Shanghai

From Xi'an it was off to Shanghai on a 20+ hour overnight train - a huge step up from our previous overnighter to Xi'an.  This one had air con and I had a bottom bunk which was built in such a way that my toes could dangle into the gangway - so none of the hot and cramped up conditions of the previous trip.  Our little group was quite the novelty - we got a little crowd gathered for our card game.

I can't remember if I put this in a previous post, but the train journeys and our trip to the Xia tombs gave us our first insight into the "developing country" side of China.  In Ningxia, we went through a coal mining town where some local residents make their living from picking up the coal which falls off
the big trucks and selling it back to the mines.  The other striking feature (which is similar to other developing countries I have been to) is the half built buildings which you see.  The cities are full of pristine new skyscrapers, but the smaller towns are littered with buildings which were started but never
completed.  I am not sure why there is this common theme.  Lack of access to
capital?  Speculative building projects?  Poor business plans?  Aspirational buildings?  International development graduates and others add your thoughts!

The other thing we noticed was the large number of huge cities which we had never heard of before.  Cities of 6 million+ are all over the place and they appear to be growing fast.  High rises are going up everywhere and we saw massive infrastructure being built too.  The country is really going places.

Shanghai suffers from no such half built projects.  Apparently, 10,000 high rises have gone up in the last decade or so and you can believe it.  John and I saw a scale model of the whole city in a museum and every square inch looks like it has a high rise on it.  They've also taken to lighting them in the craziest ways.  Not content with a simple flashing light to ward off the odd plane, they have all kinds of colours and shapes flying around.  One or two look like they've got full on TV screens which are about 40 stories high.  Similar to Singapore, the older bits have been renovated in such a way that they feel a bit like Disney Land - just a bit too well renovated that they look new and shiny.

Other sights include the site of the first convention of the Chinese Communist Party - all 13 of them.  Mao was there (along with a slightly random Dutch chap), but it is striking that not many of them lasted the distance - having emigrated or been labelled as traitors.  It's also interesting that Shanghai was the birthplace - it may have something to do with being the place where the Brits, Yanks and French turned up and carved out bits of the city for themselves where Chinese law and customs did not apply.  Apparently, one park had the sign "No dogs and Chinese".