Shanghai Trip - weekend!

China Day 7, Friday and we're off to Shanghai after class. We piled on the buses after classes and headed off. Once we got out of the city, there wasn't much to the countryside. There's a ton of farms, the occasional manufacturing plant, but not much out there. Apparently, 15 years ago or so there wasn't even this freeway, and the buses would share the dirt roads with the cars, carts, bicycles, motorbikes, and donkeys. We stopped at a freeway rest stop (yes, there really was a freeway rest stop), with a few food stores, tourist chotchkes, and bathrooms. We kept driving for 3 hours, the cars zipped by us and flew on the freeways. We hit solid traffic just outside Shanghai, and it was worse than LA traffic. Tons of skyscrapers, tons of cars, and the air wasn't pretty. It was exhausting just to watch. Almost four hours later we arrived. But there were big magnolia trees everywhere, which were lovely. And the buildings are just huge, and there are tons of skyscrapers.

I can see where cyberpunk came from, the city is just huge and kind of foreboding. It;s more cosmopolitan than Hangzhou, and more commerce heavy. There are European touches in the buildings and lots more foreigners. Instead of staring at us here, they try to hawk goods at you just about everywhere. The tour guide, Sunny, told us that Shanghai men were more desirable because unlike Beijing men, they cook and clean and help out around the house :-) The accent here is harsher and sharper than Hangzhou, definitely different.

We stopped at a law office, and apparently we were an hour or two late. We just toured the office and headed back to the bus. There were still attorneys working in the cubicle warren until well after we left. Shanghai in the Bund area and the new business area is rather nice. Outside the financial districts and tourist area (and the city is HUGE), it's more just tons of apartment buildings and little shops everywhere. There's just a ton of people who live here, and rush hour was just ridiculous. We were late for our dinner, but still god something to eat. Weird tourist buffet with french fries next to the chinese dumplings next to fresh fruit. But edible, and a TsingTao to drink.

Then it was back on the bus and off to the Chinese acrobat show. We arrived 20 minutes late and got to see the tissue climbers - they were graceful and lovely. Then it was a progression of balancing acts, jugglers, little girls balancing on 7 other people and doing headstands. Good show, and it amused me that the audience was almost entirely western tourists. The trees outside were now lit up with little lights with coverings over them to look like purple and white magnolias. They were beautiful, and the city was just gorgeous at night. Huge different from the dingy daytime, witht the signs and trees and roads all lit beautifully. We trundled back to the hotel, and I fell exhausted into bed.