Shanghai

I visited Shanghai for the first time this past weekend. I have to say, Shanghai is so much nicer than Beijing. A big cosmopolitan city, China’s financial capital is filled with a ton of amazing restaurants and great shopping. The skyline of Pudong, with its tall, striking skyscrapers, including the soon to be tallest building in China (beaten only by the yet unfinished but soon to be tallest building in the world in Dubai I believe), rivals that of Hong Kong. People talk about stocks there the way people discuss politics in Beijing – incessantly – leading to a stock market that most agree is completely overheated and based mostly in irrational exuberance rather than any real market knowledge. Shanghai’s stock market has doubled in less than a year. Selected as the host city for the World Expo in 2010, they have embarked on an intense campaign to ready the city for the event that rivals Beijing’s preparations for the Olympics in both scope and scale. There are ads everywhere about the expo which is still 3 years away.

I arrived at Pudong airport which is located about 30km outside downtown Shanghai. I took the Maglev which got me to the city in less than 8 minutes. The train, built with high-tech German magnetic levitation technology, reached a speed of 431km/hr (over 250 miles/hr) during the ride – it was incredible. I even took a picture just to prove it! The train doesn’t go anywhere at the moment except between the city and the airport. Of course, you might be wondering why the hell a city would spend a ton of money to build a high-speed railway that only goes 30km in total when the technology clearly only makes sense for longer distances. Rumor has it that China hired the German company so that it can watch and learn and then promptly kicked out the Germans after stealing their technology. While I don’t know if this is real or not, I do believe they plan to extend the train to Hangzhou eventually. There are also plans to build a high-speed train between Shanghai and Beijing (now this completely makes sense… right now, it takes 11 hours to travel between the two cities by train and this will be cut by half). Regardless, the train is pretty amazing.

Shanghai’s subway system is also really nice – very similar in design to that of other big major Asian cities including Hong Kong, Bangkok and Taipei. But you won’t forget you’re in China because the people are extremely rude, and push and shove. A girl was reduced to tears since people shoved onto the train at one particularly crowded stop without letting her off. It was unreal. Like every other place in China, there are just masses of people everywhere. I was so sure someone would get crushed on that train. It was completely out of control. This is why I avoid public transportation in Beijing unless forced by congested traffic during rush hour.

Across the river from modern Pudong is the Bund, which is lined with beautiful buildings with European architecture. We ate at New Heights, a trendy restaurant on 3 on the Bund, which had fabulous views of the rest of the Bund and of Pudong. The food in Shanghai was fabulous – better than Hong Kong (or maybe I just really miss Western foods). New Heights and Azul, the other restaurant I ate at with friends, were both delicious. Azul in particular had an amazing brunch, complete with scones, muffins, smoked salmon and an antipasto plate. Now, I am resolved to seek out more foreign restaurants in Beijing. I have grown tired of traditional Chinese food despite the variety since it is too heavy and greasy here.

The main reason I ended up in Shanghai this weekend was for a Linkin Park concert. I know that it’s really random for me to come out to China to see Linkin Park but it was the idea of a colleague who is a local person. Although she ended up cancelling on me, the tickets were already purchased so I ended up coming to Shanghai. Watching dorky Chinese guys sing to Linkin Park was a funny experience. But I have to say they were good – they knew all the songs and all the lyrics. They really do take their karaoke seriously in this part of the world. My friend said that they probably practiced for the concert. It will be interesting to see how the Chinese concert my friends are taking me to this weekend (Jay Chow – the “Justin Timberlake” of Asia) compares to this one. I’ve been told to “do my homework” and listen to Jay Chow’s music. Since he mumbles through all of his songs, I often can’t even tell that he’s singing in Chinese. It just sounds like gibberish.

It’s back to Shanghai tomorrow for Thanksgiving. I don't think turkeys exist here, so it will be interesting to see what kind of Thanksgiving meal my friends come up with!