rush of screamingly hot goodness, the chewy, deeply

savory, perfectly designed, perfectly shaped delivery vehicles for pure pleasure. and the allure of shanghai style pork chop served with the local take on the worcestershire sauce. it's irresistible. >> so i really believe that the world is converging and china will again be privatizing more and more. but the difficulty, nowadays it's just the technology is so advanced we don't really need that many people to do things that many people used to do. what's the population? 7 billion people. the world possibly doesn't need that many people working anymore. >> right. >> so the question is, what should human beings do, you know? how can you let them not do anything and then still living good life? >> right. >> i don't know. it's going to be big issue with the whole world.

♪ >> what is the future? i don't know. but to a very great extent it is surely being determined here. is there a plan? probably not. only appetites. and increasingly, the means to fulfill those appetites, those dreams and aspirations. who will drive the car that takes us to wherever we are going? they will be young, whoever they are. and not unlike yao minxi, a 30-year-old shanghai native educated in the u.s. at wellesley, currently a features reporter for the "shanghai

daily." she may be the picture of modern china, but this is her favorite restaurant. chun. china and shanghai in particular might be transforming fast, but this place stays resolutely the same. mrs. shu runs the place, serving classic home-style shanghainese. there's no menu, no waiting list. and you only get a seat if she likes you. >> i ordered too much. sorry. >> oh, fantastic. no.

>> this is fantastic. how do you eat these? whole? >> i eat them whole, because i really like this. >> that works. oh, they're good. >> yeah. i think they cook it a few seconds. that's the secret. >> yoba sha are tiny little shrimp, deep fried first, then quickly tossed in the wok with garlic, ginger, salt, and soy. what is classic shanghainese food? what's distinctive about it? this for instance. it's often black or dark and heavily inflected with oil, soy and sugar. shanghai is and has been for some time a city of immigrants. and the food reflects that genealogy. a combination of people from neighboring zhejiang province known for their liberal use of sugar, soy, and vinegar and jiangsu province, known for its ingredients and intension of preserving the aliveness of its dishes. it's the best of both worlds, great sauces, great ingredients. there's hung shao ro, braised pork belly in a glaze of soy sauce, cinnamon, sugar, and anise. hung shao cha yu, a small fish poached first in rice wine, salted in light soy, then fried and ginger, garlic, oil, more soy and sugar until the liquids reduce into a gorgeous sticky sauce. jung ya, duck that's been marinated, blanched, then reheated, smothered in a sauce made from the reduced drippings left in the wok, with dark soy, salt, and sugar. and this to round things out. yan du shin, a clay pot soup of bean curd-based stock with salted pork belly, tofu ribbons, and bamboo shoots. >> mm. oh, good flavor.

this is a socialist country, supposedly. >> yeah. >> a communist country, supposedly. it is in fact, from all the evidence i've ever seen, the most dynamic capitalist country on earth. what do you think of that? >> i think a lot of my western friends come here thinking china is a posh version of north korea or the party controls everything. but they come here, they're surprised it's actually not that much. they do seem to be promoting the free market even more with the free trade boom, just establishing shanghai. so it's amazing. >> from what i see everywhere i go, the world is becoming more chinese, chinese influence, chinese food. you build a casino in vegas, you build a hotel in singapore, you have to consider what will the chinese think. is that exciting?

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to be rich is glorious. all isms are wasims. dig deep, and it's an always about the money. meet tim sei, man of communist china, man of impeccable taste, one. >> take the seawater out. replace with champagne. have it only once, company like it. >> he likes nice things, and he makes donald trump's empire look like the back of pauley d.'s van. >> where are these from? they're great. >> france. >> they're in good shape. >> probably kept them happy. flying in jet with seat belt, so they're nice and happy and safe. >> apparently. >> tim is an investor into real estate, telecoms and the newly expanding service industries of the new china. he's also the president of roosevelt china investments, a very old company with a long

history doing business here. created by the roosevelt family, maybe you've heard of them. this is his clubhouse, really, the house of roosevelt right in the middle of it all. wine is big here now. the french chateau's more and more look to china as the indicator of price, as the market maker. tim alone has stacked around 4,000 labels here. china in general bought 2 billion bottles of red wine alone last year. think about that for a minute. they are now the leading market for red wine in the world. >> pretty amazing here. >> i designed this place in five minutes. i look at this place for like six months. >> uh-huh. >> daytime, nighttime. and finally one morning, i say i want to build a wine cellar out of this. >> looks so good. >> thank you. >> hi, guys. well, this is nice.

