Shanghai

Arriving in Shanghai on a grey afternoon and it all seemed a bit familiar! Like we’d been somewhere recently just like it… the way huge things just come out of the floor and disappear into the clouds, you could wander around at the base of them with hundreds of others all looking up in awe! Ok so there is a lack of green and instead of rock pillars they are concrete or glass skyscrapers, but still it could have been modelled on Zhangjiajie. Shanghai is as far east in Asia as we are going to travel yet it feels more western than anywhere else we have been yet, at times it feels like it could be London or Paris. It is an urban jungle of buildings all trying to out do the last one built, at times it is almost devoid of feeling in anyway Chinese – cool trendy types sip chocamochafrappalattes in funky cafes instead of carrying around their little flasks of tea, the political forward pointing red book posters are replaced with Gucci, Nike or Cartier adverts unless its a kitsch shops selling memorabilia. If you want to showcase Chinese history, culture and beauty have the Olympics in Beijing, if you want to showcase China as being the new super power and as modern as anywhere in the world then have the World Expo in Shanghai (as it at present!). Ok some very small old parts of Shanghai still exist, areas you can see from the raised metro line that whizzes across town where small houses are crammed in together and all you see is a field of tiled roofs, or the Yuyuan Gardens around old Shanghai road with a lovely old temple in pretty courtyards but this has now been surrounded by fake old looking buildings housing Starbucks and KFC! Taking a strolling along the promenade down by the Bund river at night or day shows the city in it’s both lights (and no I don’t just mean daylight or in the dark!). On one side of the river there are huge financial corporations in shiny massive skyscrapers with mega malls and elitist brands underneath them whereas on the other side its all european architecture which looks like the south bank of the Thames! Night or day throngs of people stroll around posing in only a way Chinese tourists do, all kooky looks and peace signs. The sky at night doesn’t actually go dark it just glows orange from the sheer number of lit up skyscrapers, neon signs and spot lights around the river, but it is a nice place just to people watch. The main shopping street of Nanjing Road is a mix of art-deco department stores, neon chinese signs, Rolex and Tag watch shops plus Rolex and Tag fake watch selling back streets shops!
Basically, its not a bad city and if you have been on the road for 8 months and it is time to stock up on M&S pants, you are craving a Subway lunch and are getting bored with Chinese kung-fu films you don’t understand and you want to hide from the rain in the cinema watching ‘Clash of the Titans’ in 3D and English, then Shanghai is the place to be!