NOTE: This entry was originally written on September 8th, 2011.

Well, Shanghai is complete. After spending just four days there, we are on our way home. There is not a lot to tell of our stay there, other than it was luxurious to the last. Our room (or apartment, I would rather say) in downtown Shanghai was quite lovely, as were the paid-for meals we got to enjoy (we even liked our Subway meal!). Although during the daytime Shanghai was not that fantastic (although not polluted like Beijing was), at night it was pretty darn cool and the final night I wrote of in the bar at the 47^th floor of our hotel was a nice finale. It was time to end our adventure in Asia however, and we were both ready to go home.

We had a “sedan” reserved for us by the Saito Kinen Festival and after checking out of our hotel we waited for it in the lobby. While waiting, a lovely Chinese prostitute (I am going to make a leap of faith that when you wear silver fingernail polish, a skirt, and a wig that you may be a hooker) sat down near us trying to initiate a business transaction with some Chinese business men nearby. They all seemed comfortable hanging out together, so I did not bother them. After about an hour, our sedan arrived, which ended up being a mini-van of sorts – not an amazing ride, but quite lavish for a Chinese taxi. We loaded our luggage and were on our way to Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

The ride to the airport was quite uneventful. It was a very hazy day as we were riding, so we had a hard time seeing into the distance from our vehicle. Still, you could get a feel of just how large of a city Shanghai was, and for miles and miles outside of the city you would still come across views of a dozen and more skyscrapers acting as apartment buildings. After about an hour, we arrived at our destination and exited the cab to get our baggage checked in and get ready to finally fly home. We did not know at the time, but our adventures were just about to start.

Oh my word did it take forever to get to our gate. Our flight was with American Airlines which only had one flight going out of Shanghai that day, so our entire check-in line was for that flight. Unfortunately it was also a full flight on a Boeing 777, a big behemoth of a plane, so the line went on forever. We patiently waited for our turn to check our bags and dealt with our hopefully final stares of the day. I have spoken before of the stares the Chinese make of foreigners, but apparently they are especially bad at airports. We eventually got through the line. After a brief hiccup having to pay an overweight bag fee (to hell with it, it was $50 for a 7,000 mile flight so we didn’t care), we moved on to the next line.

I figured we would have to deal with customs back in the states (either on our connecting flight in Chicago, or maybe in Dallas), but apparently you have to go through a sort of immigration check in China before leaving. We were stuck in another line again. Some guy from the States said it was extra security for the weekend of 9/11, but I did not agree. I thought it strange that they would have built an entire area of the airport just for enhanced security a few days a year. I tuned him out and went about my business waiting in line. The stares continued into this line. Fortunately there were many more Westerners this time, but there were still a few Chinese that felt the need to get a glance of the beautiful and unique Americans. After what seemed like centuries, we made it to the front of that line. It was nothing more than a passport check, so after just a moment I was through. Daveda took a few moments more since she was leaving with a working visa, but even her check was minimal. We were finally able to go to the gate……strike that, another darn line.

In the next line, it was your typical security check line. Fortunately that line was rather short and you are able to keep your shoes on (although the laptop and electronics come out to be searched and you have to remove your belt), so we were through that line very quickly. On the other side, we were fortunately finally done with lines and went on our way to our gate. We were in luck to be very close to our gate coming out of security and still had an hour before our flight, so we toured some shops nearby and had a cup of coffee to pass the time. Finally, it was time to board and go on our way for a long flight to Chicago then a short hop to our final destination in Dallas. We didn’t know, but our adventure was just beginning!

When it was time to board, we went on our way through the gate to get in the aircraft and were abruptly stopped….There was ANOTHER checkpoint here! I let out a sigh and gave my bags to the security person to have them checked. At this point I was beginning to think the other gentlemen was right and there was extra security around for the week proceeding 9/11. After taking a look at my bags, I was deemed not a terrorist and allowed on board. Daveda was also cleared of any jihad suspicion and also proceeded on board with me.