>> hi. >> tim has invited me to >> tim has invited me to dinner alongside a few people who have taken full advantage of the booming economy in china, an architect and designer, daniel zhung a real estate developer and coco shu, a party planner. >> do you eat like this all the time? nice wine cellar? >> twice a night. today we're surrounded by southern french wine and northern italian wine. >> mm-hm. >> and you like you can eat in different district of wine country every night. >> isn't this supposed to be communist china? >> anyone communist party, comrades party member? >> no. no. [ laughter ] >> i'm a bit of a red diaper baby. but what i mean to say is that it just seems that the realm of the possible here is very big.

>> absolutely. it's a big stage. >> mm-hm. >> in new york city or other places in the world, you can see that. they might build a massive project, but that's probably the only one in the whole city. but in shanghai city there's ten massive projects coming up. and there's ten more coming up in the next ten years. it's a big world, big city but small village at the end. and i think food is the best weapons on earth to make peace. it's the food. it's the drink. we have better peace on earth. and you probably the united nation ambassador. >> in time. >> and these shrimps are from south pole. and only new zealand has the right to farm them. you can try it, with a little

wasabe. >> a lot of chinese restaurant in new york. >> i grew up in the '50s and '60s, and even then, chinese -- restaurant chinese food was really an essential part of being a new yorker. i mean, if you didn't know how to use chopsticks as a new yorker, you were a terrible new yorker. >> do you know how to speak like a brooklyn person? >> it's a tough accent. queens is easier, you know, it's more of a -- i can't -- i mean, i lived right next to it my whole life. >> can you say -- >> the accent? a brooklyn expression? >> i just want to hear -- >> not for nothin'. >> that's brooklyn? >> not for nothin'. >> not for nothin', but i could really use a little more wine. not for nothin'. no, no, no.

>> nothing nothing. >> not for nothin'. >> enough for nothing. >> not -- all right. >> shanghai chef jackie shu prepares a meal of a style that will become more and more in demand among those who can afford it. and more and more people every day can afford it. >> what is it? >> so we have tomato and potato and that's it. >> australian wagyu beef, a massive, perfectly cooked tomahawk chop. coming in the door at up to $150,000 a pound. that includes bones and fat. this is about $1,000 worth of steak, bitches. even if tim wanted to serve good old usa beef, still the finest on earth in my opinion, he can't. china has banned the imports of u.s. beef over concerns about mad cow disease. while they carve, a quick trip

behind the bookshelf. >> and now i show you special place. so you name your label the village of wines. i think there's a chance we have it. and so this side is our interesting wines that we keep aging themself. >> this is the house collection. >> that's correct. now i want to show you the membership area. the newest member, anthony bourdain. >> me? >> our roosevelt collection of wines. please, open it. >> wow, cool. it's good being me. thank you. thank you so much. close that up, man. >> close it up.

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♪ here's the thing. even with the modern china rising out of the ground all around you, even with all the things, the same things you see for sale everywhere where people have money these days, even with all that, there's still this china. shouning road, just south of people's square, it's still happening -- the good, old stuff, the china you first fell

in love with. walk down the street and look in any direction, and there's something to eat. i may not know what it is immediately, but chances are it's good. we talk about foodies, and what the hell does that mean? by current definition, best i understand it, that makes just about every chinese person i ever laid eyes on a foodie. which is to say a perfectly reasonable person who enjoys and pays attention to where the good stuff is. look at this. one street, and look, stuffed oysters, grilled over charcoal. snake treats? why, yes. and yes, it does taste kind of like chicken. there used to be a lot of streets like this full of dai pai dong where you could look, shop around, and eat all out in the open.

a happy, riotous, delicious torrent of food. but the government, as governments do, are tightening the screws. old is bad, new is good. not everybody thinks this is a good idea, though. bill wang was born in shanghai and studied here at the university. he began teaching english before he was out of college. he suggested we needed a wonton. and there might be wonton stalls all over shanghai, but bill says this one, this one, is the one. so you're an english teacher? >> yes. yes. >> most of the people i meet of chinese background who speak english, their teachers were british, sometimes australian or new zealand, and they have those expressions and that accent. maybe more and more these days i guess younger generation there's

more and more of that sort of tv accent. is that good or bad? >> i think it's good. you know, tv series, especially american tv series are so popular in china. >> what are the most popular american shows? >> right now, "house of cards." >> "house of cards"? >> yeah. so popular. >> "house of cards"? >> yes. >> that's really interesting. what do you think the appeal is here? >> you know, in the show, americans talk about presidents. in china there's no way you can talk about those sensitive topics. so many people love that show. it's really, really good. >> wow. that's really a surprise to me. wow. these are huge. >> yes. wonton. it's okay. just put it. >> mm. good. >> is it good? >> minced pork, bok choy, some

ginger, moistened with rice wine, soy, it all gets mixed up nicely and folded into the dough. boiled till just right and sauced with a powerful mix of soy sauce, vinegar, chili sauce, vinegar and peanut butter. so you have a sweet, salty, umami thing going on with every bite. you want this, believe me. you want this bad. in fact, you need it. >> what do your students want to do when they enter the professional field? what's the dream? >> i think this generation, a lot of them are lost. they don't know what to do. if you ask like a university person what is their dream. >> right.

