shanghai &low

fresh batch of street food dumplings

emil getting laughed at for improper dumpling eating etiquette

shanghai skyline

the banks of the bund

laurel says:

i have never had a burning itch to visit china.   but it was on emil’s bucket list so we made the trek.  the chinese culture holds no fascination for me and i am not a huge fan of smog or msg, of which china has abundant quantities of both.  but i suppose it is a must see, especially now as its lightening fast economy is quickly propelling social change.   we started our china adventure with a trip to shanghai.  it was perfect timing to visit as my girlfriend myra had just moved there to work for gap china.  she was a wonderful hostess.  together we explored the largest city in the world- a whopping 23 million and growing.  overall i found it to be an endless sea of indiscernable urban sprawl under a cloud of omni-present smog.  but shanghai has its moments.  there are definitely pockets of character.  the french concession district is one of the few areas with some sort of vibe.  here the streets are lined with trees (a rare sight in this city) and there are a few charming bars, shops and cafes.  but the good stuff is few and far between.  beyond these oases, shanghai is a mass of skyscrapers and concrete.  the odd thing is that the charming historical areas will likely cease to exist as the city would prefer to tear them down in order to make way for yet another skyscraper.  one thing that surprised me was how novel it still was to be a westerner in this part of the world.  i was shocked that people would approach us to have their photo taken with blond haired, blue-eyed americans.  i was expecting the locals to be far less hospitable for some reason.  but i have to admit, the people in shanghai were quite friendly.  parents would show off their kids and encourage them to say “ni-hao” and locals would go out of their way to help us navigate the subway- not something you generally see in an urban environment.  that said, i won't be returning to shanghai anytime soon.

scary thought.  btw the population of shanghai is now 23 million

the ever spreading sprawl

view from the highest observation deck in the world (and more sprawl)

myra and i hit the streets

old town shanghai- get your elbows out

yuyuan gardens

emil says:

the 45 minute cab ride from the airport was exactly how i had pictured it…miles and miles of cold, dark, grey, smog so thick you could barely make out the hundreds upon hundreds of bland soviet style commercial and residential towers that are strewn across the landscape.  miserable.  you can walk for bland mile after bland mile and the facades of the buildings just don’t change, its depressing architecturally and oppressive physically.  population of 23 million (well more than tokyo and nyc combined), but over a landmass that is 10x that of nyc or tokyo, so it feels oddly emptier than you’d expect for the world’s most populated city.  i am struggling putting a finger on what i experienced here.  the best way i can describe it is as a sort of scratch & sniff sticker.  if you just look at the sticker its really just another megalopolis with enormous sections that look like bad parts of queens, new york that stretch for miles, but scratch a bit and i think this place is quite fascinating, current, and much more human than one would expect.  as you get to the city center by an uber modern subway system that makes nyc’s look like something out of the flintstone's, you start to see the truly spectacular growth that china has witnessed, everywhere are shiny new malls (albeit mostly empty), dazzling skyscrapers, a killer riverside esplanade, and cranes cranes and more cranes, (and as an aside i am writing this from the bullet train to beijing from shanghai moving 175 mph).  it’s surprisingly modern in spots but turn the corner and walk down the next street and you are 50+ years back in time.  the government just removes old stuff and slaps in new stuff as if it’s the video game sim city.  it's bizzaro, old tenement style buildings butt up against tenaciously modern structures, making for some amazing contrasts. there are a few one-off expat bars and restaurants in cute tree-lined streets that one can escape to for a beer but i wonder how long before that street gets bulldozed and another skyscraper gets planted.  on another note i thought we’d run into some negative energy in mainland china, sort of a ‘we are the worlds #2 economy but we got everything you got and we are gunning for you’ type of mentality from the locals, but i was totally wrong. people were so curious and beyond kind.  locals offered help with the subway system, offered help ordering at restaurants, offered helping emil with eating scalding hot soup dumplings, offered kind smiles and warm happy new years wishes. teenagers would sheepishly stare out of curiousity and then ask to take a photo with laurel (not with me).  i cannot stress enough how cool people were to us (except in the subway during rush hour when sharp elbows fly).  also a huge thumbs up to the viciously spicy szechuan cuisine. the food was a pleasant surprise and thanks to laurel’s friend myra for showing us around and taking us under her wing.  

walking the streets of the french concession

sorry kid, you have to live in china