Daveda and I originally had terrible seats for this flight and we were going to have to spend 13 hours and 25 minutes in the two middle seats of a row containing 5 seats (a 777 has a layout that consists of 2 seats, an aisle, 5 more seats, a second aisle, then 2 final seats) near the very back of the plane (somewhere around row 45 or 50). Fortunately, the night before I had checked and some seats together on the end of row 22 were available so we had changed our seats to the better ones there. We made our way to our seats and sat down, ready to go home. Daveda joked while walking to our seats “Look what I gave up for you.” as she pointed to one of the business class seats, but she was quite happy hanging back in economy with me, as long as we were together. We got ourselves situated and got ready to depart. We had no idea what was about to happen.

“Excuse me, but isn’t this 22H?”, a young woman asked me. I replied that it was and was curious why she was asking me. She then said that I was in her seat and she showed me a boarding pass – with my seat number on it! I saw that the seat was mine, but that the seat number was written in; perhaps it was a fake. I then showed her my pass (fortunately with the seat number printed instead of handwritten) and apologized to her. I didn’t think she was scamming us per se, but I was not going to get bumped off of a flight when I have not been home in over 5 weeks. She left and I thought it was over, but then a minute or two later a flight attendant comes by and asks to see our boarding passes, first Daveda’s then my own. She walks away with our passes and I suddenly get nervous. We had passes to prove our seats a moment ago, but now we had nothing. How would we be able to prove to the attendants that we were supposed to be sitting there. Would we get stuck in Shanghai? I was a tense moment indeed.

In what seemed like hours (although in reality it was no more than 5 minutes), the attendant came back and handed back our passes. I was relieved that situation was over, until I looked at the passes. I was now 11E and Daveda was 12E. We had been moved and we were no longer together! I didn’t even have time to think about what that meant and we were pushed to get our bags and take our new seats.

That brings us to the title of this post. You see, at 6’4” you will never see me blogging on an airplane. The reason for that is because my size keeps me from being able to even think about opening a laptop to do any typing while in flight. Well, that is not an entire when you are in [ITALICS] business class. Because we were being moved from our original seats, we got free upgrades to business class seats. Yep, for both Daveda and I.

Wide seats, leg room, free unlimited food and drinks, two hot meals with real dishes and silverware, even a seat that reclines enough to completely lay flat for you to sleep – those are all now ours to enjoy. My favorite addition however, is lots of space to work on a laptop. In my new business class seat I will not be doing any sleeping. I will be too busy blogging – at 35,000 feet.

I should warn you that I am going to have to base my opinions on limited data. Having only spent about a week in Beijing and about 4 days in Shanghai, I hardly spent enough time in either city to be able to tell you everything about daily life there. There are definitely some things about each city that were apparent however, even with my short time there.

The Similarities

Scam artists abound and love to target Westerners with offers of free art shows and cheap tours of the Great Wall of China. In actuality they are trying to take advantage of you and get you to pay fees for things you did not want – or worse. They can be quite aggressive, and they will follow you down the street until you talk to them. They will also get in your way to stop you – until you run them over that is (score one for me in Shanghai, FTW!). Shopkeepers are just as aggressive and shady. If you walk into a shop – even a supposedly reputable one – you will be pushed and prodded to look at all sorts of items and asked how you would like to pay for them (a common tactic to get you to buy it, since it is not a yes or no question) until you agree to get something or leave. If you do see something you like, you also have to be ready to negotiate. They don’t charge Westerners the actual price; you often have to negotiate down to half-price or less just to pay what it was worth to begin with. Although my negotiating skills are terrible, I was able to talk down most stuff we got to 60% asking price (probably still too much, but good enough).

The Differences

Beijing is a town built on industry and Shanghai is a town built on technology and finance. It shows. The biggest difference between the two cities is the air quality. Beijing has a horrible pollution problem (it is one of the most polluted cities in the world in fact) caused by the emissions of cars and factories there. Shanghai, however seems to have much better air quality. Perhaps the rain that Shanghai gets helps prevent smog, but there just doesn’t seem to be as much industry to pollute the air there.

