Growing cities: Shanghai (上海)
Part 1
Shanghai is one of those cities that leaves you breathless. It is not an easy one to define.
Modern? Yes.
Decadent? Uh-huh.
Occidental? Yup.
Typically chinese? Indeed.
The vibe that one feels on the streets is much more intense than that of other mega-cities like New York or London, which have had decades (if not centuries) to “settle down” and have acquired a defined style. Shanghai, on the other hand, is adolescent.
Walking the streets (particularly Nanjing Road from the Bund -on the shores of the Huangpu- inwards) one perceives, among the most impressively modern highrises, glimpses of traditional China (transport tricycles, street vendors, the occasional beggar -although there’s fewer every year) living right alongside modern China. The West and the Orient most perfectly and harmoniously intertwined.
Pudong Airport is among the most moder I’ve visited. One gets to it from the city in a magnetically-levitated train (meaning, no wheels!) that travels at 431 km/h (270 mph). Not far from it, though, there’s a bird and flower market that sells live crickets as pets.
The cacophony of modernity and tradition finds a likeable balance in Shanghai. It is never so modern to become overly trendy, nor so traditional to be boring. The brew of people from all walks of life (arabs, chinese, euros, japanese, americans) adds to the experience. The vibe is intense even during the daytime hours.
At night, the city shows yet another face. The Pudong skyline, without pretending to be the (clearly superior) one in Hong Kong, lights up impressively. No fewer than two buildings have “big screens” built into their structures that span their whole height (and we’re talking fifty stories and up here). TV-boats on the Huangpu show high-resolution advertisements for the city to see.
The buildings from the city’s colonial era, on one side of the river light up, contrasting, or better yet, complementing the futurism of the opposing bank.
Restaurants, bars, discotheques all over, a good number of these quite good. There’s hangouts for expats (to be expected as they abound), locals, etc., but in general everyone is welcome everywhere.
—More coming in Part 2 (soon)
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