Shanghai

Objective: Catch up with Willy
We arrived in Shanghai after a brief stop over in Hong Kong. Thanks to the change of government in Taiwan direct flights to the mainland had opened. Strangely, these still cost twice as much as the usual flight through HK.

Willy's Apartment Building

Willy our good friend from Thailand met us at the airport and took us to his palatial down town apartment. We met his wife Meg for the first time despite knowing him for over four years. We also met his miniature Weiner dog; quite funny considering Willy is a man of size. We unpacked and mixed gin tonics.

Weiner Dog

Fish and house-guests
I’ve always agreed with old Ben Franklin when he said: "Fish and house guests smell after three days." So we didn’t mess around and got straight to work – see some Shanghai: Paris of the East.

Hutons
Our first stop was to Yuan Gardens. We got a cab and made our way via some of the hutons. These are groups of courtyard houses joined together, where many families live together. It was interesting to see people living in these old dwellings, pretty much the same as they had for hundreds of years.

Tea House at Yuan Gardens

Yuan Gardens
A tourist Mecca with lots of stalls, pearl markets, souvenirs and old refurbished buildings – the throng was intense, bust mostly with Chinese tourists rather than foreigners. This I found to be the case around the nation; middle class Chinese can’t afford to travel overseas. They also live at the centre of the earth: the Chinese for “China” is Jhong-hua, which translates as “Middle Kingdom”; so why would you go anywhere else. Willy bargained on some t-shirts. I got a mock Chinese propaganda one saying “Let’s Liberate Taiwan” (apparently).

Dancers at Yuan Gardens

The Bund
This is where it all happened back in the day. Shanghai was the centre of imperial China (the British Empire mostly) and fortunes were to be made in exporting consumer desirables and importing opium. Unfortunately, the opium dens have disappeared, but you can get the feel of those times at The Bund.

The Colonial Bund

This stretch of river front property housed all the major banks and commercial interests of foreigners in China. As usual, the British chose the best spot in the city to set up shop. The old Victorian-style buildings are still there, challenging notions of what China should look like.

Shanghai World Trade Centre Building
aka The Bottle Opener

Across the river, the new financial centre booms with giant, modern, glass fronted sky scrapers and the iconic syringe of the Oriental Pear Tower. This was the tallest building in China until it was surpassed in 2007 by the giant bottle opener; also know as The World Trade Centre.

The Pearl Tower

First Impressions
Shanghai is not a city where you could get bored. There are heaps of clubs and cafes. You could spend an eternity just walking around the streets and basking of the beauty of the buildings. It was nice to be in a city with architecture after living in Taiwan, with its endless array of grey concrete cubes.

Other things that you immediately notice different from Taiwan:

• Shanghai has rubbish bins
• The streets are cleaner
• There aren’t gobs of betel nut everywhere
• The air is cleaner – the locals were surprised at this, but it’s true
• There are no temples – result of the Cultural Revolution no doubt
• Ice tea isn’t for sale on every street corner
• Hardly any scooters or motorbike – allot more bicycles and electric bikes
• LPG bikes that I’d never seen before
• People spoke good English
• The huge number of beggars and touts

The variety of people
Taiwan has only a few ethnic groups. Most of the population came from Fujian province. The big cities in China however, draw people from all over this vast and diverse country. You get a perspective of the ethnic diversity of the nation. There is a huge variety in people’s appearance. China is not one country, but a loosely bound federation, that has been held together by tyrannical dictators for thousands of years.

Satellite TV
Turning on the TV at Willy’s, I noticed that all the ads featured Filipinos. In fact all the local content (Star World, AXN etc.) was coming from The Philippines. Apparently, these stations were only available to foreigners and you needed a special permit to be able to get access to TV that included the BBC World Service or CNN; the impression of openness while most of the population were subjected to CCTV. Many locals find a way around this though and get these channels as well.

First People’s Congress
In our travels around town Willy showed us through an unassuming court-yard to the house where the Chinese Communist Part had its first meeting in Shanghai. Inside there were wax models of the assembled delegates and poorly translated exhibitions of the documents from the meetings. More interesting I found were the pictures of a very young Mao.

Young Mao

Shanghai Museum
An example of China’s diversity can be found at the museum. We dragged Willy along, in hope of discovering a little more about the country. This picture shows just some of the national costumes to be found around this vast country.



Museums in China tend to cater to the local population rather than tourists and have very few English translations, so you end up guessing what the exhibits are about. After a couple of hours of ill-explained ancient history it was time for a hearty lunch.

Food
Shanghai benefits from its international past. We had some amazing Cantonese food as well as subjecting Willy and Meg to the terrors of a vegan restaurant (aptly named “Godly Restaurant”). One of the most impressive meals for the trip was at Hamilton House, a 1920’s art deco style restaurant with an Australian-French chef, kick-ass cosmos and a rack of lamb that melted… I’m mean MELTED in your mouth. Divine.

House of Blues and Jazz
After this superlative meal we headed down to The Bund again to check out a live band. To my surprise, after living in Taiwan for such a long time (also known as the land that music forgot), they were good. They came and had drinks with us after their set. Here on a three month contract to play at the club, the American group were amazed at how well they had been received. Not surprising really, as their show rocked.

First decent live band in a long time

Halloween Party
The social highlight of our Shanghai experience was the pagan ghost party that Americans celebrate at the end of October. Willy’s students and Meg’s colleagues has been invited to share in a few drinks to mark the occasion.

Shanghai Halloween Decorations

I had an interesting chat with a British automotive engineer, who was working for BMW. I expressed concern over the apparent depletion of oil. He didn’t seem to worry all that much: “We’ll have oil for at least another fifty to a hundred years,” he said. “There are plenty of alternatives, but no one wants to invest in changing the whole infrastructure.”

“But will we choke on the fumes before the oil actually runs out?” I asked. He didn’t seem to have an answer.

It was interesting to chat with Willy’s students too. In such a short time I didn’t want to get into too many deep questions about the nature of “the party” and how it translates to the modern, industrialised, commercial nation that I saw. It was interesting to note that many of the linguistic challenges they faced were similar to those in Taiwan.

Adam finally Arrives
Regulars at The Odyssey will remember that our other good friend from Thailand was meant to visit us in Taiwan, but he missed his flight. He made it from Japan in time for the Halloween Party and we ended up catching up for a few drinks and having a long discussion on the nature of anarchy and Canadian politics.

Adam and the Mascot for the 2010 World Expo

Farewell Shanghai
Unfortunately, there is too much world and not enough time. We headed out on the night train from Shanghai to Xian the following Sunday – sad to say goodbye to our friends but excited for the next stage of the voyage: the wonders of the Chinese Rail System.

Public Sculpture Shanghai