Sophisticated Shanghai

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September 25th 2017

Published: October 11th 2017

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Delek Delek

Pudong Skyline

This colourful, iconic, neon-lit skyline is a sight to behold and includes the equally iconic Oriental Pearl TV Tower on the left.

After almost two years on the road, the time had finally come; one last long-distance, overnight train journey. And from this experience, it had better be the last. For a country striving to be so far ahead, it is annoying in the extreme that they are so far behind with regard to smoking policy. Breathing in second-hand fumes makes it harder than it already is to get to sleep on moving transport. The train operator doesn't really help you either by leaving the lights on full blast and inconsiderate locals are never going to let the fact that people are trying to sleep stop them from having their loud conversations.

The last hour of the ride seemed to take forever but once it was finally over, a queue to leave the station and then three manic ones to get metro tickets extended my groggy agony. And grogginess was probably what caused me to not only get on the wrong metro train (trains for two different lines shared the same platform and I had no idea) but one going in completely the wrong direction - easy to do when the line is a baffling circle one and you have to quickly

The Bund

Shanghai's historic, iconic riverside promenade.

check which direction you have to go before a train leaves.

My patience was tested even further at the hostel by the Chinese guests and their weird habits. They just don't have a sense of appropriate times and places to do certain things. Full-on phone conversations at 2am in a dorm. Moving or using your things without asking you. Smoking in the toilets. Being asked by a Chinese dorm mate if he can borrow my flip-flops to go the bathroom. Fine, the last one is no biggie but it's not something you're normally asked, is it?
The area around the hostel is a pretty quiet area, probably because it is earmarked for demolition, so a major road can be built. Old shops and flats were bricked up, perhaps forcibly so by the government in the name of progress.

But enough complaining. Shanghai is known as perhaps China's most sophisticated city and arguably China's most foreigner-friendly. This was very much the case at the start of the 20th century as the British, French and Americans acquired concessions here and the big banks established themselves in a city built on the trade of tea, silk and opium. The result of

Pudong

In amongst Shanghai's mini-city of glass.

unchecked capitalism was the exploitation of the many - the local Chinese - for the riches of the few. The Communists cleared the slums and redressed the balance when they came to power but Shanghai also lost its lustre as a result. In 1990, the decision to open up China's economy saw the development of Pudong and the almost unbelievable growth of the Chinese economy saw Shanghai grow just as fast, as it once again became a giant financial centre and a nexus of trade once again.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Pudong, which is a city of glass. The 'Three Amigos' - the Shanghai World Financial Centre, the Shanghai Tower and the Jinmao Tower - are the three super-skyscrapers that make the other skyscrapers that would normally be quite impressive, look rather ordinary. I already had a sore neck from a lousy night's sleep but I wasn't craning it as much as I did when looking up at the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. A series of interconnecting pedestrian bridges makes walking around Pudong a pleasure, allowing one to avoid crossing the wide roads and to duck into glitzy shopping malls. Inside the Shanghai Tower, security guards didn't look like they'd tolerate photos inside; I

Xitang

Beautiful old river town near Shanghai.

didn't go up the tower because the price to do so was an entire day's budget. Fuck. That. I've been up tall buildings before - it definitely isn't worth it. Despite looking clustered together, Pudong is actually more spaced out than it looks.

Then from the new, I went to the old. The Bund is a famous and historic riverside promenade lined with grand architecture from the 19th century. There are some gorgeous buildings here and if it wasn't for the Chinese signs and Chinese people speaking Mandarin all around you, you'd think you're in Europe! There is a real mish-mash of different European architectural styles; some wouldn't look out of place in the The City Of London and others that look a bit more Central European, as if the buildings had been teleported here from Warsaw or Budapest. Even the French have had a little influence here; they did indeed own a whole section of the city. I snuck up into a rooftop bar to get a postcard shot overlooking The Bund; I could've been dressed nicer than in a football shirt and hiking shoes (I've gotten a lot of looks here) but just acted like I owned

Night Time Stroll Along The Bund

Rather romantic. There is nothing like it.

