Paris of the East

It was only on my way back from Paris that I realised my visa for China was going to expire before the end of the month and so within a couple of days of landing back from Paris I was on a flight to the 'Paris of the East, otherwise known as Shanghai.



I came into town late at night and was overawed by the skyline. Shanghai was certainly a city of light with the whole Bund and Putong area alive with neon.

Beijing had been a bit of a backpacker weekend for me but i'd decided to lux it up a little for this trip and booked into the Peace Hotel on the Bund, a beautiful old Art Deco haunt of Hemmingway and Noel Coward. I had an enormous room (suite), with an even bigger tub and promised each night to treat myself to some of the best restaurants in town but during the day I planned to hit the city streets, walking and exploring as much as possible to see what the city really had to offer.

The difference between Shanghai and Beijing is stunning. Whilst Beijing has the Forbidden City, Ti'anaman and the Temple of Heaven everything else is being buldozed to make room for the Olympics. Shanghai in the meantime has gracefully morphed into a pulsating metropolis embracing both its past and future so whereas Beijing lacks soul, Shanghai has plenty of soul and character to go with it. Its possibly to be wandering through dark hutong alleys one minute and then pop out on to a teaming street lined with glass and steel skyscrapers the next. Its a city of contrast be it architecture, food, art, or fashion, Shanghai has some stunning examples of the best of the west and the east. At times I felt like I was in Berlin wandering through areas of old factories and storage sheds that had been converted into galleries and cafes. By night its was difficult not to imagine being somewhere in the US, Las Vegas perhaps thanks to all that neon, but then there are times that are most definitly Shanghai. Its difficult to describe but the city definitly has a vibe and you dont need to scrape too far beneath the surface to find it.


I'm going going to ramble on more but instead let the pictures speak for themselves. I'm not overly impressed with them (the grey weather didn't help) but I hope they'll give you a taste of this fantastic city. Slide down to the bottom of the screen for the link and take a look.



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