SHANGHAI
by Lawrence Ferber
The cityscape
of Shanghai resembles a Jetsons toy set: sleek, shiny
buildings with sloped, curved, or pointed roofs, and
bubble-topped antennae, jutting into the sky. You expect
tiny flying saucers to appear at any moment. In fact,
there is what appears to be a flying saucer landed atop
one skyscraper—a round, 1960s B-movie style UFO,
windows encircling its lower half. Of course, the iconic,
1,500+ foot high Oriental Pearl Tower, a sky needle
skewering a trio of giant globes, colorful light displays
whirring around their midsections each evening, appears
to be the alien invaders’ command post. This isn’t,
however, a cartoon set or extraterrestrial settlement.
It’s Shanghai, China’s thriving, futuristic
metropolis. That flying saucer, incidentally, is a rotating
restaurant/bar atop the Radisson New World hotel.
Like in Beijing, Shanghai’s sister in rapid urban
growth, buildings are sprouting up at a breakneck pace.
Cranes and bamboo scaffolds are everywhere, and sparks
illuminate steel-and-glass works-in-progress, while
an extensive subway system hurries towards completion
underground.
This futurism is echoed in fashion, food, and progressive
social attitudes—at least in comparison to the
rest of Mainland China. There are quite a few gay-owned/friendly
bars, cafés, and restaurants in the city, as
well as a substantial number of foreign expats living
and working in Shanghai (I’ve heard estimates of
100,000 Westerners alone), and a handful of English-language
magazines exist for these residents and tourists. Best
of the lot are City Weekend and That’s Shanghai,
with their trendy feature articles and comprehensive
LGBT-inclusive listings of events, new restaurants,
and every resource under the sun from real estate to
dental offices to kid’s activities.
The US dollar’s relative sturdiness against the
Chinese Yaun Renminbi (typically abbreviated as RMB
or CNY) makes Shanghai an economically favorable destination,
and that space age architecture, famously depicted in
recent films like MI:3 and the Fantastic Four: Rise
of the Silver Surfer, never gets old.
Split by the Huangpu River, Shanghai
is divided into two sides: Pudong (pronounced poo-dong)
to the east, and Puxi (pronounced poo-shee) to the west.
The Oriental Pearl Tower anchors the Pudong side, while
the major tourist/sightseeing strip, The Bund, lies
on Puxi’s bank. You can get a view of how both
city sides will appear in 2010, when the World Expo
will take place, by visiting the sprawling miniature
city at the Urban Planning Center.
Embodying the international influence that has long
distinguished Shanghai, a major port for Western trade
since the 1600–1800s, The Bund is lined with beautiful
examples of European architectural styles. Indeed, the
buildings here used to house European, American, and
Japanese banks and financial institutions. Nowadays,
a number of super-chic (and expensive) developments
with high-profile restaurants, shops, spas, and other
indulgent and opulent attractions, reside within.
Besides several observation areas of varying heights
(and admission prices), the Oriental Pearl Tower in
Pudong features one of the city’s coolest museums:
the Shanghai History Museum, which allows you
to literally step into recreations of Shanghai’s
past, from life-size reproductions of city streets and
swinging 1920s bars, to scale model versions of apartment
blocks (with nifty video projections of people going
about their business inside the windows).
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One crosses the Huangpu River via an underground traffic
tunnel, the Shanghai Metro, the Bund Tourist Tunnel shuttle,
bridges (located quite out of the way), or by boat.
The expanding Shanghai Metro is much like Hong
Kong’s in its layout and operation, except during
morning and afternoon rush hours when riders abandon all
pretense of politeness and mercilessly push and crush
one another into/out of the cars. Conveniently, you can
buy a rechargeable “stored value” card that
can be used in all methods of transportation, including
taxi, by touching it to an electronic sensor.
Taxis are plentiful and extremely cheap, about $1.50 for
the first four km, making it the number one choice for
tourists. Don’t, however, get lazy about walking,
lest you miss the constant stream of bizarre, random sights
like elderly men walking backwards because a doctor told
them it helps rheumatism, people selling baby rabbits/hamsters/chicks
from tiny cages strapped to their bicycles, as well as
numerous hole-in-the-wall alleyways and parks that contain
untold surprises.
One practical note about walking the city’s thoroughfares:
unfortunately, at present, Shanghai is a major destination
for the world’s most aggressive beggars and con artists.
Tourist areas, especially People’s Square/Nanjing
Road East, are jammed with Chinese of all ages and
genders who approach you, smiling, with a “Hello,
how are you, where you from?” and selling everything
from watch/handbag/clothing knockoffs to a sexual rendezvous.
If you ignore them, they may follow and even physically
grab you. Best strategy is to utter a firm “Boo-yow!”
which roughly translates to “I’m not interested.”
As for the super-friendly Chinese claiming to be tourists
from some other province, this can be the pretense for
a rather despicable scam wherein they take you to a bar
for drinks/chat and when the bill arrives—for you
to pay—it costs around $100.
None of this rabble will bug you on the stretch of
Changle Road between Maoming Nan Road and Donghu Road,
which is lined with cool clothing boutiques. The nearby
Shirt Flag sells awesome shirts, bags, and notebooks emblazoned
with zany pop art subversions of Maoist-era propaganda.
Incidentally, there’s a compact guide to the city’s
best boutique stores called inshop, available at Shirt
Flag and bookshops.
When it comes to clothes shopping, Shanghai is best known
for its tailor-made copies of designer goods. You can
bring a magazine photo or item you want copied to the
famous Fabric Market and they’ll duplicate
it for you at a fraction of the original’s cost.
You can even have custom tailored shoes made at Mr.
Billy’s, so be sure to have photos or an old
favorite shoe in hand.
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