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Alas, I am not in Shanghai, just months late in posting these.
I'd been to Shanghai once before, about six some years ago. It was on the same trip I'd visited Hong Kong on, but when I returned this year, Hong Kong was largely the same, very recognizable, whereas Shanghai had completely changed. Everything there is under construction: subway lines, department stores, sky-high apartment complexes, the next Tallest Building Ever. Everything is being torn down: labyrinths of courtyards and alleyways, old houses and neighborhoods. Things are half-done, like the maglev train going from the new airport to somewhere in the middle of Pudong, but the city is growing so quickly, that soon, it won't be the middle of anywhere anymore.
There are expats everywhere, lots of rich investors buying the newly-built apartments that many of the locals still can't afford. In many ways, it feels a lot like Taiwan did fifteen years ago, when you couldn't depend on clean bathrooms or toilet paper (and still can't always, but it's so much better now), when going to a US chain was still a status symbol (only in Shanghai, it's Japanese and Taiwanese chains as well).
My mom said that the city is trying to finish everything for the 2010 World Expo, and it's so odd to realize that visiting the city next year or two years later means visiting an entirely different city all together.
( Giant pictures of Shanghai )
I'd been to Shanghai once before, about six some years ago. It was on the same trip I'd visited Hong Kong on, but when I returned this year, Hong Kong was largely the same, very recognizable, whereas Shanghai had completely changed. Everything there is under construction: subway lines, department stores, sky-high apartment complexes, the next Tallest Building Ever. Everything is being torn down: labyrinths of courtyards and alleyways, old houses and neighborhoods. Things are half-done, like the maglev train going from the new airport to somewhere in the middle of Pudong, but the city is growing so quickly, that soon, it won't be the middle of anywhere anymore.
There are expats everywhere, lots of rich investors buying the newly-built apartments that many of the locals still can't afford. In many ways, it feels a lot like Taiwan did fifteen years ago, when you couldn't depend on clean bathrooms or toilet paper (and still can't always, but it's so much better now), when going to a US chain was still a status symbol (only in Shanghai, it's Japanese and Taiwanese chains as well).
My mom said that the city is trying to finish everything for the 2010 World Expo, and it's so odd to realize that visiting the city next year or two years later means visiting an entirely different city all together.
( Giant pictures of Shanghai )