This past week I had opportunity to attend a tech conference in Shanghai China with a few of my co-workers from TCIS. What a beautiful city! I simply can't believe how modern and clean it is in Shanghai, especially in the financial district (east of the Huang Pu River) where our hotel was located. The air quality isn’t all that wonderful, mind you, but the city itself blew my expectations out of the water! If I was to take all the bikes and street vendors off the 4 lane landscaped boulevard by our hotel, I would swear I was in a new development in an Atlanta or Austin suburb.
were a few of my first words when landing in Shanghai. Felt like I was flying into an airport back in the 1960s when we would board and debark planes on the tarmac – no covered walkways into the terminal here! Even saw Air Canada and United Airlines planes as we were bussed from our Eastern China jet to the main terminal which were welcoming familiar sites in a foreign land!
Throughout my stay in Shanghai, I found both ultra traditional and ultra modern elements of the city working side by side... and this contrast started right at the airport from debarking the plane to boarding the fastest train in the world! When we found out the Maglev could take us downtown, we decided to give it a try. Imagine, traveling at 430 km/hr and covering 30 km in only 7 minutes and 21 seconds!
For a city of 18 million people, it sure didn’t seem overly congested even along the river walk by the Huangpu River and East China Sea. This stroll along the water reminded me of similar walks in Vancouver, enjoying the coffee shops, restaurants and gardens as we took in the views of harbor life. Of course there was yet another Starbucks at the harbor front but, much to my chagrin, I couldn’t order a Chai Latte there - or anywhere in China for that matter. The staff at coffee shops wanted to sell me Green Tea Latte but I just couldn’t make the leap from my favorite =) What is a person to do?
The number of bicycles and pedestrians and cars and buses and carts and mopeds that share the same road is really quite mesmerizing. I noticed a definite rhythm of traffic here. Forget the dotted lines on the road (not quite sure what those are for) because everyone, and I mean everyone, weaves in front and behind one another constantly. If you’re moving, you’re weaving... and often within inches of each other.
Click on this photo to enlarge and check out the Mercedes waiting for the cart to pass...
Along most every street in Shanghai I found vendors selling everything from fruit to kites, city workers cleaning the streets with straw brooms along with others using carts to transport people and produce. It was fascinating to observe the street life of China past only now with some of the most extraordinary architectural buildings and perfectly manicured public parks lining the same streets. A few of the postmodern structures within our view included the Oriental Pearl Tower, the Aurora building (which has the largest video screen I've ever seen right on the face of the building) and the famous 88 story Jin Mao Tower. Just to 'drive home' my traditional-modern point (pardon the pun), the guide books say the Jin Mao Tower has 7,500 bicycle parking spaces in addition to its vehicle parking!
