Shanghai, a city of 21 million people, is not the buzzing international destination it once was. But it’s still worth seeing.
It is uncanny. Shanghai, that bustling city of 21 million people, crowded, polluted and steamy on my several previous visits, is sparkling, clean and oddly tranquil.
The city looks prosperous and shiny, with impeccable plantings along the Bund, its famous river-front boulevard, and new paths and gardens flanking the Suzhou Creek, an arm of the mighty Huangpu River that winds its way through the city, crossed by bridges and 14 tunnels and the ferries that take residents from the old city to the new. The tangles of electrical wire hanging off facades have been removed or tidied into neat coils. The historic buildings have been scrubbed of any patina of age.
We’re staying in the Westin Bund, a huge, efficient hotel in a commercial centre. We see few Western tourists, and if there are lines at popular attractions such as the world’s highest observation deck on the 632-metre-tall Shanghai Tower, they are Chinese visitors. In Xintiandi, a historic neighbourhood of tall brick lane residences called Shikumen, the old houses look as if they’ve been built from scratch, they’re so neat and perfect – and they have been. The original houses were demolished and replaced by replicas.
I was disappointed to see that the famous pedestrian boulevard, Nanjing Road, has lost some of its charm. It was once lined with big, old-fashioned department stores, but some have closed, replaced by chain stores and an upscale branch of Daimaru, the Japanese department store, which has steep elevators that snake around a glittering atrium. It also contains the biggest Starbucks in the world, and the Shanghai Edition hotel, where we stop for French-style cakes late one evening.
Everyone photographs everything in Shanghai. There are fashion shoots on almost every corner, and the narrow streets off the Bund are popular with brides, who have their wedding photos done days before the ceremony. It’s not unusual to see people photographing the people photographing the photoshoot of the brides.Luckily, many of my favourite places are still standing, if recast.
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