Another difference is the architecture. Beijing is a very old-school China city. Although there are certainly skyscrapers there (it has a population in the many millions), Beijing has a number of historical sites and smaller buildings built in the style of old China. The architecture of the Forbidden City is prevalent there and many other smaller buildings share its architecture. Shanghai is more new-school. There are no old-style architecture buildings to be found there. In fact, other than some old crumbling apartment buildings scattered throughout the city, most of the skyscrapers standing now are big, bright, masses of shiny green glass and stainless steel. Citibank, TDK, Sony, and others all adorn the tops of these mammoths. Much of downtown Shanghai would look more appropriate in America than in China.

A big difference between Beijing and Shanghai would be lifestyle. In Beijing, the hotels are run down and there are few malls aside from the popular Oriental Plaza. There are some clothing stores to be found, but other than that there are just some scattered (very good) restaurants. Shanghai – now that is a city of nothing but stores! Everywhere you go, you are surrounded by jade dealers, jewelry stores, and high-end clothing stores. Don’t plan on visiting Shanghai for long if you don’t have lots of dough to spend.

Beijing and Shanghai: each has its own personality. Although there are a few similarities, the differences between the two cities are great enough where you cannot know what a city in China is like without a visit to both of them.

Shanghai at Night

Shanghai is a very intriguing city. During the day, Shanghai is not much different from many cities in the U.S. like New York City, Boston, or Chicago (although it seems to be quite a bit bigger). With a population of over 20 million, it is no surprise that Shanghai is ruled by skyscrapers. What really stands out for Shanghai is how it looks at night. Nearly all of the buildings are adorned in lights here, in many cases with computer-controlled patterns that dazzle you with alternating displays of colors. Also, buildings have large prominent television screens showcasing ads for stores contained inside and various television stations that are broadcast there.

Oriental Pearl Tower

You get a feeling like you are walking through “the strip” in Las Vegas (for those who have not been to Las Vegas, Times Square in New York City would be similar). All the glitz and glam of a city bursting at the seams with foreign wealth is announced to all who look to tell you that you are in a place of fantasy. All of your dreams can come true, if you are willing to pay the price.

Tall buildings are abundant here. They are best seen in the dark when they are all lit up, each competing to have the best display. It is not unlike children all competing for attention, where each will scream louder than the next to get dad to look at them instead of the next one. One building that stands out is the Oriental Pearl Tower building. It looks like a giant Christmas ornament, and when it is lit up at night it is a very interesting site indeed!

Shanghai Skyline View

One of the fondest memories I will have of our Asian adventure will be the view of Shanghai’s skyline at night from a bar on the 47th floor of our hotel. There are few things more memorable than sharing a nice martini with the woman you love while watching the world go bye in a city on the other side of the world.

Although I would not recommend a trip to Shanghai just to visit (there is really not much to do here other than shopping), if you ever happen to find yourself there make sure to take a peak at the city at night from somewhere up high and enjoy the Las Vegas of the Far East.

NOTE: My original article on this was so heavy that I deleted it and started over. It was just as well, since I beat a dead horse on my opinion that communism is bad.

Communist China Banner

During our time in Beijing, Daveda and I took the time to visit Tiananmen Square to see the pinnacle of Communist China and find out in-person what it is like to be at the site of one of the low-points of China’s recent history. We had learned in school about the massacre there and knew the history. I personally did not know what it would really be like to actually be there however.

Actually walking through Tienanmen Square  is one of the strangest moments of my time here in Asia. When you look around now, you see happiness everywhere. Kids are playing, families are having picnics, and tourists from China and all over the world are snapping photos of the landmarks there. You would never know that the square has a dark past. Even the name Tienanmen means “heavenly gate of peace” in Chinese. It appears that locals don’t even seem to know the massacre ever occurred (ironically, Google searches and Wikipedia articles referencing the massacre were blocked in China so I was not able to research it myself, other than what was written in a Beijing travel guide).

The Heavenly Gate of Peace

I felt sadness not of knowing what happened there, but of the lack of information being available validating it even took place. Erasure of history is the mark of tyranny. There were soldiers stationed everywhere, cameras pointed in all directions, and an overall removal of freedom. I was afraid to even talk to Daveda about what really happened there, for fear of being detained.

