Hi y'all,
I visited the Shanghai 2010 World Expo as part of a delegation that promoted South African goods and services.
Amazing place with reportedly more than 22 million citizens at that time!
Since I live near Cape Town, a metro pole reported to have 3.74 million inhabitants in 2011, and occasionally travel into the city on congested roads and since by that time I've visited Johannesburg, Lagos, and Nairobi where traffic congestion were less than pleasant, the Shanghai figure concerned me Luckily, I had nor been to Cairo by then.
Allow me to digress for a second. I had the most amazing experience on the Cathy Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Shanghai (travel route was Cape Town-Johannesburg-Hong Kong-Shanghai). The flight is just slightly shorter than the 2 hours between Cape Town and Johannesburg, so the in-flight service follows a similar schedule and pattern. The only difference is the little less time available for staff to clear the cabin of dirty eating utensils. On that day we had the obligatory snacks and drinks and then lunch. Time was running short and before the landing announcement was made, the cabin staff started to carry out their collecting duties but, since the landing announcement was imminent, they also got people to put up their seat backs and put on their seat belts.
I watched with interest because I had nothing better to so and I was curious to see passengers' reactions.
There was nothing untoward from the first about eight rows of passengers to my deep disappointment. Then the landing announcement came, followed by what seemed to be the cabin staff supervisor. She spoke to the cabin staff busy collecting dirty plates and utensils in what sounded like Chinese or Thai. The cabin staff stopped what they were doing, and without further discussion, went to the first row of passengers and re-checked their seat belts and seat positions. This I found amazing. The cabin staff just went along to double-check something they had already done without further discussion. In my country, such a request from a supervisor would have elicited at least SOME discussion, if not heated argument. In the time that it took for potential discussion, the cabin staff uncomplainingly completed the supposed request from their supervisor and carried on with their duties. In our country, and many others besides, the supervisor's supposed request would have caused unnecessary and time-wasting discussion or arguments. This would have heightened ill-feeling between colleagues, would have created a bad impression of Cathy Pacific among the passengers, etc. Instead the Cathy Pacific staff handled the matter quietly and professionally! Well done!!
So as we descended further towards Pudong International Airport (Shanghai) on the first day of the weekend, I was more than a bit apprehensive about traffic. We were picked up with a midi bus and driven to our hotel in Nanjing Road. We were told the hotel was chosen because of its proximity to the trade fair site. The traffic was surprisingly light - in fact, I do not recall ending up in any traffic snarl-ups. The approximately 47km trip between Pudong International and the Portman Ritz-Carlton took around 40 minutes in a oldish midi bus! This surprised me but I notched this down to it being late afternoon on the first day of the weekend -most resident were probably attending sports gatherings at the time - in my reasoning!
Before landing in Shanghai, I had been to Moscow, Dubai, Paris and London, so I had some idea of shopping meccas but what I saw in Nanjing Road blew my mind! EVERYTHING was larger, MUCH larger! A case in point was the Shanghai skyline. I looked out of the accessible windows on the 30th floor of our hotel and in all four standard wind directions, the skyline was defined by high-rise buildings.
A walk through parts of the city though gave me some insight on how well the old and new buildings are integrated. Brand new high-rise buildings stood side by side with really old housing and small store units. These were interspersed with many small parks and walking lanes.
Obviously, everyone needs to go to the Bund when in Shanghai. I did not have the time for this exquisite trip - a four-letter word (work) interfered with my enjoyment. I however visited the restaurant at the top of the Hilton Hotel though and the 360-degree view at night was amazing.
The next morning after our 09:00 breakfast, we were herded together for a stand set-up trip to the Expo area. I was really excited because I was not yet over my surprise on the relative lack of road traffic. The trip, again in a midi bus, took 21 min and a few seconds which was quick for the approximately 20km in an urban area. I again notched this down to it still being weekend (people were probably in church or temple!). I therefore remained vigilant and was ready for our trip scheduled for the next first working day, and to be quite honest, I expected serious traffic jams! The next morning we left (again in our special midi bus) a bit earlier but I clocked the trip at just short of 22 minutes. I was emotionally shattered! No, serious traffic jams, REALLY??? I did not have an explanations for how we did not have a serious traffic jam in the middle of a city with a reported 22-plus million citizens. How do I explain this experience back home? or to anyone who have suffered in serious traffic jams.
The answer came to me fortuitously a few days later. I visited an industrial complex that manufactured space grade batteries, solar cells and space fuel tanks and my guide was a Chinese professional in his late twenties. We got talking and I asked him about his life, work and salary. He was married to professional in a different field and they lived in an apartment owned by her family. Their combined salaries were more than mine. The Renminbi, at the time, being relatively equivalent to the Rand. We travelled to the complex by taxi whereas, if we were in South Africa, we would have gone to similar places in my private vehicle.
I found this odd, so when I saw a high-end Audi parked at the complex, I asked after the price.
I then intimated that my Chinese companion could easily afford the car, to which he agreed.
He then said that buying the car (at a price slightly lower that that charged in South Africa for the same model), was not the issue. He said that he could not afford the annual licence fee the city of Shanghai levied on new (or newly acquired) cars and the penny dropped. I had my answer to the vexing traffic question. When I asked about motorcycles, he indicated that the same licence regime applied to them. I asked because unlike many other Asian cities, Shanghai did not seem to have a surfeit of motorcycles either. Puzzle solved!
