After several hours of watching Jet Li kill men with acupuncture techniques I arrived at a massive structure of steel beams; it was a brand new airport - obviously built quite recently, and actually not in my guidebook at all, as I had brought with me the same book I brought to Beijing in 1998. I was stamped in and stepped out, into LAX. Wait a minute.

That ever-so-familiar Asian easy listening music spilled through the airport's corridors, and the floors were squeaky clean, and outside at the bus stop it could have been anywhere in the first world. This felt nothing like my Beijing trip, had none of the hangers-on wandering around the outside of the airport. Incredibly clean, with brand new buses. I bought a ticket and hopped on, the lone white man again, and we headed down an ominously massive highway, almost completely empty, into Shanghai city.

I felt overwhelmed as we wound up and over the ocean of buildings below us, and off in the distance, a mass of futuristic towers. It felt like a cross between Bladerunner, Gotham City, and a moon colony. It was almost an hour by the time we finally wound down through the overpasses and back onto ground level, where I began heading west - looking for the ancient colonial area called "The Bund", which apparently is more reminiscent of the USA in the 1920's than anything Chinese.





It took half an hour until I saw some strange bright lights off to my right; I had been wandering on a side-street of a main thoroughfare called Nanjing Lu, which I would soon find out was Shanghai's commercial centre, and a major evening strolling spot for Shanghai's middle class - a middle class that is far larger than its poor, or its old communist relics. In fact, Shanghai in 2001 is far away from Communist China in almost every sense - but not so far, as officers are always visible amongst the crowds.








And suddenly - plenty of foreigners - not only white people, but black people, and some from India. Shanghai boasts a large population of travellers and expats doing business. I was also approached by plenty of english-speaking Chinese men inviting me into "Gentleman's Clubs". I politely declined.
The experience was overwhelming at first, but continuously dazzling. The neon lights, more spectacular than those I had seen in Hong Kong, because of their order and grandeur - a mark of the communist system I suppose. The size of the thoroughfare as well, at well over a kilometre, is something to behold; it takes a decent half hour to walk from start to finish. Capitalist China - an emerging middle class. Who would have thought. But yet, it's true, as Shanghai leads the communist society in opening up to the world.






I finally found the bund, nicely lit and filled with people - weaving along the side of the pearl river, and across on the other side, the Pudong New Area, a massive region of huge buildings that did not even exist ten years ago. Its landmark is the Orient Pearl Tower, a structure that dazzles in day and evening, and probably has caused a little bit of concern for China's enemies as its function as a radio and television transmitter may also conceal another function - I wonder.






I had found an old colonial hotel with dorm beds, and an atmosphere that more than made up for its grunge and decay - old wooden floors, a beautiful colonial foyer, and of course beggars outside trying to sell me whatever they had in their pockets. To bed I went, receiving my receipt on that ever-so-thin government issued paper, interested to see this city in daylight.

Shanghai City, Daytime



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