The Glitz And The Glamour of Shanghai

If Beijing is the husband and Xi’an is the wife, then Shanghai is the very modern son/daughter. So our tour guide, Sophie, tells us.

I couldn’t wait to get into Shanghai. Just driving into the city limits was getting me all excited, what with the insane and vertigo-inducing elevated highways and the UFO shaped Shanghai South Railway Station.

We started our day at Pudong, Shanghai’s newly developed business and residential zone, where we surveyed the surrounding futuristic and modern buildings like the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Jinmao Tower, Shanghai World Financial Centre and the Shanghai Tower.

The iconic Oriental Pearl TV Tower is Shanghai’s most recognizable building. Completed in 1994, it stands 1,500 ft tall and houses the Shanghai History Museum.

Photo: Climate Security

The Jinmao Tower used to be the tallest building in China at 1, 379 ft. Known as the Golden Prosperity Building, it’s shaped like a pagoda but comes to a sharp point, and resembles a pen. Funnily enough, the curved roof of the attached exhibit hall is the book and the Haungpu River is the ink.

The tallest building in China right now is the Shanghai World Financial Centre. Opened in 2008, the 101 story building stands 1,614 ft tall. The skyscraper resembles a bottle-opener standing up and is home to the world’s highest hotel, the Park Hyatt Shanghai.

But that’ll come to an end soon, as the Shanghai Tower will soon succeed it in 2014. Upon completion, this super tall skyscraper will stand 2,073 ft high and have 121 stories.

Here’s some fun facts and insights from Sophie:

* There are 25M people living in Shanghai. 16M are local Shanghainese + 5M are migrant workers.

* Beijing and Shanghai are called first tier cities. Wuxi, Nanjing, Suzhou & Hangzhou are 2nd tier.

* Separated by the Haungpu River, Pushi is west while Pudong is east.

*  Streets named after cities run east-west. Streets named after provinces runs north-south

* That’s not smog. That’s fog. The air quality in Shanghai is one of the best in China.

* At 430km/hr, the Maglev (magnetic levitation train) takes 7 mins 23 sec to the airport.

* There are 60K (!) cabs in Shanghai.

* Like Hong Kong, there’s a bidding system for license plates, with prices going north of 90K RMB.

* Only cars with local license plates can drive on elevated highways. Everyone else have to drive street level.

* A metro line is being built to connect to Suzhou and Hangzhou and will be completed by 2020.

* Boozing in Shanghai is strongly encouraged. Even at work. With the boss. In fact, getting a job over your competitors can come down to if you can drink. For those who can’t drink, they can hire someone to drink on their behalf. Coat that stomach with raw eggs or milk!

* Business men prefer BMWs because to them it stands for business, money and women. (for the poor people of Hangzhou, BMW stands for bike, metro or walk)

* Shanghai women like to date men who have BMWs. To them, it stands for ‘be my wife.’

* The one-child policy doesn’t apply to couples who marry and are both only children. They are allowed to have 2 kids. Rich people can have more than 1-2 children, but they’d have to pay 30K RMB for each child.

Despite having already been to a Pearl Centre, we were taken next to the Ziyuan Pearl Jewelry Exhibition Centre, which is the biggest pearl centre in Shanghai. Specializing in China South Sea pearls, as well as, freshwater and saltwater pearls, the centre even has its own pearl farm. No presentation, just shopping at our leisure.

I even bought something too! A necklace with 3 black freshwater pearls and a matching black pearl ring. I haggled and was prepared to just walk if I didn’t get a good price for both, as I only really wanted the necklace in the first place. The salesperson was highly motivated to meet her sales quota for the day, although she did tried unsuccessfully to get me to meet her in the middle. So I scored a deal for both for 500 RMB (about $80 CDN), instead of 800 RMB. (about $133 CDN) Haggling win!

I asked Sophie about the aggressive sales tactics and she disclosed that these tour packages we’re on are sponsored by the state. That’s why it’s affordable (for us) and why we get so much bang for our buck.

On that note, the government is hoping to recoup some of their investment by us spending madly at these stores they take us. I asked if the tour guides get in trouble if they don’t make their quota and she admitted that sometimes they’re reprimanded, but it also depends on which city they’re working from.

We were then driven to the City God Temple, located in the old city. You’d think it was just a temple, but you would be wrong. Surrounding the temple are a hundred shops with fanciful roofs and the quaint Huxington Teahouse, with its zigzag bridge to ward off evil spirits. (cuz they can’t turn corners!) I love that the entrance is on a street called Fangbang Road. Sounds like a place sexy vampires would congregate at.

We were given an hour to walk around before meeting back at the Honey products store, for what else? A tea ceremony. At this point, why even bother? It was eating up valuable shopping time on Nanjing Road if you ask me.

And when we finally got to Nanjing Road, we were only given an hour to walk around before heading to dinner and an evening cruise. An hour to cover the world’s longest shopping district at 6 km!

Nanjing Road is broken up into 2 parts: the west side is more exclusive, with designer shops like Cartier, Louis Vuitton etc. The “shoppers’ paradise” is definitely the east side, with its department store, retail stores and hidden from view shopping malls.

For me, it was just a chance to get my bearings in this “Chinese Las Vegas” atmosphere. I would have 2 more days in Shanghai to explore, so I went wherever my mom wanted to go to.

Dinner was close to the Bund, so we got to be awestruck by the spectacular lights of Pudong’s modern skyline, while standing on the river promenade.

Tip: Better take those pictures before 10pm because that’s when the lights of Pudong and the Bund shut off, in the efforts to save electricity. Can you imagine the cost? Must stagger the mind.

Signs that you’re a tourist: upon boarding the cruise boat, you run to the top deck to secure a place for taking pictures. The one hour trip on the Huangpu River would have you see the historic waterfront at the Bund on one side, and the modern metropolis that is Pudong on the other.

A couple of pics of the Bund, which was the heart of colonial Shanghai:

Beautiful, right? And a wonderful way to end our tour. Mom departs for Vancouver tomorrow morning and I’ll be making my way to Chengdu. After 10 days touring China and getting a sense of the country and the people, I’m feeling confident and comfortable at the thought of traveling by myself.

View more photos of my trip on my Flickr album.