We check into the Asset Hotel, a unremarkable but clean 2 or 3 star job, and are happy with the extra space and anonymity, and promise we will do nothing in Shanghai…Yea, right.
Wicked Shanghai it ain’t. More like Blade Runner takes Asia. The contrast in the poor and the glitter is jaw dropping. We do our rounds of 5 star hotel washrooms, some of which are still smoke and toilet paper-free, and recall how 20 years ago Chinese weren’t allowed into foreigner hotels. Now they own and stay in them.
We take in 2 Chinese movies on huge screens (the Message, and Wheat—the former is fabulous). The act of not walking or talking is wondrous. The theatres offer multi-coloured popcorn, grilled chicken breast, lasagna, Haagen Dasz and sparkling seats and service. We think of staying longer in Shanghai but are pretty sure we can’t handle the propaganda movies.
We discover Taikang Rd, an artist colony in an area of old tenement houses cloistered around narrow alleyways and passages which used to house revolutionaries and the working masses. Now pocket-sized cafes, working studios, locals fill these haunts. Trish buys a stone necklace for $16, I get off easy.
We find our burger. It is from heaven. The California-based owner Dennis and his local wife Mei, tell us he imports all the ingredients from NY. He decries the work ethic of the Chinese. Yes the plebs who are working hard to survive, work hard. All others are indifferent. For example, nobody strays from doing more than they have to or want to do. The lowest ranked, least paid bureaucrat is the one who most likely can, and will screw you. He is a wealth of hospitality and information as he steers us up to the bar in the New Hyatt Hotel. Its glass and steel lobby is the size of an aircraft hangar. The 34th floor Vue Bar overlooks the maw of the Huangpu River, with the space-age Pudong district to our left, and the Bund to our right. The bar has a small outdoor jacczzi on the rooftop and swim wear is listed on the drink menu for purchase. We’re not ones seduced by lights and glamour, and still prefer the narrow cobblestoned alleyways of old China. But this is hypnotic. There must be 20 buildings higher, much much higher than ours, many with whole sides of their buildings lit up like video screens. Our martinis cost more than our dinner, but that is the price of the view.
On our last full day we struggle our way through the crowds at the Shanghai Museum. Like the Beijing Capital Museum, and the Suzhou Museum, they are ultra modern. Combining elegant and clean glass, rock and steel forms, they wouldn’t look out of place anywhere in western capitals. But these are shaped like historical objects, in this case a drinking vessel. The bronze and coin collections are superb…deftly arranged and lit.
Everybody had said Shanghai was a place to miss, that it is like any other western city in many respects. We don’t agree, but we don’t lament leaving after 4 nights. Much of it is under construction as it awaits EXPO 2010.
Best meal…the cheeseburger topped with spicy mayo, bacon and fried onion strips.
Next stop…the 2500 yr old city of Suzhou.