>> their dream is to buy an apartment in shanghai, buy a car. you know, that kinds of things. >> are there enough jobs for everybody? >> it's becoming more and more competitive. >> right. >> everybody wants the best job. but it's only a very few of them out there. but i think there's like a huge gap between company and new graduates. company wants experienced workers. >> right. >> but new graduates also want a good job. >> now. >> yeah. they're not ready for it. so they don't want to do some, you know, hard work stuff from scratch. >> right.

>> that's the problem, i guess. >> it looks to me, china in general, shanghai in particular, is changing very, very fast. >> very, very fast. >> every time i come it's different. in your recent memory, the last ten years, what's the most noticeable change to you? >> food like this is becoming more and more difficult to find. this is handmade. tyou have two options... afyou can stay inside., or get behind the wheel of the jeep grand cherokee with an available best-in-class

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what's clear very quickly here is the way china claims things are, the way things are supposed to be as far as permissible social media and accessed information, and the way they actually are -- two different things. meet thomas yao. hacker turned entrepreneur. he recently received significant start-up money to build what he calls an open-source project sharing platform to connect chinese college students with the world. >> when you say hacking, what is -- what do you do when you hack? what's the intent? >> actually, it starts from m.i.t.

if you go to the computer science and artificial intelligence building at m.i.t., it will show you the definition of hack. it's actually a very positive word, but it became a very negative word. >> right. >> so the word hacker is to describe the people who are really -- they really like programming. they love to share information. just like cooking. you love to share recipes to your friends who love cooking as well. >> legally, there might be something wrong with it. but morally, do you think is there anything wrong with essentially breaking into information base? >> yes. >> i'm not doing anything. i'm going to go in, look around, see how things work and i'll leave without disturbing anything. would most hackers say that's okay? >> yes. >> in the service of knowledge? that's okay? >> okay for most the hackers in our communities. i was lucky. i got into a very big hacker community here in shanghai and met a lot of great mentors. >> you started in business at 21. >> in factory. >> quite an accomplishment. >> i didn't go to college. >> you didn't go to college? >> i didn't go to the college. >> why not? >> most of the professors are way behind the development speed of the communities.

>> why? your country is so advanced in so many other ways. why in this area? >> the network problem here in china, we have gfw, the great firewall, and it blocked a lot of important information websites. inside china. and a lot of people, they can't get the cutting-edge technology, which we don't teach in college at all. so the human resource problem and the manpower problem is more and more -- getting more and more serious here in china. >> because everyone's going to the silicon valley? >> they offer better. obviously. oh, here are the -- >> these are the famous ribs? >> yes. >> maybe the number one thing that the serious food-craved traveler coming back from shanghai will tell you to eat other than the soup dumplings, of course? zeran paigu. or simply, cumin ribs.

♪ it takes two cooks working at once to make this dish. one deep fries the ribs in hot oil until just right. another toasts the ginger, cumin and other spices in a wok. and then in go the ribs. and if you are a devotee of what's called wok-hei, you sit as close to the kitchen as possible to capture that elusive fast-dissipating breath flavor of the wok itself. toss them around, coating those bones with all that good stuff, then serve. and because we like it to burn, thomas orders some laza zhideng, a spicy chicken dish. hei means energy, life force or breath. and that's what you're looking for.

the vestigial flavor of a very old, carefully seasoned cooking vessel. ♪ ♪ oddly enough, thomas tells me there's no mandarin or at least shanghainese word for wok, it's simply called a cooking pot, to which i say, i really do know nothing about this country. fantastic, wow. >> it's actually so-so. >> yeah? you're not loving it? >> not too good. but it's not bad. >> to me, and i've eaten a lot of food, this is spicy, fresh, bright, vibrant.

