Despite my Cantonese-Shanghainese roots, I've never been to Shanghai before. Until now. My parents have been there a number of times, Jane as well. They tell me that five years ago, the skyscrapers on Pudong weren't there. That a decade ago, the Bund was already as elegant as it is today. That I wouldn't have been to China if I hadn't experienced Shanghai.

It's a funny city. It is unexpectedly modern, yet not totally so. It is old and dirty and messy, but it has its own draws. Even along the same street, modern architectural wonders can sit side-by-side shabby alleyways where people hang their clothes on trees to dry. It's a city of people and bicycles. There's the police, but there's no law. Anything goes. It's safer to cross the roads when the red man is on and the vehicles travel in one direction, than when the green man comes on and cars, bikes and cycles come at you from both directions. New estates and properties are so grand, they make Europe's royal households seem ordinary.

When we went, the weather was more horrid than London's. Drizzles, mist and crowds everywhere. When you could hardly make out what was on the other side of the Huangpu River, visibility was considered 'good'. The same miserable fog greeted us in Hangzhou, where we stayed for a few days. An ancient Chinese saying goes "in the sky there is heaven, on earth there is Hangzhou and Suzhou." Hangzhou in winter is not exactly this scene of beauty... there is no colour there... all's carpeted in a sheet of mist. Ancient Chinese charm, you could call it. Like the paintings.

Hangzhou's famous Xihu (West Lake)

West Lake in the mist

West Lake by night

Qinghe street bazaar

Qinghe street bazaar at night

Ducks hung out to dry

Streets of Shanghai

Woman selling nuts

Shanghai Old City

Shanghai Old City

Looking down at the atrium of Grand Hyatt hotel

The Bund

New year mini-fireworks

posted by Husky @ 1/05/2006 11:43:00 AM  |