At one end of the square is the actual “heavenly gate of peace” building. A giant portrait it Mao Zedong adorns the front of the building and it is guarded by the Chinese equivalent of an honor guard. It is the same building where the declaration of China’s independence was made in 1949 and the communist party rule began. To see the actual steps where General Mao made the speech was eerie. Everything about communist China, whether you are for it or against it, it all began right there and I was seeing it in person.

Hidden Loudspeakers

Everything about the square spoke of the might of China’s government. Loudspeakers were hidden in light posts, perhaps to spread the message of the glory of communism. Buildings on either side of the square showcased massive banners of the Chinese crest, a more ornate version of the red stars noted on the Chinese national flag. There are even sculptures in front on one of the buildings showing “working men” of various types, such as carpenters, farmers, etc. with General Mao at the forefront. A look at the statues and buildings there would give you pause that you were no longer in a free nation.

You do feel less free here. You are afraid to look soldiers in the eyes for fear of getting harassed by them. You are afraid to speak about the square for free of something negative being overheard by the wrong person. You are even afraid to take pictures of some of the sites for fear of taking a picture of something you shouldn’t have. It may seem like such a basic right to be able to speak badly about your own government, but in some parts of the world that is expressly forbidden. Not having freedom of speech is not having freedom at all.

Communist China Banner

I am not here to say that communism is good or bad for China. It is their country; as a visitor, it is not my decision how their country should be run. I do feel that communism would be disaster for the United States of America though. In theory, communism just means that everyone owns everything. The problem comes when if everyone owns everything, who decides who gets what?

Tonight after the final performance of Bluebeard’s Castle in Shanghai, Daveda and I went to the Sky Dome Bar on the 47th floor of the Radisson Hotel so we could have a few drinks and look out at the Shanghai skyline.

Well, there was an epic performance by a *bad* Filipino keyboard band headlined by Ron Perlman himself in Beauty and the Beast attire. We enjoyed their wonder Engrish versions of various tunes, but the highlight of the evening is what prompted this post. At one point they played “Brow Hole Grrr”, or what we would refer to in America as Brown Eyed Girl.

You simple have not lived until you have heard a terrible Filipino keyboard band play Brown Eyed Girl on the 47th floor of a skycraper in downtown Shanghai, China.

Thank you Shanghai. Thank you!

As we left the hotel in Beijing, we were pleased to find out that we would be riding along with the dancers of the Japanese dance company Noism. We all boarded a bus for the airport and headed to Beijing Capital Airport to leave the city. On the bus, our guide gave us all the information we needed for our departure from Beijing and arrival in Shanghai (in Japanese, of course). Our friend Suyoshi helped translate for us and made sure we were not forgotten at the airport.

Once we were at the airport, we were introduced to the most crowded airport we had ever seen. China is one of the most (if not THE most) populous country in the world, and every person in all of China was at that airport. In fact, there were so many people that everywhere you went and everywhere you looked you could not see a floor anywhere. There were also dozens and dozens of check-in counters, most of them for China Airlines, a Chinese government-owned airline that serves China and most of Asia. We all checked in as a group and went on our way to the security checkpoint.

As for the security checkpoint, it is not much different than one you would see at any airport in America, with a couple minor differences. For one, you are allowed to keep your shoes on. This is a much-welcomed change from the hassle of carrying your shoes with all of your other junk as you walk through security. Another change, at least if you do not speak Chinese, is a language barrier. I was a bit frazzled by the checkpoint since I did not know it was so similar to an American one and was not sure what to do. I made several mistakes during the check, including forgetting to take out my laptop, forgetting to take out a bag of wires and electronic devices, and touching my bag while they were trying to look at it. Although I am not necessarily a fan of of the way China does things, I will give credit where credit is due here. The gentlemen working the security checkpoint were 100% professional and not once did they belittle me or harass me when I was in security. They calmly asked me in English (it was poor English, but much better than my Chinese) to take out my laptop and checked the bad again. They then (once again calmly) asked me to take out the bag of wires and not touch the bag and they checked the bag again. Everything passed that time and they let me though with a thank you and a smile. They were quite friendly throughout the process and I never felt like they were labeling me as a criminal (TSA, take note). As much as I hate to admit it, China gets this one right while America gets it wrong.

