Contributed by Jens Hoffmann
Shanghai is glamourous and mostly quiet.
Cars, scooters and buses are mostly electric; hardly any honking, even the traffic lights don’t make a sound.
I can even hear birds chirping. In former times -Shanghai was a huge hustle and bustle, traffic jams, a kind of chaotic mess, very loud, lots of people but there was always amazing food.
Shanghai is the largest city in China – and one of the very few Chinese cities that I love very much.
It is also one of the largest cities in the world, with around 30 million people living here.
That means more people live in Shanghai alone than in the whole of Australia.
Noise, people, unfamiliar smells were without question part of Shanghai in former times.
But that is not it, at least not only that.
After a flight from Frankfurt. We know that we have two days in this metropolis.
I want to use the time, especially to see art and enjoy fancy restaurants.
Historically interested was the situation during the Second World War, the city had a big jewish quarter and was safe for Jewish people from Europe.
Many lived here until the first post-war years.
A large part of the waterfront promenade in Shanghai is a large, connected garden; trees, flowers and blossoms.
I relaxed and enjoyed the Bund and the Oriental Tower, the famous TV tower.
I compare and think about which other metropolises handle the new electric world.
I can hardly remember such peace and quiet as on this riverside promenade in any other city, perhaps in Shenzhen it is similiar.
Singapore is louder but of course above all incredibly clean.
I would not have associated peace and quietness with Singapore.
Hmm. This peace and quiet along the river in Shanghai amazes me.
There is quite a lot of activity on the Huangpu River; one large ship after another, but even that is rather quiet.
The river is certainly not clean, but it is not dirtier than the Elbe in Hamburg.
I don’t speak Chinese, I know nothing about it and I’m already smiling in front of the first metro map:
Here in Shanghai, being able not to read or understand, that makes travelling special.
You feel a bit stupid and dependent on others.
People pay here with WeChat or Alipay, with apps on their cell phones. Download WeChat beforehand its the best.
Some email programs only work to a limited extent anyway.
So here you use Wechat. The app can also be used for payment.
Wechat only works for payments with a Chinese SIM card.
“Use Alipay, it’s better” is the tip.
OK, then I’ll just download this other app.
The pages don’t load.
Google Playstore doesn’t work… I would have had to download it outside of China.
So this is going to be a bigger travel challenge.
Easy, lets enjoy the river bank, the so-called Bund.
Shanghai is not China and is very different, very open to new things.
There is no other metropolis that has so much to offer, culturally, commercially, humanly.
Shanghai is the place where you want to live.
There is everywhere a lot to explore, especially the different districts of the city, which have their own history of occupation and colonialism.
We love Shanghai.
Tip: I can highly recommend China Southern as an airline.
