Shanghaied Bob: House Guests in Shanghai

One of ME's best friends Peggy and her 2 daughters visited us last week. They picked the best week so far this Spring. The weather had been nasty, raining half the time with temps in the mid 40's to low 50's. On the second day of their stay the weather changed to sunny with temps between the mid 60's and low 70's. The day after they left the weather changed back to overcast, damp and temps in the low 50's again. They really lucked out.

Having never been to China I was interested in doing a survey with the girls upon their arrival. I wanted to get an idea of their preconceived ideas of China, how they pictured China based on what they have seen and read, and what expectations or concerns they had of China and Shanghai. Unfortunately it never happened but we did have a discussion the day they left and here are some of the highlights of what we talked about. Their only exposure to China was being in Shanghai and a day trip to Xian.

In general we talked about how many people live here, in many sections of the city there were overwhelming crowds of people. Plus the Chinese have a different idea of personal space and they seem to talk louder which I think adds to the intensity of the crowds. For me there is a lot of activity here almost everywhere you go, you find the hustle and bustle of many small shops or stalls that line the streets. These business spill out onto the sidewalks and common areas displaying the goods or servers being sold. Many business are merely a cart or the back of a van. You will always find not just a few but many people either doing their business or going about their business in the streets around Shanghai.

The girls thought there would be more people riding bikes. There are roughly 5 million bikes, mostly used by the poor, in Shanghai. Over the last few years there are about a million less bikes. Now that the working classes are making more money, they have turned in their bikes for electric scooters or are riding the very impressive metro system. Becoming more aware of their earning power, there is a need to commute less and work/earn more. Even though Shanghai has a superior bicycle infrastructure, I think riding in the streets with all the new cars and new drivers makes safety a concern for many.

They thought the people were very friendly, nice, attractive, were very stylish, and seemed very happy and positive. They thought the people did not seem oppressed, compared to the impression we are given of life in China back in the US. We know Facebook and many google searches are blocked, including this blog, but the average person doesn't seem to feel any injustice by this. When it came to the car traffic the overall comments were unorganized, unusual traffic flow, and lots of honking of horns. It is said that the Chinese drive their cars the way they would ride a bike. They did comment on the air pollution, the week they were here, there were at times readings in the unhealthy and very unhealthy areas.

They were very impressed with Shanghai, commented on how big it is, how the infrastructure was incredible, how nice the parks are. They thought there would be more construction sites and the sky filled with cranes, but much of Shanghai, at least around our neighborhood, has been built up. They really liked the architecture of the many modern buildings, The Bund, and Shanghai skyline. They thought, for how big the city is and the number of people living here, that it was very clean.

I think, they had the best time going to the markets; the fake markets to buy gifts, the fabric market where they each had several articles of clothing custom made, and to ME's secret purse store where they all got new handbags.

Shanghai is like no other place in the world and in certain ways I think not an entirely accurate representation of how China really is. Shanghai is a the leading edge of China's development, it is vibrant, exciting, on the move, very forward thinking and is quite to adapt to all things new.

It was a pleasure to have them and we are glad they took the opportunity to come to Shanghai to visit. Below are some misc pictures of there week here.