Highlife in Shanghai

Special guest writer Fran returns for the latest instalment…

If Beijing was buzzing then Shanghai was positively pulsating! Our arrival in this humongous city (18 million inhabitants) coincided with the opening ceremony of the Expo 2010. The city had evidently been primed for the occasion with streets lined with flowers, volunteer guides available on every corner, English translations everywhere and a general feeling of welcome for the huge numbers of tourists expected over the next 5 months - which was all very convenient for us!

Green space amongst the massive skyscrapers which dominate the horizon

Our first port of call was the main pedestrian shopping street taking in the first department store to ever have an elevator. The number of people in the street rivalled Oxford Street in the run up to Christmas. Apparently this volume of people was normal. Inevitably, McDonalds, Starbucks and KFC were on every corner ready to feed the shoppers. Our tour guide advised us that the average Shanghai woman has a mobile in one hand and her credit card in the other – no third world poverty here then!

The Shanghai shoppers

That evening an amazing firework display was scheduled for the opening ceremony of the Expo (apparently even bigger than the 2008 Olympic opening ceremony) and it appeared most of the residents of Shanghai expected to be able to view it from the city. We headed to The Bund – a bit like Embankment – along with a billion excited Chinese folk to grab a viewing spot. Sadly, after several hours of waiting, we only heard some bangs and saw the sky light up in various colours over the top of the skyscrapers. It appeared a lot of people had been misinformed about the viewing prospects at The Bund; perhaps intentionally to keep the crowds away from the Expo site.

The expectant crowd wait for the fireworks – if you look closely you can see some people clambering over a wall to get a better view once the police had lost control of the masses of people!

Our evening was rescued by Mike Lambourn, one of Rich’s rowing compatriots, who has lived in Shanghai for the last 18 months. He met us after the failed firework viewing and took us to two awesome bars for some much needed and great tasting cocktails. Cheers Mike.

The next day Mike provided an excellent tour of Shanghai. The first stop was the old town and the beautiful Tu gardens. We then wondered the streets of the old town viewing the locals eating an array of sometimes appetising and sometimes unidentifiable food. We sampled some dumplings from a vender which were lovely and cost the princely sum of 10p.

Wandering the old town

We then grabbed the ferry across the river (5p each!) to walk to the Finance Building - a massive skyscraper which looked very much like a bottle opener. We walked straight past the queue of tourists lining up to pay 100 yuans to go up to the observatory tower on the 92nd floor. Instead, Mike lead us to the hotel side entrance where we took the elevator up to the bar/restaurant on the 91st floor. The elevator took less than 40 secs and our ears popped on the way up. We grabbed a table by the window and paid 55 yuans each for some delicious coffees – the benefits of a local who know the tricks!

A packed ferry crossing the river

The Finance Building which we went up

Enjoying a coffee 91 floors up

The view - skyscrapers galore

In the afternoon we had a late lunch in the French Concession and then met up with our tour group to go and watch an acrobatic show. The show was incredible. There were some contortions that beggared belief, plate spinning, 12 people riding one bicycle, jumping through hoops, girls spinning a mammoth amount of hula hoops, and silk rope acrobatics with the performers holding onto each by their feet or just a silk rope wrapped around one arm or even someone’s neck. The finale was 4 motorbikes going upside down in a metal globe. The pictures illustrate how impressive it was much better than I can describe in words.

Jumping through hoops backwards

The guy in the air on the left appeared to feel no pain when he landed one leg either side of the pole despite all the men in the audience letting out a sympathetic groan!

Spinning plates while standing on your mate’s head

She would get a record score on the Wii Fit hula game

Would health and safety in Britain allow you to dangle girls over the audience one handed?

Two more motorbikes entered this tiny cage which then opened up like the death star to the Star Wars theme tuned – nice touch!

Afterwards Mike took us and a couple of girls from our group to a fancy bar, a strange and heaving Chinese club and then a cheap but funky “dive” bar. It was great to soak up some of the nightlife vibe in Shanghai. Again, our massive thanks to Mike for being an excellent host.

Playing drinking games in the graffiti-friendly dive bar

Mike testing his co-ordination skills after several beers