So this weekend, I had the pleasure of going to Shanghai to get my Octagon Core Fitness training from IHP. (Will write more on this later). While I had been to Shanghai before, it had been almost a decade since the last time, and given how fast things are progressing in China, I was really curious as to how the city would look.
My first impression coming in is that it looked more like Bangkok than Tokyo; but that was just from the drive in. Once in the city, the sky line was really impressive and for lack of other words, colorful. In Tokyo and Seoul, the streets are packed with neon signage and as such, are mega-bright and colorful on the ground. From the highway however, it looks super clean, but conservatively black. Shanghai is the opposite; the streets themselves are pretty drab (and actually really similar to Beijing), but the skyline is more the high octane; the tops of buildings all seem to have different color lights on them; and the skyscrapers themselves often illuminate in different colors.
Also like Beijing, the local housing leaves a lot to be desired from the outside, but is super clean and nice on the inside. I guess that’s a Chinese thing? (I’ve also noticed the same thing in Taiwan).
The air was still not as clean as Tokyo; but way better than Beijing, and even Seoul. Then again, I may have just lucked out while I was there. I kept getting a runny nose if outside, but I couldn’t figure out if that was from the air or the cold.
It was also really safe in the same way that Beijing is; and equally, super dark at night. I guess this was another marker as to how safe it was. If there is no one around to hurt, rob or steal from you, then there is no reason to leave the lights on everywhere, I guess? The subway was bi-lingual, comprehensive, and really easy to manage, so that’s a good thing, I guess. Like a lot of temperately warm places (like Tokyo as well), the insides of the homes are comparatively cold in the winter (compared to Michigan homes for example) but overall, it was a really nice place to visit. Pretty much the only issue that presented difficulty is the fact that China blocks pretty much all western SNS services (FB, Insta, Twitter, etc), and any and all things Google related. While I used a VPN to get around this, it was frustrating that you have to either pay for it, or find a "free one week trial" just to use google maps. A minor grievance, but something that could be an issue for others nonetheless.
In terms of people, I found pretty much everyone to be friendly, honest and helpful. A marked difference from the last time I had been to Shanghai about a decide ago. (At the time, I had heard that Shanghai people were the rudest in the country and it really seemed that way). It may be a function of my own maturity as well; or it may be the that that in general, with it’s exponential economic growth, China is undergoing rapid cultural evolution as well. In any event, it was just really nice; and a sharp contrast to experiences I had had in the states during the past two years. (Although admittedly that was much better the last time I was home as well).
In any event, given all the cities I’ve been to just the past year (Manila, Beijing, Seoul, Bangkok, Banff, etc), at this point, I feel really comfortable going pretty much anywhere on my own. New or not, foreign-language based or not, big cities are big cities, and one great benefit of the amount of travel I am doing is that I feel like I can pretty much show up and “plug-in” to any of them. At the same time, I am very very much looking forward to getting back to Tokyo and having a bit of time where I just don’t have to go anywhere, and can spend some much needed time with my little guy :)
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