Shanghai Shanghai

Well, I have left Shanghai now, but this is a bit more about our adventures in Shanghai...

Some parts managed to charm us, especially the French concession, a large district where the French built their mansions, houses and apartment blocks and other buildings the community needed. Wandering around there it almost felt we'd arrived in another country! The (1900-30's) European architecture felt oddly familiar, there were Indian restaurants, French cafes, Irish bars...More like Sydney than China! We enjoyed going into one cafe 'Paul's' where the pastries and tarts were delicious and better than what you find at the average bakery at home. Half the patrons seemed to be speaking French!
It was a strange mix of cultures- a couple of Russian Orthodox Churches with their meringue roofs, upperclass Chinese boutiques, restaurants and expat hangouts. Communism mummified the area, rather than destroyed it, so now it is has a historical feel (especially in comparison to Pudong across the river!) and has been gentrified. This is hopefully the way it will survive!

The worst part of our visit to Shanghai was, for me, the annoying and sinister people approaching us to 'make friends', They chat for a while, then ask if you want to go to a tea ceremony (which after you go and enjoy some teas, ends up costing hundreds of dollars- we heard of people charged over 9000Y, which is 1500 Au dollars). We had been warned of the scam, so common is it that it is even on the DFAT website for China. People must still get tricked though, as the numbers of people trying to do this was unbelievable. In one square- near the museum and art gallery, we were approached about half a dozen times, although by the end we were cutting them off before they could try- and warning them we knew what they were doing. It was obvious that they weren't simply people who were friendly and wanted to practise their English (-and there are plenty of nice people like this in China!).
It was just horibble watching tourists come out of the museum and seeing these sweet seeming students who wait near the entrance come up and start talking to them- why do they use their English skills for such mean intent!

Anyway, still plenty of nice people in Shanghai! I met up with Xiongyin, a friend whose studying at Sydney Uni, and we went around to a few places together. It was nice to see a familiar face!

One of the highlights (excuse the pun ;) ) was Jinmao tower- the tallest (although soon to be overtaken by the building in progress next door) in China, and has the highest bar in the world. We went up at duskish time- saw the sunset, and the city getting dark. Truly got a different perspective on things! From the cosy lounge, sipping cocktails, the world down below of tourist touts, crowded buses and unruly drivers seemed almost an illusion...we could see it all, yet couldn't see it at all! It was quite dizzying being so high, although the view would be improved by better air quality. It was a relatively clear day but I think the height of the tower puts the top bit in the smog layer. One drink was all we could afford up there, and so after finishing two bowls of the free peanuts :), we descended into the real world- exiting on foot rather than the conventional taxi (the building housed the Hyatt from the 57th-87th floors) to take a ferry back over the river to the Bund.