The Streets of Shanghai

Ok... keep your eyes open! Pick pockets are everywhere and there are countless people trying to sell you things. Things being watches, hand bags, wallets, splat mouse. Especially if you're not Asian. Ladies be prepared for... Hello pretty lady. If you are traveling with small children... Hello pretty baby. You've got to see it.

Important: The comments express are mine and in no way intended to promote any product, service or tour. Also, I’m not here to write full ‘play by play’ reports on my experience simply to provide short first hand personal impression. As with all comments, reviews, recommendations on the internet, in books or magazines, they are SUBJECTIVE! We all have individual likes and dislikes and it is your responsibility to perform your own ‘due diligence’ and make educated choices. The bottom line… we live on an amazing planet and I’ve been fortunate enough to have explored a large piece of it. My only suggestion would be to get out there and enjoy every bit of it whenever you’re able.

The reasons why Shanghai is the city that most people love, are in the streets. It is not only about The Bund, the flea markets, the crowds walking all day up and down Nanjing Road or the futuristic architecture at Pudong like the Oriental Pearl or the Jim Mao Tower. There is also something about all those "other streets". Some of them may not even make it to the list in your Shanghai city guide but is in those streets where I constantly fall in love with this city as I walked (and got lost) over and over again.

Industrial crowded neighborhoods and hundreds of bicycles parked in the sidewalks or just circulating by, in-between and around big buses that seem to always be just a few inches away from making contact with everything that's on their way, are some of the things you will find if you just decide to walk for a few miles. There is also the ambulant sellers of art, tea, dumplings, books, toys and pretty much anything you could think of and everything happens "around the corner" if not right where you are standing, no matter where you are.

And even though it sounds chaotic, Shanghai was still beautiful for me. I guess because of all those things that to someone born and raced in a western culture and to be more precise, latin american, are unusual. Or maybe because my green eyes would make some "radicals" take me pictures or throw a smile at every moment, making me feel like everyone in this city was saying hello to me as I was walking; and considering the number of people here, that is a lot of smiles in a very few days.

Hopefully, the contrast that you can see today in Shanghai, that one of an emerging and growing 21st century infrastructure combined with the old narrow european looking alleys with clothes hanging out of the windows... that killing uniqueness and awkward beauty, hopefully, will stay there forever. Fernando