Since Singapore is the land of the eternal summer (with the occasional tropical rainstorm) sometimes it is nice to leave and remember that under most other climes there are different seasons. Winter has arrived in the northern hemisphere and we thought that we would squeeze one last trip in before Christmas. Now that we are both working, planning can be a bit tricky but we managed to book a direct flight on China Eastern and got to spend three whole days in Shanghai.
We stayed in the former French concession in a lovely little hotel called the Old House Inn which besides being very well located and quiet is also very tastefully decorated and furnished with wooden chinese furniture. We spent our first day wandering around the area (before having a nap, never sleep very well in a plane) admiring the houses dating back to the 1920s that the French left behind and enjoying the plane trees which seem to line every street. In the evening we took the subway to the Bund from which we could admire Pudong and its futuristic skyline as well as look back the old buildings built by the Europeans in the early part of the 20th Century.
We then walked back towards the huge People's Square along Nanjing road the main shopping strip in Shanghai. Living in Singapore, I must say I wasn't as impressed as the first time I went to Shanghai five years ago where the density of luxury brand shops has shocked me. (Singapore's Orchard road now has two Louis Vuitton shops within 200m of one another - yet there are still queues occasionally to get in...)
We spent the following day in "Old Town" wandering around in a few antique shops, fighting the crowds around the Tea House and then escaping to the Yu gardens where we wandered amongst the delicately arranged trees and ponds. Water and fish mean wealth in chinese culture but the density of Koi fish in the ponds around Old Town did raise some hygiene issues in my mind.
We devoted a good part of our final day to the Shanghai Museum where they have a very impressive collection of ancient bronzes and ceramics. We then ventured outside the centre of town to Duo Lun Street (Please see article from the NY Times here) where we admired some leftover architecture and lanes from the pre-war era and wandered into a street market. We were surprised by the number of young couples wandering along the street dressed in old fashioned clothes getting their pictures taken until we figured out that these were probably wedding photographs (Couples generally get pictures taken in several different outfits, and the bride changes dresses at least twice on the day itself).
Shanghai is obviously a city of contrasts, very rich and very poor live side by side, gleaming skyscrapers of Pudong and street markets where the butcher cuts his meat on a piece of carboard set directly on the pavement, high end German cars and scrap collectors on bicycles side by side and of course old and new. It's a good place to wax nostalgic about bygone eras while reflecting on the future.
Shanghai was surprisingly easy to navigate. All signs are written in Roman characters (but do pay attention to East and West in the names as generally it will indicate a different street). Gone are most bicycle lanes, but the subway system has probably doubled in size in the past few years. It is brand new, equipped with flat screen TVs along each platform showing the news as well as the time of the next train. Not to mention the Maglev train which links Pudong airport to the city centre - 7 minutes and 20 seconds to cover 30 km - thanks to its Siemens magnetic levitation technology. We were there a week after the end of the Expo and we benefited from all the upgrading and renovation work that was done to receive the world.
Shanghai was surprisingly easy to navigate. All signs are written in Roman characters (but do pay attention to East and West in the names as generally it will indicate a different street). Gone are most bicycle lanes, but the subway system has probably doubled in size in the past few years. It is brand new, equipped with flat screen TVs along each platform showing the news as well as the time of the next train. Not to mention the Maglev train which links Pudong airport to the city centre - 7 minutes and 20 seconds to cover 30 km - thanks to its Siemens magnetic levitation technology. We were there a week after the end of the Expo and we benefited from all the upgrading and renovation work that was done to receive the world.
The weather was wonderful, 20 degrees celsius and sunshine. My only negative was the air pollution. We did not suffer in any way, but when looking out in the distance it was pretty obvious that the reason things appeared blurry was not my contact lenses....
