19 Million People Can’t Be Wrong
I have to admit to bringing little enthusiasm to Shanghai. A couple of people had cautioned me about the pollution and crowding, and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be too excited about this city. I was wrong.
Shanghai’s population of 19 million makes it one of the ten largest cities in the world. We all take for granted to numbers and rankings presented about “city size,” but even a little digging shows that there’s a high degree of arbitrariness around what actually is a city’s “population.” We talked a couple of postings ago about Chongqing, China, which claims 32 million people, but that encompasses a very large geographical area (think, Los Angeles). So a city’s population is subject to differing definitions, and rankings will shift accordingly. But almost every list of the world’s biggest cities includes Shanghai, and there seems to be little doubt it’s China’s biggest city.
The first thing that struck us about Shanghai was this round yellow sphere in the sky. In most of China, the haze had obscured the sun, but Shanghai’s air was good . . . at least by China’s standards. And, even though we were there during China’s national holiday week, and it was unusually crowded, it was a fabulous place to visit, and a world-class city.
Someone told us that, in visiting China, if you want to understand its past, you need to visit Beijing. And if you want to understand China’s future, you need to visit Shanghai. One glance at Shanghai’s skyline underscores that insight.
The first thing that you can’t miss is the sheer size of Shanghai. It’s massive. And mostly very new. Unlike Beijing, it appears that architects were actually involved in designing some of the newer buildings. Several were breath-taking, and in aggregate it makes an indelible impression. If you love big cities (we do!), you’ll love the feel of Shanghai. A must stop is the Urban Planning Museum, which gives a history of Shanghai’s evolution, and has a great model of this giant city. This model seemed bigger than a lot of the cities we’ve been to!
Shanghai is this interesting mix of the old and the new. In the shadow of the new skyscrapers is an area called the Bund, along the Huangpu River. BTW, Shanghai lies on this river, about 40 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean and not on the near-by Yangtze. The Bund in the early 1900’s was the center of foreign enterprise in Shanghai, and the architecture looks far more like an older European city than like noveau China. Foreign enterprises were forced out after the Communist victory in 1949, and many of the buildings are now occupied by government offices, banks, or have become historical or tourist sites.
We also took a trip out to an ancient river town, Zhujiajiao, which reflects simple and elegant Ming and Qing dynasty architecture. You get around the city through a combination of quiet stone streets, and canals with boats powered by boatsmen. We had lunch at a great Ming Dynasty private residence that is now a museum. The kids spent time feeding goldfish in a pond, and nearly grabbed one for lunch! Nothing like Goldfish Sushi!!
We went to the Shanghai Museum, which has a world-class collection of ancient Chinese jade, hand-carved furniture, and bronze. We had a great visit to this museum. But our visit was also fairly brief (about an hour). One challenge to our trip for us is that we could spend ten hours a day visiting museums, temples, cathedrals, and shrines of various sorts. We have put a limit on the number we’ll visit in any week, and and how much time we’ll spend in any given site. Given that we’re traveling for over ten months, we’re concerned about “museum burn-
out” and have organized our schedule accordingly. So I’m sure we missed many interesting things at the Shanghai Museum, but we had a great time there, learned a lot, and got back outside to watch some of the kites being flown over Shanghai!
.
Our Shanghai highlight was an evening at the Chinese Acrobatic Show, which had act after act which we just couldn’t believe. These performers were so acrobatic, it often took our breath away — whether it was juggling with 100 pound ancient Chinese vases, or balancing on a large (20 meters in diameter) spinning steel wheel blind-folded, we just loved watching them. I managed one picture (no flash) and probably risked spending the rest of my life in jail to do it, but wanted to capture the show’s energy.
A not-quite-highlight of our Shanghai visit was the Opening Ceremony of the 2007 Special Olympics. We did get a chance to meet some of the event’s organizers, as well as athletes from Canada, Ireland, and Chinese Taipei. We tried to get tickets to the opening ceremony, which were harder to get than Red Sox - Yankees tickets. We came close (too long a story), but ended up watching the opening ceremony on television (the first time we have watched television on our trip). Elizabeth and I kept saying, “Oh, it’s probably better that we’re not there live. There are 80,000 people, it will be jammed, and our kids wouldn’t get home until too late.” But we both know we would have LOVED to have been there live, and even on television it was very inspiring. Given that historically China ignored its handicapped (believing a handicapped child was somehow punishment for a family), so it was inspiring to see the Chinese Government and its Special Olympics contingent showcased, with over 600,000 Chinese participating in the games across the country. China is changing, and it’s changing fast.
We had another really fun baseball outing in Shanghai , and it was great to meet some college students in Shanghai who share our enthusiasm for this great sport. There were about fifty college students playing at a university in Shanghai (East China Normal University), and — despite having no real field to play on — they brought lots of enthusiasm and energy to the game. See my http://ted.dintersmith.org/2007/10/04/baseball-in-shanghai/ posting for more about this fun afternoon!
We left Shanghai for its airport, and got there through its Maglev train. The train operates entirely on electro-magnetic forces (no wheels, no mechanics) and peaks out at a speed of 431 kilometers per hour (267 mph). I couldn’t help but think how great it would be to have this same train (based on German technology) running from Boston to Washington, instead of continuing to limp along with Amtrak.
For our slide show from Shanghai, check out
http://dintersmith.phanfare.com/album/394279/603184#imageID=27977720