On the Road: Coming Home
Source: me
I’m on the plane in Hong Kong, and we’re just about to embark on the 15.5 hour flight to Toronto. I hope to be able to sleep most of the way. But I do want to write down some thoughts of Shanghai – what I liked, and what I did not.
I’m glad I had as much time there as I did. 4 days in Beijing, and 3 days in Xi’an was feeling a bit rushed to me, and so 6 days in Shanghai allowed me to see and do a lot, and give me the extra time to get to know the place a bit.
Beijing, for me, felt like an old city. I stayed next to the Forbidden City in the center of the city, and there was a lot of history there. As I described, stumbling into a garden that was actually hundreds of years old, you could feel the history in almost everything there. I did not really get to experience the new modern parts of that city. I was far from the subway, so I don’t even know what it looks like!
Of course, Xi’an is an old city that doesn’t feel like one. The place was called Xi’an even 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000 years ago, and people had been known to inhabit the area for 6,000 years. The city wall, the bell and drum towers, all are showcases of that history. But most of the city feels new, with its bars and shopping malls. Blocks of 30, 40 condo buildings being built all at once. A giant nuclear power plant on the outskirts of town.
But Shanghai is something else. You may stumble across some history in the middle of the city, but its not a city of historical tourist attractions. Shanghai may have had it’s heyday in the 1920’s and 1930’s, when it was a movie making capital in China. There are certainly historical places like The Bund, and through various building architectures that suggest an early 20th century feeling. And yet, a lot of the really giant skyscrapers have only been built in the last 20 years, and more are going up. Shanghai is becoming, or is, the economic capital of China.
The subway has 13 lines, although once did I really got lost in there. It was generally very easy to navigate, and even buy tickets through the automated machines – thank you to whoever added an “English” button to those kiosks! But I had made a couple of faulty assumptions about my destination, and then compounded the error by going in the wrong direction for a while until I looked up and said, what am I doing here? Up til then (and even after) I had the subway down pat, no problem.
Shanghai can suffer the same problem as Beijing sometimes, as it might be difficult to get a taxi on a busy day. In fact, I think for the first time in my life (or certainly the first time I remember), I was stuck in a taxi that did not move for more than 15 minutes. Literally stuck in the same spot on a road that had 2 lanes in each direction, and not moving an inch in that time. I think the Chinese propensity to enter intersections on a red light was the problem, as I am sure the traffic on one end of the street was blocked by some drivers being stuck in the intersection and the same thing another block over (and me in the middle).
The busy-ness of the taxis caused me to make what was, in hindsight, probably a terrible decision. Every once and a while a motorcycle will come by, and ask me if I wanted to go somewhere as I am standing on the side of the road trying to flag a cab. One night I had plans to go out, and was waiting what seemed like a long time for a cab (probably 10-15 minutes in reality) and a motorcyclist came by. OK, here’s the address, take me there. I should have known something was up from the start, as I kept pestering him for a price, and he kept insisting I just get on. Back and forth, how much, just get on, no how much, no just get on. 5 minutes of this, and we finally settle on a price. Basically it was 3 times a cab fare for the same distance, but there were no cabs (supply and demand). And 3 times a $3 cab far is still a pretty good deal for a Canadian when you really want to go somewhere and you’re stuck.
The ride was perhaps the scariest of my life. We drove in the oncoming traffic, squeezed between cars and buses and did not stop for even a single red light. I’ll say this, the guy got me there fast (which was a good thing), but doing 90 kph in the oncoming traffic lane straight through a red light is probably an experience best left for “once in your life”. OK, scratch that one off the bucket list.
The funniest thing was when it came time to pay him. The fare we agreed on was 70 yuan – $10. I pull out the cash, and of course he says “dollars”. Ah, no. I’m not paying you 70 dollars. He literally refused to take the money and insisted on 70 US dollars. Yeah, that’s basically a non-starter. The Chinese, with all due respect, are very persistent at trying to squeeze you for a few dollars more. Well a deal is a deal in my book. So after quite a bit of bickering, I forced the 70 yuan into his hand, and was off to the club.
The nightlife scene was perhaps the funnest part of the trip for me in Shanghai. I’m not much of a club goer back home (that is, not at all). And I was able to find a club that was free to get in, had good music, had good people (met some neat folks there), and the drinks were cheap ($15 for all you can drink). I almost wanted to go to different places and visit different clubs in different spots of town, but when you have fun one night, why risk it by doing something different the next. So I ended up going there night after night.
So the trip is over, and I am only left with the photos and memories of my time there. I am sure by the next time I will be able to go back, China will be very different. That’s the one thing about a rapidly growing culture, it’s never the same from year to year.
I enjoyed China. I would love to talk to people who are thinking about going there, and share some of my experiences and tips. Stay on your guard – this isn’t like a trip to New York. But let yourself have fun. China is a wonderful place, with a ton of history. Well worth putting on your list of places to visit.
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