Getting High and Going Fast

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After being in a place like Putuoshan which is more known for it's natural beauty than anything else, Shanghai has been overwhelming for the senses in mostly good ways. A city of 15 million people (half the population of Canada) always boggles my mind just for the simple fact that so many people live out their everyday life in an overwhelmingly crowded yet organized place. Life goes on as it does in any other major city, but in a place like Shanghai it simply feels like controlled chaos at many points during the day. From my own experience it was busier than London and cleaner than New Delhi, but still not quite at the level of insanity of Tokyo in terms of both. It was also a stark contrast to Beijing on the basis that Shanghai is fast paced and modern and lacks the traditional, sometimes slower way of life that was visible in Beijing. Either way it was nearly a perfect picture match for the idea that I had when I thought of big city China.

On our first full day we walked East Nanjing Road which is a 3 kilometer shopping street teeming with Chinese families on holidays. It was a Sunday and the weekend crowds were definitely out. It was busy and insane, but as I mentioned before also controlled and organized. Touts made plenty of offers to show us "watches, bags, iPhones" at their warehouses down side streets, but we never took the bait. It's namely due to the fact that this is China, and 80% of the manufactured goods in the world will say: Made in China on them. So of course there are lots of these goods (both real and fake) to be had. Some of the touts trying to get us to look at their merchandise were honest and told us that it was all high quality fakes, while others tried taking the route of claiming it all to be real. We weren't interested either way, and it ended up being a game as I made up silly excuses or tried new ways of deflecting them away. When one lady was trying to convince us she had top quality watches I smiled and told her to "go ask them", with them being another obvious western couple. She laughed and did in fact go try to convince the other couple to buy her watches. Another guy tried hard to get us to visit his shop and after a while he asked what we needed. My answer to him was "dogs". "Do you have any dogs?" I knew full well he did not. He thought it was a good chance to trick me into going to see his goods. "Yes" was his reply. "So you have big dogs?" I asked. "Yes" he replied once again. "Oh, I need a small dog, but thanks anyway" I answered and with a smile we were free of him asking us to visit. In the end there were a lot of offers to see goods, but they were never in a rude manner and a smile and a no thanks always got the trick done.

From the shopping street we went to the Bund which is the famous waterfront and viewed the new Pudong downtown area which is across the river. It's a lot of new big fancy buildings and a real statement which exclaims the power that China is becoming. The pinnacle of the area is the Shanghai World Financial Center building which was opened in 2008 and is 102 storeys tall. Looking through the smog, the building loomed large and is by far the tallest building I have ever seen.

After a quiet day Monday on which we accomplished not a lot in particular, we went on Tuesday to buy tickets for the World Expo which is currently being hosted in Shanghai. After a couple failed attempts at banks, we were able to track down a branch that had tickets available and we scooped them up ensuring that we would in fact see the Expo. After buying tickets we walked through the main downtown area and stared up at the huge skyscrapers. As we neared the Financial Center, it became clear that it was the tallest building by far I had ever stood near. It was an easy choice to decide that we should go and visit its observation deck. The building is not the tallest in the world, but when it was finished in 2008 it received a world record that it still holds to this day. It has the highest observation deck in the world, meaning that the viewing public cannot get any higher in any other building in the world. As we walked out on the 100th floor, I have to admit my first thought was that it would have been higher. I quickly was able to shake that notion and realize just how high up we were. The views through the smoggy sky were still great and standing on the glass floor and looking 420 meters to the ground below was a definite highlight. From the Financial Building we went back to the shopping district to try and find a pair of shoes that we had first spotted in Xi'an. They were a flashy pair of Brazil World Cup shoes made by a Chinese sports company and we had been having a devil of a time finding my size in the country. Knowing Shanghai was our last hope, we got lucky and I purchased what may be the flashiest pair of shoes I've ever seen.

Wednesday was Expo day and we made sure we were up early enough to catch the metro to the sepcially built Expo Metro line so we could clear security as soon as it opened and try to avoid the mass rush of people entering the park for the day. On any given Expo day over 400 000 people visit the site, and the crowds were definitely overwhelming at times. The previous day we decided that our first stop would be the Canada Pavilion so we could avoid late day line ups, and then we would visit other random countries as the day progressed. The exhibit for Canada impressed us as it showcased the typical traditional Canada views and it had some interesting lighting and music. I have to admit there was a sense of pride being in a building which was distinctly Canadian ( it looks like a beaver dam from the outside) and knowing that I was lucky enough to call that place home. From Canada we spent the say viewing smaller pavilions usually basing our choices on lineup size. We saw Africa (made up of small African countries like Rwanda), Pacific (small south Pacific countries, even Niue!), Tunisia, Nigeria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Iceland, Qatar, Iran, Mongolia, Bangladesh, Maldives and Laos. Line ups for the big countries like USA, Japan and Germany stretched from 4-5 hours while the powerhouse was Saudi Arabia with line up time of 6-9 hours for an apparently awe inducing exhibit complete with 4-D video. I don't know what 4-D is, but I do know what 44 degree humidity weather is and how long 9 hours can be. An easy choice not to stand in line. All in all it was a very full day complete with lots of walking in the HUGE Expo park and being surrounded by enormous crowds of Chinese tourists.

The following day we took it fairly easy as our legs and feet felt pretty worn out from all the walking of the previous day. We spent some time at another shopping street in downtown Shanghai to watch the pace of big city life. It represented a better view of what we had expected from Shanghai with businessmen moving to and fro, and families shopping on what I imagine was their summer holidays. We spent the night getting our things packed for the next day's flight to South Korea and prepared ourselves to learn another country. We woke up Friday morning and took the metro to a station where we could change and take the airport train. Sounds basic, but this airport train was a little different. The Maglev train is not widely used and this has long been a test section for it, running from Shanghai to the airport. Years of tests were completed and a few years ago the train was opened for public use. The train reaches a top speed of 430 km/h and takes 7 minutes to cover the 30 some kilometers to the airport. I was impressed by how smooth the train was and of course by it's speed, which are both the reasons such a train was built. Arriving at the massive airport we got checked in easily enough and for some reason or other had the good fortune of getting bumped into first class for our hour and a half flight to Korea. It was a first time for both of us, and I have to admit it felt a little bit odd to be sitting in first class with Asian businessmen.

We arrived in Busan, South Korea and immediately starting enjoying Korea for some obvious little differences from China. We have two week to explore before we fly home from Seoul on July 24, I'll be sure to report on the workings of this country as soon as I can.

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