China, the Fun Stuff! Part 3: Shanghai

Imagine the skyline, density, and geography of Manhattan. Imagine filling an area the size of Los Angeles with it. That's my impression of Shanghai.

The most interesting thing about Shanghai is its schizophrenia. Everywhere you look is a juxtaposition of the old and the new. The poor, and the rich. I stayed with a friend who lived in a high-rise service apartment with a doorman and two receptionists. Where a housekeeper comes twice a week to clean and put a new roll of toilet paper in the bathroom (during my stay in China, I found myself becoming obsessed over the availability of toilet paper). A block away, however, was a row of old-school food vendors where you could get four pork buns for about fifty cents, and you got them to go in a paper bag because you were afraid to eat off the gray plates available for eating in. Two blocks from there was the high-rise mall with the Prada and Gucci stores.

I spent a lot of time walking around the city. On my first day, I walked to Old Shanghai Street, a quaint shopping district of traditional architecture (if somewhat touristy), and knick-knack shops, where I failed miserably when haggling over two T-shirts.