A TRAVELER’S PERSPECTIVE

Shanghai was an open city, exercising its right to freedom like no other place in China. But it was not to be for long. Corrosive vice and indulgence stained the city’s soul. During World War II, Shanghai was occupied by Japan and foreigners fled the wounded city. Shanghai’s 101 years as a treaty port reached conclusion. In 1949, Communists declared victory over Nationalists after a 3-year civil war and the People’s Republic of China was born. As China sealed itself off from the world outside, Shanghai, the Paris of the East, fell silent. The city, met with famine and drought from 1950 to 1980, served as the catalyst for the Cultural Revolution. But for Shanghai, it was darkest before dawn. In the early 1970s, with the Revolution raging all around, Shanghai hosted the historic meeting where Premier Zhou Enlai and President Richard Nixon signed the Shanghai Communiqué. This pact galvanized the U.S. and China to stabilize is relations and opened the door to foreign investment. Like tycoon Victor Sassoon of the heyday, Shanghai now brings magnates such as Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone to its doorsteps. Shanghai is dotted with posh shops and malls, like Plaza 66, which is empty of customers and largely for show. You can find the Japanese department store chain Isetan there as well. Shanghai sports Starbucks, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Papa Johns, and McDonald’s. People flood the streets, absorbed in their cell phones while entertainment billboards loom above them. Coiffed, gum-popping princesses cavort in fancy labels, fake or authentic, who knows?

A Few of Shanghai’s Gems

As I write, older buildings are being torn down in the Pudong/Lujiazui district while new ones are quickly being erected. Pudong (means East of the River) is Shanghai’s 21st century commercial hub, where visitors will find the stock market building, the Oriental Pearl Tower, and Jinmao Tower. The Oriental Pearl Tower is hard to miss, resembling a vertical shish kabob spearing a series of spacey, disco balls-on-steroids. You can take a panoramic view up to 350 meters of its 458-meter structure. If my dreams of a thriving metropolis were laced with cotton candy and steel, it would probably look a lot like the Pudong area. Construction is constant in Shanghai. You could smell the movement and almost see the change before it happens. That’s why my visit to Yuyan and Old Street was comforting. Yuyuan is where ancient charms still break through time and space, where preservation is standard practice. I stayed longest there, and I took the time to visit the many different vendors. Old Street had the Shanghai folklore I wanted see.

My hotel’s street ran parallel to Nanjing Road, whose long pedestrian walkway is lined with shops and the crowds consist mostly of Chinese from other cities. Nanjing Road takes a dramatic change in appearance at night, when it’s lit up with seemingly endless hypnotic neon lights. On the other side of Nanjing Road is the People’s Square, the political and cultural hub of Shanghai. Among the museums that reside there is the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum. Impatient visitors will miss the 6,400 square feet planning model of Shanghai, located on the third floor of the museum. The planning model is the largest of its kind in the world, and gives a glimpse into what is hoped to be by 2020. Planned is the Flower Bridge esplanade, being constructed for the Expo that will reach over the Huangpu River.

I heard friends in the U.S talk about the Bund in Shanghai before my trip was planned. The Bund’s Zhongshan Road is lined with neoclassic buildings of foreign investment and financial companies. Notable is the Peace Hotel, formerly the Sassoon House (Cathay Cinema is another one of Sassoon’s holdings in Shanghai). I spied its Shanghai Night Bar once night while I waited for my friend to get his haircut there. You can get a view of the late Sassoon’s penthouse from the top floor of the hotel.

Dining can be a hit or miss, as my friends who reside in Shanghai would say. The places I enjoyed the most were Element Fresh, serving largely American cuisine, in the Shanghai Center, Jingan district; the chic Thai Gallery is a notable, with impressive Thai dishes and presentation; and we emptied sake bottles and Asahi beer at Tairyo, a Japanese restaurant in the Luwan district. For 150 yuan, you get all you can eat teppanyaki (note that one U.S. dollar will get you approximately 7.938 yuan).

Massages are key in Shanghai. You will easily find parlors and spas throughout the city. The Chinese view massages as medically therapeutic, not as an indulgence. This was echoed deeply in my masseuse, who tried her best in broken English to convey to me that my neck and back were in bad shape. Massages typically start at 60 yuan (and going up to 960 yuan for the higher end, full spa packages) and there are clean places as much as not-so-clean ones.

Shopping is a happy place in Shanghai, if you can manage the crowds and aggressive hawkers. Everything can be up for negotiation and you can have a lot of fun with it.