the place. I carried myself in the same vein when walking into the HSBC Building which funnily enough, no longer houses HSBC. On the inside of the dome here, are paintings of the eight great world financial capitals of the time; London, Shanghai, Hong Kong, New York, Tokyo, Bangkok, Paris and perhaps surprisingly, Calcutta. Big Ching is the distinctive clock atop the Customs House that even has its own chime; is it just me or does the moniker Big Ching sound just a tad racist? You can feel the wealth here though. The Former British Consulate that is now a financier's club, reflected this wealth; there was much security and in immaculate grounds, it looked very exclusive but no-one said anything as I just walked right on in. Shanghai definitely seems to have more European buildings than any other place in China and seemingly more than Hong Kong too.

Shanghai is pretty spectacular by night; you have Pudong with all its neon on one side of the Huangpu River and the classic, old-school architecture of The Bund lit up in all its glory on the other. There really is nothing like it. No wonder the place was so busy. The

East Nanjing Road

This brightly-lit pedestrian shopping street is one of Shanghai's - and China's - most popular and crowded walkways.

Bund would be a lovely night-time, riverside stroll...if there weren't so many people on it. Behind The Bund there are also bright lights on the pedestrian shopping street of East Nanjing Road. As well as overground shopping streets, Shanghai also seems to have underground malls and walkways down pat too, particularly around transport hubs. It's like Moscow but fifty years ahead.

Perhaps it is not surprising for a city of 25 million but the metro system in Shanghai is big and rather complicated. There are 14 lines and you have to make a lot of interchanges. With less frequent trains than other metro systems I have used, I'd say Shanghai's hasn't proven the most efficient. The signage in the stations suck as well - there would often be an Exit 1, an Exit 2, an Exit 4 but not the Exit 3 you're looking for - and the ticket machines often wouldn't accept particular notes and coins. Not impressed.

Having had two gorgeous days on arrival, of course when I started sightseeing, it started to rain. It was bearable on the first day but the next day it was heavy. Not Hanoi-heavy but heavy enough to take most

Propaganda Poster Art Centre

This small museum contains an awesomely kitsch collection of old propaganda posters from throughout the 20th century.

of the pleasure out of my walk through Shanghai's French Concession.
As the name suggests, this leafy suburb of rich mansions was under control of the French for 94 years and is now where Shanghai's elites are spotted. Big half-timbered villas behind high concrete walls.
There were some sights to see to keep me out of the rain however including the Propaganda Poster Art Centre, located in the basement of a non-descript apartment tower in the French Concession. As explained inside the centre, the majority of old Communist and nationalistic propaganda posters were destroyed once posters became obsolete with the introduction of new forms of media, but the centre has managed to collect and preserve some 3,000 of them. The museum takes you through Chinese history with its exhibits from the 1920s through to the 1990s - many of the posters are true works of art. It gave me a bit of a crash course in 20th century Chinese history with posters extolling nationalist pride, hard work, anti-intellectualism, socialist values, pro-Soviet cooperation and most forcefully, anti-imperialism, against the US in particular.
Once back out in the relentless rain, I was soaked through so badly that I was forced me to

1933

Uniquely cool complex of offices, shops and restaurants housed in a former abattoir.

cut my day short. Brrrrr. Grrrrr.

On my first day sightseeing, I went to visit a complex of old factories cum galleries at M50, which is very much like OCT-LOFT in Shenzhen. Perhaps the presentation of the space in OCT-LOFT is better but the galleries here were more interesting. The Island 6 gallery in particular was good fun as it was interactive and had funny captions. Lots of its works had moving imagery on LCD screens or sound which you triggered by stepping in front of the motion sensors attached to every work.
The relatively nearby Jade Buddha Temple is nice and tranquil and would have even been more impressive if they weren't renovating the grand hall. The jade Buddha itself was predominantly white with a slight shade of green and was very well carved - no wonder it is so revered. Although it is almost two metres high, there was a reclining Buddha in one of the other temples in the complex is arguably bigger and more impressive.
Among Shanghai's more unusual buildings is 1933, a complex of shops, workshops, offices and restaurants hewn out of a former art-deco abattoir. Built around a cylindrical core, the most distinctive

