Shanghai

Well the journey south was very pleasant with comfortable hard sleeper bunks, quite a luxury in comparative to the standing or hard seats.

I arrived early in Nanjing and tried to find accommodation but having been unsuccessful decided to continue straight to Shanghai the same evening and visit the town throughout the day.

Nanjing is and odd town, very developed with the 9th tallest skyscraper in the world and on the other hand very much peasant population and 70's communism behavior. The city is huge and the transport incomprehensible though walking is often a good option. There is a surprisingly pleasant lake in the very center of the town and the memorial museum for the 1937 massacre is quite poignant. the exhibit is far more impressive than the one for Stalingrad (huge difference in victims) and in spite political reconciliation with the Japanese politics it remains still strongly rooted the difference and certain level of injustice. Besides the town is illequiped for foreigners but is probably pleasant to live as a small sized Pudong.

Shanghai impress immediately upon arrival. As Alexander said about Samarkand "all they said about this place is true". Naturally at night it is particularly beautiful as all the lit neon's and buildings make it an astonishing spectacle of colors and dimensions.
The town is rich with everything from cars to old European architecture to near 500 meter tall buildings. There are countless restaurants and some of the finest Geneva watchmakers (this in spite a 30% tax on luxury items) have taken over a whole segment of a popular street. Some with most impressive renovations on old interior courts and carpentry. Shanghai is certainly more expensive than the rest of China but still remains very affordable for a high standard of living. Meeting an acquaintance made the entire experience far more enjoyable, different viewpoint. It is however much more crammed with people than Beijing seems.

The national museum is a delight of fine object and no limitations as towards taking pictures (finally).... Unfortunately I got my phone pickpocketed meanwhile I was using it so that spoilt it a little though the fantastic view of the 420 meters, tallest bar restaurant in the world makes it all drift away. The entertainment of the city is just amazing and in spite local represent the very vast majority of the population everything seems equipped for tourism and foreigners.

I remain highly impressed of Shanghai though small annoyances are difficult to overlook. Leaving to the airport with the Isadong express was slightly a disappointment as normally it goes at 430km/h but due to the time (due to pollution around 9am and 5pm they stop running it at full speed) it merely ran at 300. It is however still a very enjoyable and smooth ride.

China is not a country its an assembly of many many countries with a variety of hugely differing cultures and behaviors. The people are progressively transiting from the 70% in the 60's living in the farm land to currently 80% in cities. Their manners are certainly sometimes not really agreeable (particularly the spitting) and the "trophy wives" are just a modern evolution of a country that has been successful at keeping its growth at 9% and inflation at 2.5%. Quite an achievement to keep such a big country one one same track meanwhile remaining more or less efficient (in their own way: economy of scale).

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