One night my fellow South Africans and I decided to a nightclub about 25 min drive from the hotel. Some of them had been to Shanghai before and knew the place. I confess that at that time I had not been to a night club in a decade or so (effects of marriage priorities!). I was shocked to see children seemingly as young as 13 being allowed into the club and fully partaking in the alcohol and drugs culture that seemed to permeate the establishment. I saw this as a side effect of affluence. That part of China seemed seriously affluent.
I grew tired of the place after about 2 hours and left on foot for my hotel. I was a foreigner in a city that I did not know but I backed my pigeon-like direction-finding ability. After walking for about half an hour without incident though Shanghai, I became tired and waved down a taxi. I had a piece of paper provided by the hotel that explained in Chinese where I wanted to be. I was also told by my erstwhile Chinese companion that some taxi drivers cannot read standard Chinese but if I say P-O-R-T-A-M-A-N (POR-TAH-MAHN), I would be taken to my hotel without fail. So, I tried the 'portaman' option and was successful. Not even a hint of doubt crossed my taxi driver's eyes and we made the hotel within 15 minutes for the princely sum of 10 Renminbi (or Yuan). The taxi fare was another surprise but I did not have the opportunity to enquire about the petrol price in Shanghai.
So taxi travel in the middle of the night for me was safe, quick and cheap!
The only problem was we could not have any further conversation in the taxi due to a communication cliff.
I undertook to study Mandarin but was later told by locals that it may not be very useful. Apparently, regional and city language differences are so pronounced that the language spoken in Shanghai is colloquially known as Shanghainese and it is difficult to understand by Beijing residents and rural people. I tested this statement by speaking to traders and others about it and they confirmed the situation. One lady told me she was in Shanghai for about four months and that she still had trouble understanding certain references. She was originally from near Guangzhou.
Restaurants! Eating out in Shanghai is not expensive compared to South African prices. The restaurants close to the tourist route is a bit more expensive and when I wandered off the beaten track, some restaurants refused to serve me! This was seemingly because they served clients from specific regions of China. I picked this observation up by looking at the clothing and physical make-up of the clients at different restaurants. At one such regional had no qualms to serve me however and I bought a crumbed pork meal plus a 600ml beer for 15 Renminbi (Yuan). The food was filling and palatable but if you want to follow such an adventurous approach, make sure you have local currency since many of the smaller restaurants did not have electronic payment facilities - something to do with a heavy-handed and multi-level local tax regime?
In Shanghai I also went to Fong Kong heaven and saw many knock-offs at ridiculous prices. The Fong Kong stores were on Nanjing Road in a multi-story building.
A colleague went for a suit fitting 10 min from our hotel and he could choose whatever cut (including top class Saville Row) he wanted as well as a choice of material. He went before breakfast and picked up the complete suit that same afternoon for 240 Renminbi. Now that is what I call class service. Since my bags were full, I did not avail myself of this opportunity. I would recommend it to visitors, though. It is a ore conscionable option than to buy Fong Kong.
One night we were invited to attend a performance at the State Theatre were we were regaled by the smooth sounds Siyabonga Khumalo and company. They got us (South African contingent) dancing and singing, which surprised the other attendees, mostly Europeans, Americans and Chinese.
A curious thing happened when this performance was over and we left the theatre to go to our transport. Myself and a Denel employee was approached out of the blue by an American gentleman (by his accent it was clear that he spent a serious amount of years outside the USA). He offered his business card and told us that business in South East Asia is better facilitated by his company. If he had seen us at the trade fair stands, I would not have been taken aback but the timing of his approach was uncomfortable and raised suspicions about who he really worked for. Anyway, the Chinese were not immediately going to purchase anything from us, so I did not pay much further attention to it.
That was until later that evening. A group of male South African stallholders went to the bar at the hotel to have a drink and, as usual, it turned into a bonding session. Some of use then developed a need for the bathroom and I think I was the third to take leave of absence for this necessity. On the way to the bathroom there were swing doors leading outside to a walk ramp. When I finished, I bid farewell to the bathroom and as I walked past the swing doors, someone outside tried to attract my attention. I walked on but the gesturing became more insistent and eventually I turned to the swing doors. A lady outside tried to get me to go with her to my hotel room. Being suspicious of nature and with the earlier approach by the American gentleman fresh in my mind, I declined. When I returned to our drinking den I checked with the other two that went to the bathroom ahead of me, whether they had observed similar approaches and they answered in the negative.
Anyway, it is useful to be careful in a strange country and I urge travelers to heed common sense. Many people who never made it back home, did not pay attention to common sense or they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time - plain unlucky.
I did not explore Shanghai as I would have had it not been for work and this is my abiding reasons for wanting to return there as soon as circumstances allow.
I was there for one whole week though and on the way back we spent our early evening waiting time in Hong Kong sitting in a bar in Kowloon.
Travel to China pals. It has many rewards for the carefully adventurous!
Auf wedersehn,
Till me meet again,
A tout a l'heure,
直到我们再次见面
