Shanghai
I suppose China is one of the few countries in the world where one can have culture shock during a domestic trip. During my first two or three days in Shanghai's French Concession, I felt much like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. We're not in Kunming anymore, Toto.
That Shanghai is big needs no more comment. Nor that it is expensive- I felt like a country bumpkin when I audibly gasped at the price of a whiskey cocktail I had at a trendy bar. What struck me as most impressive about the city was the individuality of its businesses.
This might require further explanation. In Kunming, as in most Chinese cities, quite a lot of the businesses one encounters on the street have an ersatz quality. The various å°å–部, 兰州拉é¢,过桥米线, and other joints all resemble each other and have little discernible special qualities. It's as if Kunming's city planners conceived a Platonic ideal of a snack shop, replicated it a thousand times, and distributed them throughout the city.
In Shanghai I noticed that every little shop, or restaurant, had individual characteristics, much as they do in San Francisco and Paris and Istanbul.
Then again the cumulative effect of Shanghai is that you feel like you could be anywhere around the world. I seem to think a Westerner could be transplanted into the French Concession, given a wad of 100 RMB notes, and feel utterly and completely at home. I recall in Beijing wandering through neighborhoods that were unmistakably Chinese, while in Shanghai these proved elusive. For me, as a person very much at home in China, this felt unnerving.
Then again Shanghai has the hustle and bustle of a city that knows it's world-class. The subway system is fantastic- clean, fast, efficient, comprehensive, and affordable. Even the taxi drivers seemed to have a degree of professional polish occasionally lacking in places like Kunming.
Yet I wonder if in a way Shanghai hasn't reverted back to its pre-revolutionary days as a playground for the international elite; a place whose back seems firmly turned against the hinterland behind it. I got a few looks from people when I mentioned that I lived in Kunming- like a visitor from the stix who wandered into the big city.
Nevertheless, as I sat with my perfect orange juice, coffee, and burrito breakfast one morning overlooking the city I felt a distinct sense that any city that can provide this, in such a setting, is alright by me.
