Shanghai

We arranged for three-day stopover in Shanghai on the way home. Three days is hardly enough time to see one of the world's biggest cities, never mind China in general. However the Chinese government has just started to allow stopovers in a few select cities for up to 72 hours without a visa, and flights to Ho Chi Minh City happen to stop in Shanghai, so we took the opportunity.

First off, let me say this: You might think you live in a City, but you are almost certainly wrong. You might make a case if you live in New York or Mexico City or Tokyo, but all my friends in various parts of Vancouver, or (god forbid) Calgary - you live in a sleepy farm village, a dusty backwater that time and forces for development have completely bypassed. Shanghai is a City, and few others can compare. It is huge - 25 million people huge - but it is tall, expansive, growing, bustling, and richer than you can imagine. But I will go on in later posts or in my everyday blog about the various reasons why Shanghai is so much more than your City.

We got a lot done in the 68 hours we were in Shanghai, and I as we only scratched the surface on our trip, I can only scratch the surface of our short adventure here. I'll skip many of the details.

In Shanghai, the train that runs you into town from the Airport goes 430km/h and has no wheels, as it is supported by magnetic levitation.

This is the kind of building you run into in Shanghai. Note the traffic roundabout in front, and the pedestrian roundabout above that. There are a lot of pedestrians in Shanghai, becasue the metro is so much better then driving. They also have a bike share program.

Oh, here is the rest of that spectacular tower building, viewed from the 87th floor of an adjacent building.

On New Years Eve, we drank ridiculously expensive and complicated cocktails in a bar on the 87th floor of a building (not, notably, the tallest building in the neighbourhood) with an incredible view over the City.

...then went down to the Bund to share the light/laser/fireworks show with about a million other people.

Happy 2014.

We did not spend a lot of time shopping in Shanghai. You may think of going to China to buy cheap knock-offs, and that is still a possibility, but in Shanghai the Gucci, Armani Exchange, Burberry, DeBeers, Versace (etc, etc, ad nauseum) stores are plentiful, Apple stores are on every street corner, and there is plenty of opportunity to buy a $20,000 watch. The few malls we went into were very far from Metrotown.

To avoid mercantile urges, we toured a few temples, and saw (amongst other things) a very chilled Buddha.

We walked through dozens of Contemporary Art galleries in a former industrial district that has been converted to artist work/live spaces, with collective workshops and constant showings at probably 100 separate gallery spaces, all collected within about two city blocks.

We walked down too many dark narrow alleys, some of which brightened up (but didn't really widen) into food stands and open markets.

We ate noodles and dumplings good enough to melt your face.

We toured a museum to look at jade and bronze artifacts from 5000 years ago, Ming Dynasty furniture and ceramics, and historically significant art from the entirety of Chinese history.

We went into a 5-story museum right downtown next to the City Hall that was dedicated to... wait for it... urban planning! Besides the ample display of community plans, waterfront enhancement strategies, and transportation infrastructure, the center piece is this gigantic 1:500 scale model of the City, showing the urban plan for the decades to come. Well, not the entire City, just the 110 square kilometers within the inner ring road.

...and noted a lack of expressways in that big model. Shanghai has a couple of them, and they don't plan to build too many more.

Because as we discovered, the Metro system is exceptional. It has expanded In the last decade or so from 4 lines to 13, with at least two more on the way. The stations are big, the trains are long (up to 8 cars long at 4 doors per car - roughly 4x the length of a Canada Line train). The system is cheap, incredibly easy to understand and navigate, and packed with people. That said, it it was safe, clean, and we never got passed up by a train.

The architecture is simply stunning, every direction you look. along the Bund and in the older parts of town, there are countless beautifully maintained colonial era buildings of every shape and style...

And then you look up and see another cluster of 60-story buildings, every one with a unique architectural flare. Amazement, everywhere you look.

I don't know what I thought about China before, but I know everything I thought was basically wrong. Scroll to the top of the page with me leaning on a railing with those gigantic buildings behind me. The one just being finished will be almost 2000 feet tall - the second tallest building in the world. That entire area behind me on the other bank of the river was, in 1990, farmland. This City is exploding, but they are doing it by a plan - high density, lots of green space, protecting the river habitats, sustainability in solid waste, sewer recovery, and transportation. In Vancouver, we can't even build a fucking subway under Broadway.

I read a story in the newspaper on New Years Day about Chinese manufacturers exporting jobs to Ethiopia and other African countries. The simple reason was wages, Chinese workers are now making too much money and the competitive advantage China had with wages is going away.

Everything I thought I knew about China was wrong. I can't wait to go back, and Tig wants to move to Shanghai! It is an amazing, beautiful, and exciting City.

 

Posted with Blogsy