Dongjiadu Lu Fabric Market in the Huangpu district was a paradise for some of my friends: custom made clothes with 250 vendors selling fabrics from cashmere, silk, to leather. All prices are negotiable, communicated via the universal language of the calculator. It was smart to go to this market in the a.m., avoiding the crowds.

Qi Pu Clothing Wholesale Market in the Zhabei District is stacked with vendors selling shoes, jeans, bags, shirts, and jewelry. Most of the merchandise isn’t the highest quality, but you will be able to find bargains (even before negotiations) and cool stuff.

Shanghai’s active nightlife pulses with trance music and a diverse crowd. Clubs like Babyface in the Luwan district to O’Malley’s Irish pub in the Xuhui district keep the party fires lit until dawn. I was taken by the M on the Bund, where patrons are treated to an incredible view of the Pudong skyline. For those who want to be reminded of a little of Hollywood nightlife, Guandii in the Luwan district is a flashy hotspot, opened by a trio of Hong Kong celebs. If you’re on a budget, watering hole Windows Too in the Jingan district offers 10 yuan drinks and hip hop music blaring over a crammed dance floor.

But I preferred the light of day to the nocturnal playgrounds of Shanghai. I decided to get dropped off by the taxi in an area not on my destination list. I wanted a departure from the tourist maps and guides telling me where I should go. Shouldn’t it be more about where I ended up? So I did in an area where overhanging trees and wrought iron fences brought back memories of my thankful visit to New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina had broken the city’s heart. The heavily leaved trees also brought shady reprieve from the Shanghai sun. Here, I realized I was probably seeing the influence of the French Concession (Luwan and Xuhui districts) where White Russians once called home. Shanghai surprised me yet again, revealing something familiar and unexpected in one motion.

Navigation

Pedestrians do not have the right-of-way in China. Scooters and bikes fight for street space with autos, creating a dangerous mix of traffic. Take caution when crossing streets; try to stay on sidewalks, and keep your ears open for warning honks and beeps. A man ran into me on his bike as I was about to make it safely onto the curb. He contemplated me for a moment while I contemplated the raspberry wound left on my ankle by the bike pedal. I limped back to my hotel while he furiously pedaled further down the sweaty, clogged road. I’m a Los Angeles motorist and I still found the experience disturbing. But I forgot about it quickly, as I once again became conscious of the humidity and heat that clung to my skin. Note to self: pack some cotton handkerchiefs next time. Shanghai is a great city for walking but taxis are a must in order to traverse districts. Taxis are always around, so you’ll always spot a cab anywhere you’re at in the city. The starting rate is 11 yuan. One day, I depended solely on cabs, jumping from district to district. I thought I was being clever in employing a strategy of sitting in the front passenger side of the cab (more intimate than sitting faceless in the backseat), and showed the driver my list of destinations (written for me in Chinese by hotel staff. Hotels will have cards with destinations written out in Chinese and English. These are a must when navigating with taxis since cab drivers don’t typically speak English).

Shanghai has 3 subway lines (9 more to come) and I found them fairly easy to navigate. Ticket machines are also in English, with fare starting at y2 to y4. All hotels should carry subway maps that detail all stops.

Unreal City

In the street beggars, nightwalkers, hawkers, and laborers with skin singed by an unforgiving sun, I saw hints of the old vices, raw like an open wound. Poverty was there in the old Shanghai, like shadows among the lit metropolis of decadence and wealth. But was the decadence the real shadows? Lower-class Chinese were always used as a cheap labor force and that is still there in today’s Shanghai. Like every great city with an achingly amazing history, Shanghai is struggling through ideals and a historic governance, mapping out big dreams of power and prestige with its Nationalistic might, all the while trying to fade the stain on its soul. This beautiful city is at play with the tragic and fortunate. So which fate will it choose? Like the masked opera illusionist I saw at the Sichuan restaurant, we all want to be good quick change artists—able to shed our unwanted skin but allowed to return to the past we left underneath in order to face a brave future. Shanghai is no different. It calls to the souls of expatriates and native Chinese alike, for each their own to make mistakes or capture glorious destinies. Shanghai was made by its beautiful, often violent and traumatic past, and we’ll see what it makes of its future. Leave it to those close to us who know exactly what we need to see.

My dearest had said to me with a mix of encouragement and exasperation at my slowness to experience: “Get out there.” Travel to Shanghai is just what I needed in a time of question marks. Once again, I’m set into motion. I’m out there. And there’s no going back.