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My first observations in Shanghai were that it was much more westernized that I expected and that, yes, there are truly over a billion people in China. The streets were crowded with people everywhere you looked. Most ride around on bicycles since cars are too expensive for all but taxi drivers and the very elite. You can see that the people are used to walking and cycling elbow to elbow all the time and don't even flinch when a taxi nearly runs them over. Just another day…happens all the time.
As a major trading center in China, Shanghai is a very modern city. There are not many traditional looking buildings and it seems like the entire city is under construction. From our hotel you could see the entire skyline and there were at least 20 high rises near completion.
Our visit here was brief and since there are not many historical sights to see, we only had a half day tour planned here. Our guide, Herbert, picked us up at our hotel, the JC Mandarin, and headed for the Jade Buddha Temple. The temple is one of only a few temples in the city and it illustrates the juxtaposition of ancient architecture surrounded by tall, modern buildings. Next we went to the handicraft center where local artisans create traditional arts and crafts. In reality, these handicraft centers are government run tourist shops designed to grab a piece of the tourist dollar. The Chinese government will remain solvent for a little while thanks to some of my purchases. Our tour ended at this point but our guide agreed to take us to a few more spots including the Yuyuan Garden, a typical Chinese garden in the older section of town. At Herbert's suggestion, we went to the Chinese Acrobat show at the Ritz Carlton Hotel across the street from the Mandarin. It was one of the most delightful shows we saw during the whole trip filled with amazing and unusual acrobatic demonstrations.
The next day we were on our own so we had our first chance to get around without a guide or interpreter. We had Herbert write down all the places we wanted to go in Chinese so we could communicate with cab drivers. Cab drivers typically don't speak English. And since their alphabet is completely different, we couldn't even give them the name of the hotel. "The JC Mandarin" does not mean anything to them. In Chinese, it's an entirely different name. We managed to make our way to the center of the city and took a cruise down the Huangpu River. We met two interesting people, Dorothy and Ully, who are sales reps for a coffee company in Germany. They gave us some great tips for where to shop in Beijing and told us some amazing stories about doing business in Asia. A group of young Japanese girls were fascinated by the sight of Caucasians and took several pictures with me. This became a common occurrence. Next, we walked along the Bund, which is a riverfront promenade against a backdrop of large buildings with a very European architecture. We walked down one of the main shopping streets and found that the prices were very reasonable even in the nicer boutiques where the quality of clothing was good. Our new friends Dorothy and Ully invited us to join them for a delicious dinner at the Garden Hotel overlooking the city.
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