Pudong and Puxi

Written 21st March 2011


We're very much still easing ourselves into China. Shanghai is more Chinese than Hong Kong, but still very English, by which I mean American. There are more Starbucks here than I have ever seen, and inexplicably, an extraordinary number of KFC outlets. We've not been in either so cannot really comment on their quality (not that I enter either in the UK either). We've also overshot our required hotel standard and are staying in one of the old imperial hotels (the Astor) at the top of the Bund. It's pretty reasonable for price, but have started to wonder if we could have done this a little cheaper. That said, it's fun to be met by black tie staff.

Shanghai itself is great though. It's relatively easy to navigate - a lot of the signs are in English; we can work the metro - and there are some great sights. Though unevenly distributed, it's clearly the product of a lot of money: obviously the silly towers, but also a wide variety of infrastructure investments (I'm writing this on the new link to Hangzhou, covering the 200km in 45 mins) and a lot of shopping developments. I'm especially  pleased that one of swishest, most European of those new developments now essentially incorporates the site of the founding of the Chinese Communist party. We went to both yesterday - they're very keen on waxworks (in the communist bit, it's not a function of the shopping).

So, top marks for Shanghai, though I wouldn't want to live here - I don't think it knows what it wants to be yet. Part of the city (mostly the modern Pudong development) is high finance, expensive and western, the rest (Puxi) is emphatically of the party - Chinese flags over the Bund buildings etc - and I don't think I'd want either for a long time, though fun to see in action.

And, the news from Japan still uncertain, though something seems to be happening in terms of moving the solution on. Go Tokyo Power and Electric! (not a sentence I thought I would ever write)