Shanghai

Shanghai on a distance of only 6 hours with bus from Wuhu, is very different than Wuhu, but not so different as I expected it to be. Of course the city is far more bigger, crowded, richer, developed and international, which all together might make a huge difference, but apart from those differences, the city is still so Chinese. When I first got here I compared it to Hong Kong, but the difference with Hong Kong is a lot bigger in my opinion.

Shanghai might actually have more old colonial buildings than Hong Kong does, but despite those old European style buildings the people and the city’s atmosphere is so Chinese. There are quite a lot of foreigners here as well, but the difference with Hong Kong is, that here they all seem to be temporary residents or tourist, while in Hong Kong those other foreigners are also locals. Maybe people from Hong Kong disagree with me on that point, but if they live there for more than 20 years, they are just as local as anyone else who lived there 20 years.

There are probably some foreigners living for more than 20 years in Shanghai as well, but they are a very small minority. Compared to a cosmopolitan city like Hong Kong it’s nothing. The foreigners here look like lost expats or tourists like me, which is the same as anywhere else in China. Another big difference with Hong Kong is the attitude from the local Chinese towards foreigners, they don’t stare at you anymore like in the more remote parts of China, but they thread you far from equal. While in Hong Kong the locals thread foreigners the same way like in Amsterdam or London. In Shanghai foreigners are living in a different world. Certain bars are only visited by expats, while there are Chinese clubs who are only visited by wealthy Chinese and some lost tourists. It’s the same situation in other Chinese cities, but I guess in the city with the most foreigners in China it’s more visible. It also seems to be a rule that foreigners need to pay more here, while in most parts of China it happens more occasional. Shanghai is a bit more expensive than the rest of China, but compared to Hong Kong it’s still very cheap.

A disappointment in Shanghai was that they are busy with construction works everywhere, including the famous Bund, which made it impossible to walk there. A useless but interesting fact about Shanghai I heard is that at some point in time, 75% of the worlds construction sites where based here. I haven’t checked whether it’s true or not, but seeing them building everywhere in this city makes me believe it is. It’s impossible to walk here for 10 minutes without seeing a construction site. The new subway line in Amsterdam is nothing compared to this. Another disappointment has been the weather here, which was not very good. As good as every day it was cloudy with a few days some rain as well. Still it’s quite hot, so walking around in Shanghai is not so pleasant.

Ferrari on the Bund next to one of the many construction sites.

Despite the construction sites, the weather and the hawkers (Which I haven’t mentioned yet, but they are approaching foreigners everywhere here, which is a bit annoying sometimes) I had a nice week here. This afternoon I’ll travel to Hangzhou, less than 2 hours with the train and next weekend I’ll already be arriving in Xiamen. Time is going very fast.