Impressed by Shanghai

So here we are then. Tuckered out in Shanghai. 6.30pm and 28 degrees with humidity of 88 %. Steamy is what it is. We have been here for a couple of days and have had a good go seeing some of the sights. No shopping to distract us; we haven’t got room for stuff and anyway it is fairly expensive in the places we have seen. They are into conspicuous consumption in a big way; most obviously with cars. Today we counted more than 10 German cars go past before 1 Chinese one, and eventually a Japanese one.

We have mostly got the hang of the metro. Most trips are about 70 cents and trains are only a few minutes apart. We used a hop-on-hop-off bus yesterday and today to get around some of the sights. It is daunting being in a city this size but after a few days we are joining the dots up.  The population of Shanghai is 23 million but mostly we haven’t seen them all at once. Last night coming back on the subway from downtown there just seemed to be rivers of people going every which way.

People are very nice and helpful. A smile goes a long way. I think our (older) age helps. Plus they don’t see many foreigners on the subway. So we are a curiosity perhaps? You know those drop-down boxes on the internet where you have to enter your age? If you are old you have to scroll way down the list. The Chinese have reversed the concept. The top of the list is 1900 so the older you are the less you have to scroll down. Being older gets respect here.

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2 Responses to Impressed by Shanghai

  1. gay dornbusch says:

    I love the idea of the older ages at the top. I feel so very old wen I have to scroll way down to 1951. I can’t get my head around a population of 23 million. Love reading your blog

  2. Julia Davies says:

    So you managed to sneak onto FB

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