Yuyuan Gardens

This beautifully-kept collection of ponds, pavilions and rockeries is classic China.

feature of the place were the sky bridges along which cattle were led to their slaughter. About five or six floors high, the place is a cool concrete maze.
The Yuyuan Gardens are one of Shanghai's most visited sights and is a lovely place to walk around. Established by a rich Ming dynasty family, the pavilions, ponds and rockeries is classic China. The serenity is somewhat spoiled by amount of tourists inside, whichever was frustrating. The bazaar that surrounds the gardens is one of many new, recreated, Ming dynasty 'old towns' which although impress with their marvellous architecture, are nothing more than giant, manufactured tourist traps. I had to get outta there.

Back in the sophisticated French Concession, the fakeness theme continued at Xintiandi, a high-end shopping and dining complex modelled on traditional Shanghai alleyways. The result is more like an over-commercialised Shoreditch.
Yet walking around the rest of the French Concession that I couldn't explore earlier because of the rain, it became inescapable that Shanghai is the most sophisticated city in China and it was hard not be impressed. The French Concession is perhaps the epitome of gentrification. It was the first time I've been in such a

Tianzifang

Wonderful complex of shops, bars and restaurants housed in a cramp but still-lived-in traditional neighbourhood of Shanghai in the French Concession.

flash neighbourhood for ages.
Also in the former concession is Tianzifang, a complex similar in concept to Xintiandi except that here you can actually tell that this used to be - and still is - a compact neighbourhood full of shikumen (old houses) and longtang (alleys). The buildings have been left almost exactly as they were on the outside, just done up a bit on the inside for commercial purposes. Despite the crowds, the atmosphere is nice and relaxed with loads of boutique shops, handicraft stores and low-key eateries. I was probably most impressed by the chilled-out bars however, which looked like awesome places to have a drink in; some of them are hole-in-the-walls with bar stools on the street, some are beer gardens and some are tiny but characterful little spaces. I'd definitely come here regularly for a drink if I lived here! The range of beers available is amazing and that goes for the whole city too - the craft beer craze has also taken Shanghai by storm.

My budget however, ensured that I wasn't able to enjoy the full range of popular cuisines and trendy restaurants that Shanghai has to offer; I went to the same

The Three Amigos

Shanghai's three tallest mega-skyscrapers are the bottle-opener-like Shanghai World Financial Centre, the Jinmao Tower & the wrapped-in-a-twisty-glass-skin Shanghai Tower.

two canteens near the hostel almost everyday, that were as value-for-money as you could get. The only memorable culinary creation of note that I had in Shanghai was a Chinese-style crepe which was amazing! And at just ¥7 - less than £1 - was cheap! Chicken, sausage, egg, coriander and spring onions were wrapped in a thin, crispy crepe but it was the sweet Peking duck sauce that made it. I'll have to export this!

Having already been to the British Museum, I thankfully didn't have to queue around the block to see a special exhibition of one hundred objects on loan from greatest collection of artefacts plundered by the British Empire, to the Shanghai Museum. Instead, I perused the regular exhibits, where I was reminded that porcelain did indeed originate from this country; that is why porcelain is also known as china, after all. The same can arguably be said about jade which was historically valuable in China. Chinese paintings have their own unique style and layout; they must've have used very fine brushes in China because the paintings are often very refined, almost like miniatures, on narrow scrolls. Inscriptions often take up a large portion of the

Traditional Musicians At Yuyuan Gardens

It was a pleasant surprise to be treated to some beautiful traditional music played on an old stage used to entertain the elites in Yuyuan Garden. A definite "You are in China" moment.

painting and is rather aesthetically pleasing; the layout is almost like that of a modern poster. The style is so distinctive that anyone would probably recognise a Chinese painting if they saw one. The Chinese supposedly invented paper money but there wasn't anything mentioned about it at the Chinese Currency Collection. You've probably seen examples of Chinese furniture from pictures I've taken of the old Chinese mansions I have visited; there were more examples on display here which are again, very distinctive. All in all the Museum visit was a great reminder about just how unique and widespread Chinese culture really is and it was fascinating to see it all at the source.

