Shanghai, China ~ The Pearl of the Orient

My first trip to Shanghai was several years ago for business and I’ll admit, I was nervous.  It was my first trip into a country with a character based language and that intimidated me.  I’ve always been able to “follow” a Latin based language whether spoken or written but, Chinese?  Oh crap…how will I make my way around?  I can’t even “fake” this!  And while that is certainly true, I was well cared for during my first trip and it helped me to figure out my travel hacks for such a location in the future.  And for the record, translation apps are a life saver!

In any event, that very first drive from the Pudong International Airport (PVG) was a notable experience in scale.  While the airport is situated in the city proper, it’s about a 45 minute drive during light traffic to get downtown.  The first 20 minutes I didn’t really notice any high-rise buildings but after that, they were everywhere….and they continued to be everywhere!  What do I mean?  When I typically travel into New York City from any of the 3 airports, at one point you “see the city” from a distance.  Yes, it’s an island, but there is a definitive skyline that one drives up upon and its borders are clear.  Shanghai sneaks up on you and suddenly you realize you are surrounded by a volume of skyscrapers that is exponentially more in volume and size than New York City.  As in, waaaay more!  At one point I asked my driver, “how many people live in Shanghai proper”?  In a dry, matter of fact voice he said, “24 million”.  “What?” I said, “24 million?  In the city proper, not the Metroplex?”  He said, “What’s a Metroplex?” Meaning, yes, 24 million people have a Shanghai address making it the most densely populated city in the world.  NYC proper?  8.5 million.  All that to say, the scale of this city is difficult to comprehend until you have experienced it.

With Shanghai strategically located in the Yangtze River delta that spills into the East China Sea and subsequently the Pacific Ocean, it’s no wonder that the character set for the city’s name means “upon the sea”.  This positioning also makes it the world’s most busy sea port.  Remember my post on the largest seaport in Europe, Rotterdam?  Well, this scale makes Rotterdam’s port look like a quaint little marina.  It goes without saying, Shanghai is a shipping powerhouse!  And it’s this legacy that opens the doors to a variety of diversity in architecture through the port’s patrons.

You’ll witness a 50 story building right next to a traditional Ming Dynasty temple.  Walk through the French Concession and see distinctly French design, and on the Bund you’ll see Stalinist Russian design along with Hungarian art deco and neo-classic, along with uber contemporary.  It’s not the architectural lasagna of Rome, but its structures capture thousands of years of history with a progressive future.

It’s from this point that we begin a “best of” journey into the several years of visiting the “Pearl of the Orient”!  Even as I type this from my hotel room in Shanghai, I’m excited!  I’ve a couple of days of fun and “revisits” ahead of me and I can’t wait to share them with you.  In the meantime, check out this video of Shanghai from above in time-lapse.  It’s a fantastic “over view”…I’m saving my pictures for detailed posts to follow.

Next up…The Bund, day and night…