Shanghai Baby

As we walked the streets we were greeted everywhere by a "sea of humanity". Over the years, I have heard or read this phrase on dozens of occasions and always thought I had an inkling of what the phrase meant. I was wrong, at least until last Friday night on the Bund in Shanghai. We arrived at Pudong/Shanghai International Airport on Friday in the early afternoon. The waiting areas seemed abandoned as we exited the plane and made our way to the luggage area. We found ourselves the only passengers in a massive hall where we were greeted by eight huge, empty carousels. At that moment, I casually thought to myself that I had expected Shanghai would be busier than this. Our luggage arrived quickly and we made our way through the airport to the MagLev Train station.

The MagLev would shuttle us to the closest subway station. We virtually had an entire car to ourselves. We quickly got up to speed. Did I mention that the MagLev reaches a top speed of 450 kph? I took a moment to send a high speed, 450 kph text to our colleagues in Harbin. As we sped past cars on the adjacent freeway, they seemed to be going backwards. As quickly as the train got up to speed it slowed down and we arrived at the subway stop in under 8 minutes. The subway car was nearly empty and we were able to get seats. We had three stops to reach the one nearest our hotel. At the next stop we found that station a little busier but the last stop before ours was very crowded and our car quickly filled to capacity. As we neared our stop we fought our way to the door in preparation to disembark. As the car rolled to a halt and the doors opened, we were greeted by a mass of people anxious to board the car with no time or patience to let people off. I know now how a salmon feels trying to swim up stream. I grabbed Nonie and we pushed our way through the crowd. It seemed like all the riders in all the cars were leaving at this stop. We just let ourselves be pushed along trusting the crowd knew where they were going and would deliver us to an exit. With memories of having Nonie's purse pickpocketed as we departed a subway station in London, we clutched our belongings securely as we flowed through the station.

We were eventually spit out onto East Nanjing St., a busy pedestrian shopping street in central Shanghai. It took us a few minutes to get oriented and find the correct direction to our hotel, about a ten minute walk away. We took a few hours to relax in our room before heading out to see the sights.

Our hotel was only half a block up from the Bund. The Bund is a street/quasi park that runs along the Huangpu River and stares across to the Pudong District of Shanghai. The Bund was the Wall Street of old Shanghai with most of the buildings built in the 1930's and where fortunes of the robber barons were made and lost. Across the river is the Pudong New Area. The area did not exist eleven years ago and is now home to some of the world's most stunning and possibly most gaudy architecture. The panorama that you see behind Nonie and I is only a small part of the view and has only existed since about 1997 and later.

We found the Bund completely dug up and under construction. A eight foot wall had been erected between the sidewalk and the street and the river. We could barely see the skyline of Pudong over the fence. We turned right, looking to find a break in the construction so we could cross the street and reach the riverbank for a clearer view. The complete renovation of the riverside along the Bund had been started about two weeks before we arrived. It is scheduled to be complete in time for the 2010 World Exposition that will be held in Shanghai next May 1, exactly a year from the day we arrived in Shanghai.

We eventually found our way to the extreme end of the Bund where we found a hotel with a nice and virtually empty deck overlooking the river and Pudong. We grabbed a table, ordered a drink and prepared to watch the sun set and the lights of the Pudong skyline appear as darkness fell. It was stunning to watch as the faces of huge highrise buildings were turned into giant video screens. I kept losing track as I tried to count the number of floors used for showing these advertising videos. Vegas has nothing on this show.

Drinks done, we strolled back towards the Bund, hoping to find another break in the construction that would allow us to get a different view of Pudong skyline. As we moved deeper into the Bund, the crowds grew in every increasing numbers. Five blocks later, with no break in the construction in sight, we found ourselves being pushed along buy a "sea of humanity". It just sort of happened. We really did not notice until we decided to turn around and return to our hotel only to find ourselves facing a wall of people all heading in the opposite direction from the one we wanted to go. As we were close to a cross street, Nonie and I decided to fight our way to the corner thinking that once we got off the Bund, we could move more freely. This thought was quickly dispelled as we turned the corner only to find thousands more visitors streaming down the street, drawn to the Bund and lights of the Pudong skyline. It was a bruising return to our hotel.

This was our introduction to the beautiful and exotic city of Shanghai. A scene that we would face a few more times as we explored this city of 17,000,000.