The city was an about an hour drive from the airport. It's hard to believe seeing the city for the first time that China is still an emerging nation. It was much like driving into NYC, lots of high rises, lots of highways, and lots of traffic.
On the way to the hotel we stopped at the Pudong area for some photos. There are some amazing new buildings in Shanghai including the TV Tower and the World Financial Center, otherwise known as the Bottle Opener.
After getting settled at the hotel we took a short walk down Nanjing Road, the expensive shopping area of Shanghai. It was all high end brands. We stopped in one of the malls for a quick bite and were surprised by how empty it was. It didn't seem like the residents of Shanghai actually shop there. We actually found out during a visit today to the US Consulate that all of the very high end retail companies are mainly here for show not to make any money.
We had our first group dinner, a traditional family style Chinese meal. To me it didn't seem that much different than American style Chinese food. As much as I like Asian food I think I will be ready for good old American food by the end of the week.
A few of us ventured out to the Xintiandi area or the French concession after dinner. This is a shopping, dining, and bar area in the city. Our guide Candy had warned us not to take red cabs but we found out the hard way why red cabs are taboo. Cab drivers in Shanghai don't speak any English so you need to give them a card with the Chinese characters of where you want to go. We realized very quickly that he didn't know where to go even though we were going to a popular part of the city. He had to stop and ask directions. We got there eventually but we won't be taking any more red cabs.
So far I really like Shanghai, in a different way than I liked Vietnam. It's really hard to compare Vietnam and China since they are completely different cities in different stages of development. Although I liked the Vietnamese people I never felt completely safe in Ho Chi Minh City, in Shanghai I feel like I am in New York. You need to be careful but the streets aren't overwhelmed with people and runaway motorbikes. It's a very impressive city and it will be interesting to see how it compares to Beijing later in the week.
Our business visits start on Monday.
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