The Pearl of the Orient

A little bit of excitement. A little bit of apprehension. A little bit of nervousness. A little bit of curiosity. And a whole lot of sense of adventure. It was with that mixture of emotions that I boarded the China Eastern Airlines flight from Delhi to Shanghai, embarking on a week long trip to the city called by many as The Pearl of the Orient.

Most of us have only heard about life in China. Very few have been lucky enough to see it firsthand. And the stories and the images that have emerged of this rather mysterious country, synonymous with communism and government atrocities such as Tianenmen Square massacre, have made it sound even more forbidding. But exotic. As exotic as the image of India is in the western eyes!

Looking out of the airplane window as we approached Shanghai, I didn’t quite know what to expect. Would I see green hills and mountains, with people climbing walls and fighting on the rooftops like in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Or would I see a roaring metropolis with concrete highways and tall buildings? Well, apparently neither! For that matter, nothing at all. Just a yellow haze of thick smog all around, through which I could barely discern the brown fields and yellow paddies of water. Hmmm.. perhaps we were still too high to be able to see the ground clearly. Or maybe not. Within minutes, the plane landed, and the haze diminished only slightly. Apparently, the sun never shines very bright in Shanghai, given the smog that envelops this city of millions.

Overall, my nervousness had only increased in the last few hours. Little did I know that I was in for a pleasant surprise.

Pu Dong airport was very clean and modern. Except for the presence of a foreign script on all the signs - it was my first time in a country where I did not speak the native tongue. However, Shanghai gets a lot of international visitors, so every sign was in English as well. Getting through immigration and customs was a breeze. We were out on the highway in no time and looking at the traffic, I thought, ’’Hey, this ain’t bad. I would have no problem driving here.’’ Of course, I had not yet seen the city traffic - this was just the highway connecting the airport to the city.

On that highway, however, I had my first encounter with Maglev. Running alongside the highway was this elevated structure which looked like a monorail track. But I saw no monorail. Until a few minutes later. Whooshhh!!! Something on that elevated track zipped past us and was gone in the blink of an eye! What was that???? Well, logic says that must have been a train. But all I saw was a blue-green blur. Unfortunately, the cab driver spoke only Chinese, so I had to wait until I met my colleagues in Shanghai to find out what it really was. But, more on Maglev later.

The hotel I stayed at, The Royal Crown Plaza, was very modern and comfortable, like any luxury hotel in any big city. Service with a smile was a motto they followed religiously. A continental breakfast (not included in the room price) was quite sumptuous. The waitresses in their slit grey skirts looked smart. And the bell boys loved to show off their knowledge of English! Really.

Later that day, my colleague in Shanghai took me out to show me the sights of the city. Cab service in Shanghai was very good and organized. But you better have the address that you want to go to written in Chinese. For the cab drivers did not speak English.

A short ride from the hotel brought us to the People’s Square. (China is a communist country, after all. Every thing is for the people, about the people, by the people! For example, their currency, Yuan, is commonly called Renmin Bi, which translates into People’s money!) By now, I had seen enough of Shanghai city traffic to conclude that I would have no chance of survival if I were to try and drive here myself.

Stepping out of the cab into People’s Square brought me to another realization. I was in the most populous country of the world. There were people everywhere. And I mean, everywhere. I felt like I was right back in India, walking down the busy Brigade Road in Bangalore on a Friday evening, jostling the crowd! Except that the people were not Indian. And they did not speak English. Most of them were rather young - teens and twenties. And not just in People’s Square, but almost all over Shanghai. I guess, the average age of the people in Shanghai must be somewhere in the twenties, owing to ample job opportunities springing up all over the city. Just like Bangalore.

People’s Square also had the Shanghai Museum, which could have been interesting to check out if I had enough time. I did not. So I gave it a skip, and instead took a walk down Nanjing Road - one of the primary shopping locations for tourists. Shops were modern and clean. But everything was up for haggling. Clothes, jewellery, trinkets, mementos. Everything. Rule of thumb: offer about a third of the asking price to begin with. Shopkeepers, in general, did not understand English. But they understood the numbers in English. And that’s all you really need, to haggle!

Nanjing Road, leads to perhaps the most breathtaking part of Shanghai - The Bund, the riverfront along the Huangpu river, a branch of the famous Yangtze, that flows right through the city. We climbed the paved walkway between the river and Zhongshan road and I got my first glimpse of the river. It was yellow. Just like the water paddies I had seen from the plane. Pollution, perhaps?

