Advertisement
Published: August 18th 2011
Shanghai…..Could this place be any more different from the rest of China???
When I first rocked up at Shanghai I was lost for words and by the time I left I had many very carefully selected words for the place. As you can probably guess I’m not in love with Shanghai but sadly for all the wrong reasons, although putting this to one side it has it’s own unique qualities and is a city unlike no other.
Whilst approaching Shanghai by bus it was apparent things were going to be very different here from the rest of China, sitting in the traffic beside me were Rolls Royce’s, Porches and all manner of BMW’s and Mercedes, sorry Martin not many Volvo’s apart for a classic 340 in beige with a mix of different coloured replacement panels!
As the city got closer the buildings got taller until all you could see where modern high rise glass fronted buildings, it was like I had over slept on the bus and ended up in a cross between New York, Paris and London. Having said this as soon as I got off the bus it became very apparent Shanghai was lacking something all
the other cities had…..basically no other people or cultures appeared to be here other than the Chinese, not what you would call a multinational city.
After exploring the city for several days I’m kind of unsure what to make of it, it’s natural for me to want to draw comparisons to the rest of China but at the same time I also want to compare it to other major cities around the world because it has the infrastructure in place to be up there with the biggest and best cities. Shanghai has it’s very own “thing” going on, it’s no New York, London or Paris and it’s most certainly not China as the rest of China is, but it’s basically stuck somewhere in the middle. It has a strange vibe about the place, it’s busy but in a controlled manner and there is clearly capacity to grow in every sector here because everything is just on such a big scale such as the highways, the subway and the buildings. As for some of the buildings well they have done the typical Chinese thing of copying something that already exists, as you will see from the photo’s there is a
Hangzhou - West Lake
Looking at the islandreplica of Big Ben, The Chrysler Building, The White House and many more which is a bit strange it’s like a real life Epcot Centre from Disney world.
Shanghai has limited history because so much of it has been destroyed for rebuilding what stands in front of you today. Just about everything here is ultramodern, there any many restaurant chains from back home which I have to say has been a welcome break from not being able to read a menu for weeks.
As I’m typing this I realise I’m being a touch negative, it’s fair to say I have good reason for this and I will sadly always hold Shanghai in a bad light. On my second night here I was involved in a scam in a bar where basically I was forced and physically threated into giving my credit card over and being charged £700 for drinks for all my “friends” in the bar who had conveniently left, even though I was actually on my own. It’s a long story but I have learnt a very costly lesson about trusting people you have only met a few hours before and I’ve seen a very different side
North Jaiding
What remains of the old city. to China. This is the sort of thing you read about and think “there is no way that could happen to me, I’m too cautious!” Well it did and to say I’ve had my fingers burnt is a big understatement. I have to put this down as a part of the travelling experience otherwise it will ruin my whole trip and I’m not prepared to let that happen. As much as I’m gutted, angry and upset I have to forget about it for the time being and proceed as normal and look on the bright side because I wasn’t hurt which was looking highly likely at one point.
My remaining few days in Shanghai were so much better, I met up with friends from a previous hostel to look around the cities of Hangzhou with it’s beautiful West Lake and North Jaiding with it’s historic ancient city area and traditional parks. Because I was waiting for my visa for India in Shanghai which, I'm pleased to say I got I took the opportunity to plan other elements of my trip, I have just about finalised my trip to Everest including the tour of Tibet, this is going to be
one of the major highlights of my trip and I’m really looking forward to it. Just the small matter of obtaining another visa to get back into China and I will be on my way.
My next stop is Hong Kong where I will be staying with Sammi for a while, it’s going to be great to see a friendly face on the other side of the world and actually have a homely place to stay for a while! See you soon Sammi, get the kettle on!
Well I hope this will be the last blog of this nature, it’s such a shame but it had to happen somewhere along the trip I guess and I hope that’s my negative experience out of the way.
A quick note of congratulations to my brother, Anna and Oliver on the fantastic news that they will be having twins! And if having twins wasn’t cool enough they are going to be identical twins….. Congratulations to you all and I can’t wait to be an Uncle.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.098s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 11; qc: 34; dbt: 0.0624s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
