Shanghai

Shanghai
Akin to Bladerunner, or the 5th Element or Coruscant: Shanghai is how it all starts. Shangai is officially 18 million people, though it is estimated there are 22 million living there. It is tall buildings, money, smog, and a people, tangled mess of construction non-linear streets and people, it tears down its culture and history in favor of the new. What history still exists has been bastardized, turned into high end shopping malls (such as happened with site of the first meeting of the Communist Party of China). Before Shanghai, we had not encountered beggars and the “Hello People” (street merchants) were less aggressive. Smog here is so bad that visibility ceases to exist after 1/2 mile.

Old China Market Area
Our first out of bus experience of Shanghai, was a modern market area built to look like old China. It has the highest crime rate in Shanghai, as tourists are stupid and easy prey. All the shops here are government owned and rented out to various vendors, we were given an hour and a half to explore and told to meet back at the Dairy Queen. Instead of doing much exploration, I and a group of others ate at an amazing dumpling restaurant.

Jade Buddha Temple
Amidst the city sprawl of Shanghai is a working Temple and tea house. Though it too, has been over run by the new and the corruption. Mere feet from worship and prayer is people selling various trinkets.

Shanghai Institute of International Studies
The Shanghai Institute of International Studies is a Chinese Think tank. Originally set up as a independent thought from the government, it was set up by the government, and all of its suggestions are then processed through the government and filtered into policy. Mrs. YUGUN Shao, Director, South Asia Studies Center gave us a lecture on the type of work done at the institute, and about the separate channel that exists for them to communicate with the government. Essentially, the institute is free to make all the suggestions it wants, and the government is free to reject all the suggestions made, though we were assured that some of the suggestions are implemented.

French Concessions area
One of the few remaining pieces of history in Shanghai, it is a few blocks of area left to China by the French as they pulled their sphere of influence from Shanghai. It is also the location of the first meeting of the Communist Party of China. This area has been turned into a high end shopping mall for the likes of Christine Dior, Armani, Rolex, Several Restaurants and of course, the ubiquitous Starbucks.

The Bund
The Bund is a stretch of Shanghai along a bend in the river on which several international corporations had originally set up shop. The architecture is very European, this area of town still has historic buildings, housing many corporations and restaurants and of course high end shopping. Across the river is a stretch of superhigh rises that have all been built in the last 15 years.

Shanghai Acrobatics Show
The Shanghai Acrobatics Show is the only real reason to experience Shanghai as a tourist. Similar to Cirque Du Soliel, it is amazing and seems to defy the limits of physics and human form. It is a highly entertaining experience.

United States Consulate
The United States Consulate was a highly informative experience, where we learned more about what an embassy does than we did at the actual Embassy. We learned about the process of joining the foreign service, the types of jobs, the training given, etc., etc. We were allowed to ask whatever questions we wanted and again given honest and open answers, that were again off the record.


Pearl TV Tower farewell dinner
The Pearl TV Tower is one of those rotating dining spots that overlook a city. The food was good, however the lights, both external and internal ruined the ability to take good night photography. It was this point of the trip where we said goodbye to part of the delegation that was not going on to Guilin.

{The growing disparity between the rural poor and the urban middle class may mean that in short time China may be facing for a communist revolution.}

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