Shanghai - our last stop in China
Trip Start
Aug 21, 2007
1
22
27
Trip End
Dec 20, 2007
Shanghai,
China
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Boy, that Beijing entry got me a bit too carried away on the picture side. You can tell we`ve slackened our itinerary a bit to relax in the comforts of Markus and Anke's place in Shanghai.
It's so nice to live privately for a few days and try to get those damn viruses out of our systems (ideally without them jumping over to our hosts...).
It's really warm here!!!! Sunny autumn weather. No more gloves, hats and long underwear. In fact, I've only been wearing a T-shirt in the subway.
Based here we're organising the Japan leg of our journey and taking in the sights of Shanghai
Shanghai Pudong skyline, daytime
. From our perspective, Shanghai has a way more cosmopolitan feel than Beijing. It's China's economic powerhorse, in direct competition only with Hong Kong. There's a huge and active expat foreign community and many things feel like home. Breakfast here is a tearjerkingly nostalgic German taste-o-rama. We've come off the noodle scene for good now. And to be quite honest, speaking for myself, I'm China'd out. Individual travel in China is very rewarding. But also very taxing. The sights that survived the Cultural Revolution are incomprehensibly ancient and intricate affairs. Many people, despite the language barrier, are very helpful, kind and interesting characters. But organising yourself from day to day does take its toll. You are constantly out of your comfort zone, communicating with hands and feet, rebuffing sales touts and dodging armies of racketeering Chinese tour groups. And we've learned a lot. Our bargaining skills are sharp. Our Chinglish usually gets us what we need. Now, after 6 weeks in China I'm very much looking forward to the contrast in Japan. Many travellers say that, despite both neighbouring countries being equally overpopulated, the Japanese well reglemented mentality is a stark contrast to the prevailing chaos here. Sounds wonderful!
Let's talk about Shanghai
Shanghai Bund
. For over 200 years there's been a strong western mercantile and banking influence in the city. I think the British came first, then the Americans and then the rest of the colonially inclined west. Each one trying to secure their share of China's craftsmanship and resources. Tea and silk being among the most sought after goods. Now the colonial powers didn't really have anything useful to trade in for these goodies so they cleverly turned to large scale drug dealing. The British were very much the leaders in the opium trade with their inexhaustable opium stocks in India. The western powers in Shanghai kept themselves as separate as they could from the Chinese. They built up the western riverside south of the harbour, the so-called Bund, with massive high-rise buildings to clearly signify their economic powers. There's even a park there that was once strictly out of bounds for dogs and Chinese (although, despite a prevailing myth, there was never really a sign stating this). Nowadays the promenade along the Bund is a leisurely stroll with great views of the commercial Pudong area with its prominent ball-bearing telecom tower across the river. The skyline is unable to compete with Hong Kong's, though. It's worth sneaking a peak into the lobby of some of the old neo-renaissance and art deco buildings along the Bund, e.g. the Pudong Development Bank with its mock greco-roman ceiling.
Picking at Shanghai telecom tower
Shanghai's centre is based around the people's square/people's park area, a rather small central park-type area that used to be a racetrack before the communist takeover 1948. That's what an old man basking in the sun on a hollywood swing there told us. He greated us with the ubiquitous "Hello!" and added "Are you on your holiday? I'm retired, every day is a holiday for me." In further excellent English it turned out he used to be a doctor, and was now 80. We then swapped tourist advice for prostatism advice before we ambled on. It turned out that every 5 steps we were approached by some happy young Chinese. Some were on holiday themselves and wanted to practice their English. Others were clearly trying to pull the tea ceremony scam that Regine'd already come across in Beijing (This involves an invitation to join a group of students to practice their English at a tea ceremony that then results in a >$100 bill that you're invited to settle). We managed to weasel our way off the square eventually, but it was hard work to leave behind all those beaming hopeful faces.
We also went bargain shopping in the old town around the Yu Yuan garden. That will have been the last stretch of hardcore bargaining of our trip (here the author utters an audible sigh of relief).
We had some very variable Chinese meals in Shanghai, from gut-skinningly spicy to scrumptidoodledoo. We can recommend the Dong Bei restaurant in the French concession area where we had a meal with Aelred with whom we spent a really relaxed afternoon and who gave us a good introduction to the Shanghai expat life. Before meeting Aelred we spent a quality three hours browsing through the truly excellent exhibits of the Shanghai museum, a collection of every aspect of Chinese craftsmanship: statues and bronzes, pottery and porcelain, calligraphy and paintings, furniture as well as a minority exhibit
Shanghai Pudong night skyline
. Great stuff even for museophobics. In summary, though, the emphasis of our 4 days in Shanghai was definitely recharging our batteries, taking it easy, getting the viruses out of our system, planning Japan and enjoying the time we had with Anke and Markus who definitely had a tighter schedule than us in preparation for their move to Singapore in a few weeks' time. They still managed to make room for some joint exploits including a fantastic and much needed Chinese massage. We could not have wished for more perfect hosts. Good luck for the move, guys, and thanks for everything!!!
Next stop: Kyoto, Japan! And oooooh, are we excited!