I wanted to see Shanghai's old town which wasn't really featured at all by Lonely Planet. When I pitched up, I realised why; I was aghast to discover that there is almost nothing left of it. Just one complex of red brick flats, many of them filled up, just like the buildings near my hostel; ready for demolition. It's a bit sad to see the last vestiges of traditional city life about to be destroyed forever - I wasn't satisfied seeing the fake recreations at the

Shaoxianggang River

This side of Xitang is more like the traditional old town you see in Mission Impossible III but the rest is sadly overrun by tourists and vendors giving the place that tacky, inauthentic and typically Chinese feel.

nearby Yuyuan Bazaar. A couple of blocks north there are still some older neighbourhoods, desperately clinging on while developments and high rises spring up all around them; unfortunately they will probably go the way of the neighbourhood south of it, sooner rather than later. Gentrification is generally unstoppable but with an authoritarian government looking to move forward quickly, the pace of change is even quicker here in China.
Disheartened, I decided to venture out of the city to try and find some authentic traditional life.

There are many water villages near Shanghai where you might still find it; I picked Xitang because it wasn't mentioned in the Lonely Planet, seemed to be less visited, looked like it has retained its traditional village feel and because it starred in Mission Impossible III. In fact, I remember telling myself when watching the film that I would have to visit this place whenever I got to China. Other villages also had entrance fees and one was not mentioned for this one which was another reason I decided to come to Xitang; on arrival however, it looked like there was an entry fee. Other villages cost around ¥50 to get in so I

Yangxiujing River

The main river that runs through the scenic old town of Xitang. Note the covered footpaths on the left.

thought that it can't be much more than that. It was ¥100. Fuck. This was unexpected and I was wondering if I would ever get my overall spend in China back down to budget.
In the Mission Impossible movie, the village is shown to be a beautiful fishing village, almost as if it was stuck in time, back in the 19th century. Well, my Xitang despair was complete when I set foot in the main town to find it...completely overrun with tourists. No more riverside cottages and traditional small time shops; every shopfront was a vendor selling food or handicrafts. Tour groups were led around by speakerphone-wielding guides and you were jostling with people to get through the streets. My hopes of a tranquil meander around a beautiful old town were completely dashed, smashed to pieces by the sledgehammer of Chinese tourism. The town is still amazingly pretty though, which is why there are so many tourists here; I really should've known better. It was very similar to Fenghuang in terms of look and feel, although perhaps Xitang aesthetically lays a better claim to the title of "The Venice Of China" as it is actually built on a network of

Jade Buddha Temple

Wasn't allowed to take pictures of the jade Buddha after which the complex is named, but the buildings inside it were just as impressive.

canals used specifically for transportation. I would say that by day, Xitang's look and feel might be better than Fenghuang's; it is smaller and thus has a rustic and rural feel to it that Fenghuang doesn't quite have. I took some amazing photos here, though it was nothing to do with my own photographing ability and everything to do with the setting. I don't know what Xitang is like at night; I had to make sure I caught the last bus back to Shanghai.

I've enjoyed the sleekness, modernity and choice available in Shanghai; Shanghai is definitely the most sophisticated city in China and there is quite a lot to see for a tourist too. The Bund and the Pudong skyline is spectacular at night and it is a treat to stroll down either side of the river.
But in general I feel I have reached the point where I have had my fill of this country. Perhaps this was best demonstrated when a guy from pushed in front of me at a ticket queue and I instinctively grabbed his hand and pushed it to the side. I had had it. The Chinese seem to tolerate this kind of

Xintiandi

This upmarket shopping and dining complex based on old Shanghai brick houses and alleys perhaps epitomises the French Concession area of Shanghai.

behaviour for some reason.
When I leave the China however, I will miss being able to at least speak a little of the language; I can ask most questions in Mandarin, even if I most often won't understand the answer. However in terms of China, I am quite frankly, looking forward to moving on.

But before I can, I just have one final thing to do, one final place I have to go; the small issue of a visit to the nation's capital and the country's most famous and revered sight. Skipping Beijing and The Great Wall would surely render any journey through China incomplete.

再見 (zài jian),
Derek

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