Young people hung out everywhere. Walking along. Hand in hand. Arm in arm. Some with cameras. Some without. Some in larger groups too. Across the river were a bunch of high rise buildings. All with big signs of big companies - Motorola, Intel, Sony, to name a few. The corporate Shanghai. And rising tall among those buildings was the famous Oriental Pearl TV tower - the most well known building of the Shanghai cityscape.

The way to get to those buildings was through the Tourist Tunnel under the river. A round trip train ride through it cost 40 RMB (approx 8 RMB to 1 US$). The glass cabin on rails slowly rolled through the tunnel decorated by various types of flashing lights making intricate patterns and creating cool stroboscopic effects on the walls and the roof. On the other side of the river, we walked among the high rise buildings, marveling at their architecture. Each one had a unique facade, some very captivating. And we walked up to the Oriental Pearl tower and stared open mouthed at it. Eiffel tower, you have competition.

The Bund at night was quite breathtaking as well. Each building was brightly lit, some very imaginatively such as the one with a large golden crown. And there was so much life at the Bund. Out on the river were cruise boats with lights and music. A fog rolled in from the east. And the top of most of the high rise buildings were soon lost. Would you expect to find a romantic spot right in the middle of a crowded city? Well, this sure was one.

Dinner time found us at a Buddhist vegetarian restaurant. Imagine my astonishment at finding chicken, beef, shrimp, and other assorted non-veg dishes on the menu. My host couldn’t suppress a chuckle as he explained to me that all dishes were made of vegetarian stuff such as mushrooms and tofu, just made to look smell and taste like a non-vegetarian entree. Hmmmm... Well, ok. If I wanted to eat something that tasted like meat, I would go eat meat. But, I guess for those people who drool over meat but can’t eat it for medical or religious reasons, this was a good compromise. Needless to say, I didn’t care much for the food. Other days, I tried different types of cuisine. Buddhist vegetarian. A little taste of authentic Chinese food, which was a bit too authentic for my non-Chinese palette. Authentic Chinese tea made from dried flowers. American food such as Pizza Hut and McDonalds. And even Indian! Yummy!! If you are adventurous, you can have a great time. If you are conservative and like to stick to tried and tested cuisine, you will face a substantial challenge. On the positive side, no tip is expected or recommended in any restaurant. Not just in restaurants but everywhere. The concept of a tip is non-existent in China.

Shanghai is an old city. So, naturally it had old city areas as well. One such area is the Yuyuan Garden. A walk through the old town was a beautiful experience. Traditional chinese architecture, exotic decorations, brightly colored lanterns hanging above the road. And not much of a crowd. If you want to buy chinese silk, this is the place to do so. But don’t forget to haggle!

The week flew on by and soon it was time to leave Shanghai. And time to try out the Maglev - the magnetic levitation train. First of its kind in the world, the Maglev in Shanghai had only recently been opened for general transportation. I was agog with excitement as the train slid out noiselessly and slowly began to gather speed. A display in each coach showed we were already up to 100 kmph and still accelerating. Soon, we were whizzing past the cars on the highway. 200 kmph. The cars had no hopes of keeping up with us. 300 kmph. We were just about ready for take off. 400 kmph. Cars going in the same direction seemed as if they were travelling in the opposite direction. Telephone poles were barely visible. And the buildings were flitting by like they were being chased by demons. The speed maxed out at 430 kmph that day before it began to decelerate. In a couple of minutes the airport terminal was visible and soon we pulled in and smoothly coasted to a stop. And I stepped out of the train, still a bit incredulous that I had actually travelled at a speed of 430 kmph in a train!

Back to reality. I lugged my bags to the check in counter. Signed a declaration that I was in perfect health with no symptoms of any SARS virus. Paid airport tax. And joined a long queue of people going through customs. Just like Indian international airports departures! But it wasn’t too bad - the queue moved fairly quickly.

Soon, I was airborne again, and staring down at the yellow waters of the Pacific ocean off the coast of Shanghai. Gosh, not only the field paddies and the river were yellow, but even the sea was. About half way to Japan the ocean turned to its expected blue color. And I suddenly remembered Geography lessons in high school. Yangtze river, along with Huang He - the yellow river - is known for its yellow waters. Its not pollution. Its the color of the soil in that area. All the silt the river was ferrying into the Pacific ocean gave it that color. Light bulb moment!

And I stared back in the direction of Shanghai for one last time, and softly hummed the classic Bollywood song:

Mera naam Chin Chin Chu,
...
Singapore ka yauvan mera, Shanghai ki angrai

Goodbye Shanghai. I hope to come visit you again one day.

(Originally posted on MS on July 24, 2004)