Shanghai

I've been in Shanghai a week now and its been over 11 months since I was last here. Wow. I totally forgot how amazing (and so different) the place is. There is such a buzz, I am not sure what it comes from, probably a combination of:

-fantastic skyline, everywhere -tall buildings, fancy buildings, lights everywhere
-people everywhere -Shanghai has more shops and more people shopping; it also seems to have more people walking on the streets... beijing is quite empty really of people, they are all spread out more I think. Actually Shanghai has 3-4 million more people than Beijing -maybe thats it! Oh, and Shanghai's pavements are much narrower than Beijing
-the massive commercialisation of Shanghai -lots of neon, lots of TV screens (even one on the other side of the road that you watch whilst waiting for the pedestrian crossing lights to change!)
-the huge number of cafes, bars and shops all designed stylishly, fashionably and discreetly.. and not just shoved in 3 areas, but dispersed somewhat.
-the more foreign people around, the higher prices in Shanghai and the umbrellas up from the RAIN (yay!)

Shanghai is really a totally different city from Beijing. There is very little to see culturally (in comparison) and not much of an 'old Shanghai' left -there was never really an 'old Shanghai' anyway, since most of it was built in the last 150 years..and not much of that is left. But there is a beautiful, large euopean style area with trees along the roads and wonderful places to eat, drink, read hidden away behind hedges. There is an airconditioned subway line (with ticket gates, not people), there is the coundown on every pedestrian light and most of all, there is the fact that almost every appartment building looks built in the last 15 years.

In Beijing, most expats know most of the nice appartment complexes; there are only about 10-15 really fancy ones, and then a few other areas of nice-ish ones. In Shanghai they are everywhere; in Pudong (the huuuuge area built from scratch 15 years ago, reclaimed from marsh land, now with a population of a few million), near the old airport, in the center, in the north-east... just everywhere. There are lots more taller buildings here -genuine skyscrapers, and everything is just more modern (escalators in the subway for example!)

Actually the Shanghai government is leading the way in China with lots of clever policies (its quite, maybe a little too much i wonder, independent from the Central government) including 1-way streets, pedestrian walkways over roads and other infrastructure things. It also has a better business environment etc. The Chinese government though, wants to develop the pooper regions more and focus less on the major cities, but now the major cities have got their act together with trade fairs, special attractions (Forumula 1, Masters Cup Tennis) and others.

Anyway, I came here for lots of meetings, seminars and conferences for networking in order to arrange speakers for the next big CSR event, here in Shanghai, in early January. A few of the Beijing crew came down for the weekend which meant we were up till 4/5am a few nights in a row and there are a lot more alumni in Shanghai from all over the World..who I am not starting to meet more (and take advantage of...)

Tonight we saw a film about North Korea that was very interesting. It only focused on Pyongyang (and the director of the film who was at the screening said that the rest of north korea is VERY different), and all the chinese we were with said it was just like China after the Cultural Revolution (late 60s): with a big focus on 'being a group', 'being self-sufficient', 'fighting the american aggressor' (there are frequent practise air-raids, justifiably so, the koreans in the film say, knowing about Iraq!) and celebraing 'the General' (who is everywhere and idolised). Apart from the fact that the city itself is in quite good condition (it all had to be rebuilt after the Korean war), I suppose it was what I expected (communism etc). But it would be nice to have seen more of the rest of Korea (the real Korea) -it was, though, a documentary about 2 girls practicing the the 'mass games' and not a story about korea itself.

So we saw a glimpse of the DPRK (democratic people's of republic as north korea is, ironically, known) through their (and family's) eyes and the 'mass games' (like olympics games opening cermony all day for a week on end, and a few times a year) were gobsmacking (what do you expect when the girls train for 2 hrs a day for 2 months and then 10 hrs a day for 2 months or so) -to perform in front of the 'General' is the ultimate honour. Anyway, its not on general release (but partly paid for by the BBC so might be on in the UK sometime) -highly recommmended. I bought a book that the diretor brought over '100 questions about north korea' that is what north korea publishes internally in english, so its obviously propoganda crap, but hilarious reading!

off to bed, more days of conferences and meetings ahead...gggr, no time to sleep (but finally getting over my cold!)