Shanghaied!!! The City(s) - Part 1

Got back from my family's 7 day vacation to Shanghai China on Saturday night. Twas a pretty good holiday experience. Well technically the holiday wasn't in Shanghai cause we were travelling all over the place.

We started in Shanghai, went to Suzhou, Wuzheng, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Wuxi and back to Shanghai in that order. That's a lot of travelling, we spent about a day in one place and then moved on to the next. The only hotel that we stayed for more than one night was when we got back to Shanghai and had about one day of sightseeing followed by one day free-and-easy. Surprisingly this holiday was a very leisurely one despite the travelling. It was well planned and not rushed at all, so far there were not significant hitches or setbacks. We didn't spend that much time on the road as well...with bus rides averaging around 2 hours (except the bus trip from Nanjing to Wuxi which took 4 hours).

Here's what I observed or have to say about the trip:

The Country:
Well, China has grown A LOT the last time I've been there. That was about 10 years ago when I went to Beijing with Mum and Grandma. Back then Beijing was crummy and dusty and pretty much backward, pretty much what you expect of a third world country. Shanghai is VERY developed, and several times the size of Singapore. And I'm pretty sure that the development that has occurred in Shanghai has been translated to Beijing as well.

Shanghai is one thriving, bustling megalopolis. Expressways and flyovers this way and that. They have flyovers that I estimate are 10 or more stories high and they crisscross in a complex network. Our dear Benjamin Sheares bridge is puny compared to whats over in China. They have expressways with 4 lanes going in one direction. We only have about 3 at most. In fact most of the time my tour spent driving around China was on expressways and its partly due to the highly developed road and expressway network that we could get from one place to another quickly. We also took a ride on the Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) train in Shanghai. This train did 370km/h when we were riding it, and that's not the top speed. It wasn't rush hour so they were conserving the electricity needed to power the thing for later, when a faster speed is needed to accommodate rush hour. This train is even faster than the Bullet Trains of Japan. The ride was slightly jerky (side to side), but smooth and quiet (any noise was due to wind noise).

The cities themselves have come far. High rise skyscrapers, bustling business centers, neon lights (the Shanghai skyline is especially brilliant at night). They were also surprisingly clean and quite green. Gone is the dust and grime of old. Shanghai practically looked like a massive version of Singapore! You walk down Nanjing road (Shanghai's equivalent to our Orchard Road) and you'd think you were still in Singapore...except every thing is in Chinese and they have neon lights...and the cars look older and somewhat more dustier.

Some of the older cities were a bit more rundown. Nanjing for example. Do note though that Nanjing used to be the capital of previous Chinese dynasties so the city is really OLD. Old Nanjing (historically within the city walls of the previous Chinese dynasties, these ancient walls still exist) is kinda shabby and rundown, has a very aged and grimy look to it. Of course modern Nanjing looks like Shanghai with lesser skyscrapers and high rises.

However, my favourite part of the trip was when we get to spend one night in a Chinese water town in Wuzhen. Imagine Venice...but with a Chinese flavour and you get a rough idea of what its like. The town is under conservation, so there are no residents. For the most part its a tourist and historical attraction which the Chinese authorities and conserving and rebuilding. Its mostly still unfinished which was whats so good about the place...its quite and peaceful. Narrow stone alleys, bridges spanning the water, and quaint old wooden houses clustered together and next to each other. All quite idyllic. To get to the town you have to take a short boat ride. And all the boats have no motors! One guy steers the rudder at the rear in a motion like a fish tail, and two guys in front use really long bamboo poles to push (against the riverbed) the boat along and maneuver. The Water town is mostly a facade though, beneath the wooden, quaint, old buildings lie posh and comfortable modern hotels, stores and restaurants. Most are still being built though. But the place doesn't lose its charm.

The thing about the itinery is that we got to see both the new and old face of China. You compare and contrast the modernity of Shanghai with the old world charm (Chinese style of course) of a Wuzhen water town and the natural beauty of the immense Xihu (West lake) in Hangzhou. Its quite surreal and strange, but the Chinese seem to pull it off quite nicely. I also ought to mention that the Chinese authorities had a hand in the conservation efforts of such heritage sites as well.

I stated in my previous blog that I went to Shanghai to see how much China has developed. Suffice to say I was not dissappointed. I am more impressed that the Chinese have taken painstaking efforts to conserve their history and heritage. To juggle the drive to modernity with historical conservation is a difficult act, one which, some argue, Singapore is having trouble doing? Doubtless, the Chinese seem to be managing it all quite well.

They really ought to do something about all that pollution though...