Shanghai (Not a) Surprise

For Paddy's 40th Birthday we went to Shanghai for a quick 36 hr trip without the kids. We flew out of the local airport here called Haneda which flies to Korea, HK and China. Upon arriving at Shanghai, we realized we had landed at their local airport as well, and not so bright and shiny. I had heard that from the international Shanghai airport, there is a train called the MagLev which magnetically levitates at its peak speed of 430km/hr, faster than the Shinkansen.  Cool, huh? Instead we got a shady taxi that literally drove up on the sidewalk, instead of the driveway, of the Fours Seasons. "Here" wasn't meant to be that literal. 

Paddy had been to Shanghai in 1996 before the construction boom and so the city was new to him as well in some ways. Back then there were two skyscrapers, now the tallest building in the world has just been finished (until Dubai finishes theirs).  We took a guided tour of the Old City, where even two Starbucks have managed to sneak in. In the Old City, there is a 3 acre walled garden that was very pretty, filled with koi fish. Shanghai is famous for its dumplings which we saw being assembly line produced with amazing speed. They had to with the line of people waiting to buy them.  

In the center of the city is a park called People's Park. In 8 months in 2001, the goverment relocated 5000 families from the center and built the park practically overnight. They say the quickest way to get rich is to wait for the government to move your home.  The sheer speed in which buildings go up shocked me. The tallest building (the one with the rectangle cut out at the top) was built in 1.5 years by Chinese that worked 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week.  There are no unions there I guess.

I was excited to have some authentic Chinese food and I have to say the soups are very good. Real wonton soup is quite delicious. The dim sum was also tasty but I have to say the Shanghai Noodles were a disappointment. They are thick and chewy and rather bland in their oily stir fry.  And still, the Chinese restaurants just don't seem to care about ambience. It's all about the food.

So all in all, it was an interesting experience. The city still feels like one that is under construction; they still have to deal with pollution. It has a good buzz, but calling it the Paris of the East may be a slight exaggeration.