Shanghai!

Last week was the summer holiday here, called obon. Traditionally, this is the time people return to their hometowns to honor their deceased ancestors. Gen and I decided to go to Shanghai. Above is the Oriental Pearl Tower. It lights up at night and looks like something Walt Disney dreamed up.

Some things I liked about Shanghai:

1. The architecture. It was a cool mix of European, Chinese, and space-age skyscrapers. That's the view from our hotel room.

This is a building on the Bund, the former English-occupied area. Unfortunately, it was under construction so we couldn't get out and walk around. The World Expo is being hosted by Shanghai next year, so pretty much the whole city is under construction.

Here's a traditional Chinese-style building in the Yu Yuan Gardens.

2. Navigation is easy. The city is laid out in a grid pattern and all the street signs are in English and Chinese. And there actually are street signs. Vastly different from Tokyo. Check out the bamboo scaffolding on that building!

3. The French Quarter. This was a cute little pedestrian-only enclave with shops and cafes. I love outdoor cafes. Tokyo could use some more!

4. Our hotel was really nice. The concierge was super helpful in helping us find some good Shanghainese restaurants (that had English menus!).

5. They have actual Diet Coke. None of this Coke Zero nonsense.

6. The prices. Everything was much cheaper than Tokyo. A bottle of water in a vending machine was something like 14 cents. Of course, the hotel minibar still charges $7 for a soda. Nice to know some things are international.

Things I did not like:

1. The traffic. You have no idea how scary it was to cross the street. Traffic signals are more like gentle suggestions that no one pays attention to. There are hundreds of mopeds and bikes that will zoom through any color of traffic light. Gen had to hold my hand and pull me across the street because I would freeze like the proverbial deer in headlights.
2. It's dirty.

3. It's smelly. People leave garbage out on the streets in overflowing containers. And the heat is insane. It's subtropical with 90% humidity. Makes for very stinky streets.

4. It's definitely less safe than Tokyo. I have no problem walking around Tokyo alone anywhere, at any time of day. Shanghai was just more seedy. Also, many people are definitely not very friendly. We just got the feeling that they wanted our money.

5. Communication problems. Wow, very little English is spoken. We didn't have a problem at the hotel, but no taxi drivers speak English or read Roman characters and even most of the restaurants we went to didn't have any English-speaking staff members. So it was a challenge, to say the least.


Overall, it was a fun vacation, but I don't think we need to go back to Shanghai anytime soon.