For two countries that border each other and share a similar governing ideology, Vietnam and China do not make air transportation easy. Though Shanghai airlines recently inaugurated thrice weekly service from Hanoi to Shanghai, the 2 am departure and 5:30 am arrival didn’t seem too appealing. Instead, I chose the Dragon Air flight connecting through Hong Kong. What it lacks in directness, it makes up for in scheduling (11 am departure). Plus, I got to use the Cathay Pacific business lounge at the Hong Kong airport (American Airlines, you could learn something).
I spent four days in Shanghai visiting my good college friend Brian McKay. When not getting schooled at NBA 2K9, Brian was a warm and generous host, indulging my desire for good Chinese food and showing me Shanghai’s vibrant nightlife. It’s impossible to get to know a mammoth metropolis like Shanghai in 4 days, but I came away with a few impressions.
Shanghai is huge and Brian noted that is has more skyscrapers than New York City. With about 20 million people, the metro area stretches on for miles horizontally and hundreds of feet vertically. It has modernized at a remarkable pace, with the Pu Dong area of towering office buildings and hotels constructed on a riverbank that not so long ago was largely barren. In other areas, modern shopping malls have sprouted along bustling arteries, connected to residential neighborhoods through a modern metro system. And, they’re not done. As signs everywhere tell you, Shanghai will host the World Expo in 2010 and the city fathers are hustling to complete preparations. Its per capita income of over $11,000 is over 3 times the national average and roughly 11x that of Vietnam. Yet, at the same time, compared to Hanoi, it seemed an oasis of peace and tranquility. Sure, there are motorbikes, but most of them ran on electricity rather than the noisy two stroke engines in Vietnam. Almost nobody honked. Most drivers seemed to follow traffic guidance. Nice.
Like many Asian cities, as Shanghai modernizes, it faces the conundrum of what to keep and what to bulldoze. I don’t know what the future holds, but, for now at least, not all areas of Shanghai have yet become the new set for Bladerunner. Beside the Huang Pu river, the old Western banking houses built in the early part of the 20th century along the Bund remain, some of which now host upscale retail establishments and restaurants. From across the river in the evening, you can watch their stately fascades brightly lit up. In the French concession, there are apartment buildings that seem magically transported from Paris, complete with tree-shrouded boulevards. On my first day, the weather was beautiful, enabling me to stroll through parks and watch retirees practice tai chi or ballroom dancing.
Shanghai has long been a trade and financial center and does not have the historical monuments of Beijing, the beautiful scenery of Hangzhou or the terra cotta warriors of Xian. Yet, I enjoyed strolling through the ultra-modern urban planning museum, with its giant 3-D map of the city and its collection of old propaganda posters (the posters that I viewed were more colorful and Norman Rockwell-like than those in Hanoi, many of which focus on the struggle against the French and the U.S.). The Shanghai museum has a great collection of Tang Dynasty Buddhist statues and pottery. Outside, I struggled to avoid the clutches of friendly, well-dressed young folks, who kept trying to convince me to join them at tea shops. I can be a bit oblivious, but even I’m not getting sucked into purchasing over-priced tea from touts.
Liz and I typically judge a vacation based on the quality of food which we consumed. Using that standard, I’d call my trip a success. Brian took me on a tour of Chinese regional cuisine, allowing me to sample sweeter Shangai dishes, Cantonese favorites from Hong Kong, well-seasoned Yunnanese plates, and spicy Szechuan cooking. From neighborhood shops to modern and sleekly designed restaurants catering to expats, it’s all there. Plus, access to all sorts of other Asian cuisine and Western bars and bistros.
After dinner, Shanghai has many entertainment options. In Hanoi, the sidewalks are rolled up at 10 pm, so I was unprepared and paralyzed by choice. One night, we went to see jazz, another a bar specializing in Belgian beers, and finally a trip to a salsa club, where I tried to shuffle my feet gamely when dragged onto the dance floor. I had thought Bangkok was remarkably cosmopolitan, and it is, but I think that Shanghai’s new wealth and huge population (local, but also expat – including over 25,000 Americans resident in Shanghai) put it in another league. Liz and I had never really considered a China posting. Now, who knows?
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