From Shanghai, With Love

My grip on Shanghai is slippery. This could be because my palms have not stopped sweating in the 53% humidity or – and this is equally as likely – it could because the city is, quite simply, huge. And with just two full days in Shanghai (one of which saw rain for half of it) I had to hit the ground running. Or walking. Running would have been foolish and may have seen my gasping, sweating demise.

Like so many big Asian cities, Shanghai is a pleasingly muddled cocktail of new and old, with things regularly getting lost in translation. Or, in my case, regularly getting lost (I absolutely blame the cab drivers). There are markets and malls, ancient bicycle-wagons driving alongside 4WDs and Starbucks next to tiny Chinese restaurants. Sprawling and built up, Shanghai is home to around 15 million people and it bustles accordingly; although there are numerous quiet pockets in the city, when the heat and umbrellas get too much, where one can seek respite – may I suggest the far end of The Bund’s riverside walkway as such a spot.

It’s quite a cheap city to get around in. With such little time to spare, I didn’t bother trying to wrap my spatially challenged brain around the train system (although I’ve heard it’s terrifically efficient) and instead went with cabs. Wild times ensued. One driver nearly wore my vomit on the back of his head, as we hurtled through various districts following a misunderstanding based on the subtle vowel sound difference between Hengsheng and Hengshan. That being said, it only costs about $5 or $6 to straddle two lanes of traffic at 80km/h, for the thrilling sensation of driving directly at people, daring them not to move. Eating and drinking can easily be done, nay, enjoyed, on a budget, and thank God the former can; with the summer temperatures sitting in the sticky mid thirties, you’ll be living on iced tea.

Thanks to its port linking the East and West, Shanghai has enjoyed a history of commercial importance and The Bund is a beautiful walk back in time to when European architecture dominated its skyline. Behind the walkway that stretches for a mile along the Huangpu River, the original European buildings, that once housed German, French, Russian, American and British banks and consulates, are now fittingly home to Chanel, Armani and Gucci. Everything is clean and wide – it’s an old-worldly, movie-set aesthetic. Duck down a side street, behind The Bund and newer Shanghai is on display; shops, stalls and cafes. This is one of Shanghai’s noted shopping areas and absolutely buzzes on the weekend.

A cab ride from my accommodation on Wusong Road deposited me in Taikang Lu, home to one of Shanghai’s worst kept secrets, Tianzifang. This is where the city’s fashion and art talent come to play and where you should too. One could spend a whole day in this haphazardly structured maze eating, drinking, shopping and watching. Or kitten-catching. I really wanted to put the tiny marmalade thing in my bag, but all I could hear in my head was my father’s voice intoning ’you’ll get rabies’ on some sort of loop, so I refrained. There are boutiques galore – shoes, clothes, jewellery – galleries and photography exhibitions, toy stores and curiously named and themed restaurants (including a New York pizza joint and a Swiss fondue house). It’s a fun and nonsensical playground of narrow, twisting alleyways; a sort of France meets China with a dash of the tropics and colonial glamour.

Pudong CBD - the financial and corporate heart of the city – is where Shanghai gets its hustle bustle on. It’s what springs to mind when one thinks of ‘modern Shanghai.’ It’s big and shiny and busy. Dare I say … too big, too shiny and too busy. As well as pumping blood through Shanghai’s ever growing economy, it is home to the (visually ubiquitous) Oriental Pearl Tower and the shopping mall that I never thought I’d get out of. The Super Brand Mall is mind-bogglingly large and drives a level of consumerism which could probably solely keep Australia’s economy afloat for ten years. I got a stitch attempting to cover half of it and was forced to seek refuge in a coffee shop.

Compared to the sparkly, oversized city centre of Shanghai, I have to say, I preferred what I saw of the older Shanghai streets (usually whilst careering through them in a cab). Quaint and tree-lined with a slower pace and buildings from another time – it is these streets, that if I were here a little longer, I would willingly get lost in.

Leaving Shanghai, I’m still not entirely sure if I’m supposed to wear a seatbelt in cabs, or what the vacuum sealed meats in the snack section of the convenience stores are, but Shanghai, thank you … its been real.