>> i will take you guys to somewhere -- i will take you somewhere better. >> so are you a foodie? >> yeah. i eat a lot. >> were you born here? you're from shanghai? >> yeah. i was born and raised in shanghai. >> at least in modern times, it's hard to imagine that any place has changed as profoundly and is changing as quickly as it is changing here. >> we really feel proud. we really feel proud. our qualities of life is improving really, really fast. >> in a poll, 85% of chinese who were asked the question, do you feel that your life will be better next year, 85% said yes. it will be better next year. that's an extraordinary -- >> number. >> -- number. i don't know a lot of other countries that would say that. >> yeah. >> that looks great. famous chicken. >> chicken. >> mm. so good. >> not bad. >> you know, i'm finding this

food really, really delicious. you're saying it's just so-so? >> it's okay. so-so. >> wow. up to $1 billion? $3 billion? $4.5 billion? the answer is... up to $4.5 billion. using your computer's built-in energy-saving features can generate real household savings. take the energy quiz -- round 2. energy lives here. which means it's timeson for the volkswagen sign-then-drive event. for practically just your signature, you could drive home for the holidays in a german-engineered volkswagen. like the sporty, advanced new jetta... and the 2015 motor trend car of the year all-new golf. if you're wishing for a new volkswagen this season... just about all you need is a finely tuned...

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shanghai is one of the biggest cities in the world right now. a global financial center and transportation hub and the world's busiest port. you can smell the money. but maybe the real story is the newly emerging participants in global capitalism, the working class who also want flat screen tvs and cars and vacations and the promise of better for their kids. take this couple. typical working class chinese from the worker's paradise. mei ning, a bus driver, and dong nyang, his bride-to-be. today is their wedding day, and custom must be observed.

when it comes to weddings, the chinese have always gone big. and these days, bigger still. lots of food. lots of booze, lots of people, getting crazy. which is why thomas and i have become wedding crashers. the constellation bar for a pre-wedding drink. the classic chinese cocktail, the moscow mule.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> hmm. we have to cross the road here. >> yeah. >> the chinese wedding is not cheap. you need a banquet room. in this case, the family's rented out this place at the historic park hotel shanghai. chinese weddings, generally speaking, mean the presence of a number of formalities. first, meet the bride and groom -- thank you. >> okay, table settings.

mostly with some must haves, booze, whiskey all for the guest. >> this is like a traditional china wedding. >> i know. i do this every week pip go from hotel to hotel and i crash weddings. >> okay. >> roast duck, that i will or some beef fried in garlic sauce. steamed turbo with scallions. >> the wedding in china will have this kind of meal for whole two days. whole weekend. >> i'm telling you, we should do this every week. i'll come back. i'm going to move to shanghai. and you and me, twice a week we'll just go to weddings. >> [ speaking in foreign language ].

[ applause ] >> you may kiss your bride. [ applause ] [ laughter ] >> and there is, of course, drinking. much drinking. >> she wants to share with you. >> it begins.

>> when i first came to china, it was for business, and one after the other everyone at the table came up and said, ah, mr. bourdain, i would like to do a drink with you. all of it. i didn't know how to politely say no. i can't, i can't. i just kept doing it and doing it. i got super [ muted ] up. i ended up going like to karaoke. i ended up singing a billy idol song. i think i sang "white wedding." she's making it a personal mission to get me seriously drunk. i'm just wondering how you got out of that. when i sat down and looked around the table i tried to figure out who at this table was

going to try really hard to get me drunk, i wouldn't have guessed it was going to be her. >> you drink white wine all day long. i like the taste of it. >> we have to get this straight. that is not wine. that's like grain alcohol. that's what we call liquor. okay? so we're clear on that. >> now, this is a small wedding by most standards. about 100 guests. but just booking the room took two years. a toast followed by many more toasts, to the bride, to the groom, to happiness, to prosperity. ♪ ♪ i have the worst cold with this runny nose.

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♪ ♪ there is a place. there is always a place where something delicious in a bowl is waiting just for you. down a street, down an alley, there's a place like this one, where locals will tell you the good stuff lives. they call this stuff long-leg noodles, because they say the woman who runs it is tall. noodles for me are a solitary pleasure, between me and my bowl. phen lee and husband chi phan wong understand this, i think. now, this is a deceptively good business.

what used to be a working class stall of the dai pai dong street variety has in fact blown up along with the rest of the economy. rich kids and tv guys like me want to eat here, and they do. how do you make a bowl of perfect happiness? cooked noodles in boiling water liberally flavored with chilies and lard. immerse your cooked noodles in a soy-inflected bath of deeply sinister, deeply pleasurable pork stock. a little bit of baby bok choy. heat for a few seconds, simmering, simmering, then garnish with a bit of slowly cooked, heavily reduced almost candied pork. then suck those noodles, loudly, and enjoy. ♪

where are we going? who will drive us there? what will it be like when we get there? i think it will look like this. ♪ ♪ ♪ -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

>> welcome to my place of dreams, my spirit house. the city of ghosts. ♪