After an uneventful security checkpoint experience, I was off to the gate. As we walked towards the gate, we were greeted to some familiar sites. Apparently China has a fascination with American food, for there was a Kentucky Fried Chicken, a Burger King, a McDonald’s, a Subway, and numerous other restaurant chains quite familiar to the US of A. Once we reached the gate, I was stunned to see that some of the airport gates in Beijing’s airport are not like anything I have seen at any other airport before. The gate is just a bus terminal. You don’t actually walk across a pedestrian bridge to board the airplane. You take a bus to it and board from the outside! When it was time to board, we boarded our bus and made for the aircraft. A nicely-sized Boeing 767, it was rather cool to get to walk outside on the tarmac and get to see the engine up-close and really get a feel for the size of the aircraft. On board, we settled in our seats (my seat was seat H on row 53, to give you an idea of the size of this sucker) and got ready for a short flight.

My goodness do I love flying in Asia! Our flight was only 1 hour and 45 minutes, but we were given drinks, leg room, and a full meal… in economy! We both opted for ginger beef with rice and it was rather lovely. I have been spoiled by such pampering and will have a hard time making future domestic flights in the states without getting my ginger beef! As expected, the flight was over before it began and we landed in Shanghai. We exited the airplane and made our way into Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport.

There is not much to tell about Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport. It’s a pretty standard airport you would see in a smaller city, and it would be easily compared to Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans. There are two airports for Shanghai; this is the one most commonly used for regional flights – we will be seeing the other airport inShanghaisoon when we finally leave to head back home. We got our bags, got together with the group, and boarded the bus (again with our friends from Noism) for our hotel.

Oh my goodness, Shanghai is massive! There are skyscrapers all over town and would look similar to someone who has seen New York City or Boston, although much much much bigger!. There is quite a mixture of decaying older apartment buildings and newly-built financial towers that give Shanghai a very cool but strange vibe. The skyline extends for miles and miles here and there are examples of new overseas money flooding the city. Chase Bank, Citibank, and Deutsche Bank were a few of the names plastered on behemoth buildings I saw while travelling through the city. At last we arrived at our hotel at the Radisson Blu Hotel Shanghai New World hotel and were thankfully already checked-in. We took our key and went up to our room. We could tell from the hotel lobby and our knowledge of it being 47 floors that the hotel was fancy, but we had seen fancy lobbies before and did not know what to expect for our room. We took the elevator up to our room on the 20th floor, took a breath, and opened the door to see what our home in Shanghai would be.

Our room was amazing! We opened the door to find a lovely office in the entrance way with an executive desk of dark wood and glass, an HD television, and a window overlooking the cityscape of Shanghai next to the desk. A doorway takes you into the bedroom with another HD television, a soft king-size bed, and a sitting area with a plush chair to watch TV there if you don’t wish to stay in bed. The bathroom – the most impressive room – is enormous. There is a large luxury tub with a separate shower (they are large enough for two, FTW!) and marble and frosted glass accent the walls and doors. This room is definitely the best by far of all of the rooms we have seen in our Asian adventure, and it is good to have a nice place to sleep, relax, and blog (most of my posts in Shanghai are written at the lovely executive desk). We also finally have wireless Internet access here, and it is nice to be able to have both Daveda and I access “the Interwebz” from anywhere in the room at any time. We can even both access it at the same time.

I look forward to seeing what Shanghai has in store for us as we approach the final chapters of our Asian adventure. Although it may not have the charm of Matsumoto or the history of Beijing, I am sure it will have its share of stories to tell.

In the next blog, I will go in detail of what Shanghai has to offer, as well as the Shanghai cityscape at night. Shanghai at night is quite a spectacular site!