Shanghai

We reached the last stop, Shanghai, on our whirlwind tour of China after a relatively pleasant flight from Guilin. Shanghai was easily one of my favorite places in China. I can understand now why it is often referred to as “the New York of China”. It is extremely clean and seems to radiate modernity. It is also very Westernized due to the fact that so many Westerners came to live and establish themselves in Shanghai during the late 1800s and into the 1900s. There was even a large population of Jewish refugees in Shanghai during World War II!

The day after we arrived we visited the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. You can go almost to the top of the tower to get fantastic views of Shanghai and all of the boats going up and down the Yangtze River. The smog unfortunately made it a little difficult to see into the distance, however. From there I really got a sense of just how big Shanghai is. The Shanghai metropolitan area has a population of over 17 million! Despite this, I rarely felt like I was being smothered by masses of Chinese people; maybe I’ve just gotten used to it after being in Beijing for so long!

Oriental Pearl TV Tower:

Views from the Oriental Pearl TV Tower:

I've never seen so many people riding motor bikes!

These apartments buildings go on almost as far as the eye can see:

The next day we visited the headquarters of China Unionpay, which is a company that started five years ago, in 2002, and now controls all of China’s credit card and ATM transactions. In terms of the domestic market, it holds a virtual monopoly because there is no other company of its kind in China (although this probably won’t be for long). It’s hard to believe that in just five years the company has grown as large as it is, but that seems to be the nature of change in China!

We had a lot of free time between and after our day trips, during which we would usually go shopping or simply walk around to absorb the sites and sounds of wherever we were; in this case, Shanghai. There is so much to see, I can’t wait to come back. I especially loved the Bund, which is where you can find a great deal of old European style buildings because it is where most of the Westerners settled in Shanghai. One night, some of my friends and I ate at a pizza place on the Bund that overlooks one of Shanghai’s most famous cityscapes. It was gorgeous, and the weather was perfect – warm with a slight breeze.

Me on the Bund:

Some old European architecture on the Bund:

Browsing some markets:

View from where we ate dinner; Shanghai in the evening:

Our last day in Shanghai was a free day, so Katie and I walked around the city for a bit before stopping into a café to get access to the internet. As it turns out, the café had very clean, glass doors, and as we were leaving, I walked smack (and I mean, SMACK) into the door. Everyone in the store was stifling laughs as I was kind of dizzy for a bit and Katie guided me out the doors. I had a red spot on my face after that. We then went to a beautiful park nearby and walked around, taking pictures, until some Chinese college students from Xi’an randomly came up to us and, once they realized we could speak some Chinese, started asking us questions about America (this happened fairly often to us in China). We talked for a little while, and they then invited us to tea. Okay, here’s where I’m going to pause and offer some advice: never accept the invitation to go out for tea with some Chinese people unless you A, are willing to fork over some serious Yuan or B, know that they will pay for you. We accepted their invitation, thinking it would be quick because we had to leave in an hour to catch the night train back to Beijing. Well, it was not quick, and it was not cheap. Getting tea meant we had to go to a tea house and watch someone concoct some various types of tea and then do some various arm movements as they presented the tea to us. It was very interesting, but we were really pressed for time and it ended up being much more expensive than Katie and I wanted to pay. However, we grudgingly handed over our share of the check and booked it outside to find a cab, which was nearly impossible. When we finally did find one, we almost didn’t get back to the hotel in time because of the rush hour traffic. It was one crazy afternoon, that’s for sure. Fortunately, we made it to the hotel in time to meet up with our group to catch the evening train to Beijing.

Honestly, I really don't think those Chinese students meant any harm. They were legitimately interested in us, and soaked up everything we told them about life in America. I think there were just some cultural misunderstandings. I'm sure they wouldn't have asked us to an expensive tea house if we weren't American; I'm fairly certain they just assumed that all Americans are wealthy and can spend their money freely. After that, I learned to be more attentive to cultural perceptions - and misperceptions.