<A> Shanghai – between modernity and tradition

The Bund and boat cruise on Huangpu River

The Bund is one of the most famous promenade area in Shanghai, offering a beautiful panorama of the Huangpu River and Pu Dong area. Here in the evening you can see a lot of tourists walking and taking pictures, looking at the boats on the river.
Tourists can take a river trip down the Huangpu River to the mouth of the Yangtse river. The trip takes around three hours. But there are also shorter trips which I would recommend.
One day I have decided to go on a river cruise thinking it would be great to cruise up to the mouth of the Yangtse river. It was hot so we stayed inside where the air is cool. For a nice view we have stayed on the upper side. The trip was not so great as I thought it would be. First 15 minutes of the trip the view is beautiful, you can admire the new and impressive area of the Pu Dong impressive buildings and of the old style buildings on the Bund side of the river. But once you leave behind this area the view is not attractive any more, in front of you there appears an old industrial view, with ship sites, old buildings.

Old city and market

One of the thinks I was looking forward to visit was to go and see the old city, so one morning we woke up early as usual and headed towards the old city with the intension to have a look at the old city and visit the Yu Yuan Garden. The city was as I imagined, with old houses and narrow streets, with smell of Chinese food and humanity and curious people starring at you, thinking what can 2 European might look for in their old city. Well, what I was looking for was to experience some old Chinese cities. As it was less than 07:00 o’ clock in the morning, the streets were not so crowded so I could stroll around for an hour without being embarrassed by too much crowd.
In the middle of this old Shanghai city, there is Yu Yuan Garden, a classical Chinese Garden with corridors and bridges over ponds and nice vegetations, tea houses. This combination of old Chinese architecture, corridors and bridges, vegetation and the air of ancient times makes the Garden special.
Leaving the Garden I had a feeling I had just been part of China’s old history.
Heading the Xiang Yiang market which was only 30 minutes walk away, we passed through the old city food market which is difficult for me to exactly describe but I shall mention only the tiny, dirty, crowded and smelly streets that one could hardly breathe the air, with people selling fish, vegetables in the most deplorable conditions I could not imagine it existed in the 3rd millennium and which did not at all reminded me of the modern civilization I had previously encountered in the new city area. Those few minutes spent there were ages to me and I had the feeling I could never find the way out from that area. I felt fear, panic and disgust in the same time. The place was so crowded that at any minute I had the chance someone to touch me and as I was keeping tight my bag I was thinking “ What the hell was I looking there? Why didn’t I mind my business and was so stubborn to visit the place?”…because I did not know it was so unattractive.
Finally we got to the Xiang Yiang market and was anxious to shop. Shopping in a market can be an interesting experience.

People and parks

People in China are open and friendly, modest and ready to help that really enjoy engaging a foreigner who can only speak a little mandarin making a game out of the challenge of communication.
They (People in China) are different from European people. In the morning and during week ends people practice everywhere ( in the street, in parks) taichi or martial arts. It is interesting to see that. The general impression it gives you is that of a Chinese happy people, without worries, whose life is a continuous dance and fun. I must confess I have never seen it somewhere else and would like my country fellows to do the same, as it helps one get rid of the stress.
On Sunday morning, we walked down to the Liu Xing park. Here, again the same atmosphere : large groups of people of all ages dancing and practicing taichi or other martial arts.
One even stranger thing has drawn my attention : people have brought birds with them in the park to sing and give a feel of being in a nature.

Tea shop

As China is the country of tea, one can’t come to China without experiencing the ritual of the tea, so I could not miss that. So one day we went to an old tea shop.
An old man has welcome us from the moment we entered. We picked up a nice place at the window and ordered tea a black tea from Yunan province tea. After 10 minutes the guy came with the tea. He actually prepared the tea in front of us. Tea preparation was an entire ritual. Firstly there was an entire set of tools that he used: pot for boiling water, clay pot for holding leaves, a second clay pot for pouring tea into after it hat sat on leaves for about 20 sec, small cups for drinking out of, aroma cup if you are selecting tea and want to smell the aroma as well as drink, wooden tea tray. Then he started preparing the tea : first he got water on the boil, then he half filled teapot with leaves to put on, poured boiling water over pots and cups to warm them up, poured boiling water onto leaves, left them for 20 seconds, poured tea into the second pot leaving leaves in first pot not in water, poured tea into cups as we desired to drink it.

Conclusion

Shanghai has a lot to offer to all kind of tourists having different tastes and different culture : from modern buildings to old areas the contrast is even more visible when the extremes are mixing together everywhere, markets and shops, museums and temples, restaurants where you can eat from Chinese to European cuisine. The important thing is one to choose places and things one likes so as to enjoy the stay and leave China with new and different experiences or with the memory of an adventure. For this the tourist that comes to China for leisure and tourism should have an open mind, be ready and willing to experience China by getting close to their real life.