A ROOKIE
WESTERNER IN
CHINA
Shanghai
Pudong Airport is by no means quaint or oldfashioned. Decked in up-to-the-minute
technology and encased within sweeping
modern architecture, it sits in the sweltering
outer suburbs of Shanghai as a symbol of
China's progress. The pitter-patter of noise
from the queues at Customs is muffled by
the enormity of the structure. A chanting
football crowd from Wembley would struggle
to be noticed here.
Large fans blow wet air around the terminal
to help 'aliens', as foreigners are called on
their arrivals card, adjust to the immense
heat of July after the cold, conditioned air on
the plane. However, nothing can quite
prepare you for the extraordinary heat
outside - extreme heat that exists even at
seven o' clock in the morning. Your clothes
quickly begin to absorb the beads of sweat
your body seeps in protest.
With rush hour in the city, and the prospect
of the fare meter rocketing in motionless
traffic, frugality takes a bus. All curtains are
drawn, and the air-conditioning whistles at
full throttle, as the bus coughs and splutters
its way towards Shanghai's city centre.
A peek through the curtains shows a mass
urban sprawl, of which the suburbs are
decrepit and barren. Shacks of housing sit
askew and uninhabited and old factories lie
worn and tired in the shadows of shiny
Shanghai. Sky highways, built to help the
dense flow of commuters in and out of the
city each day, remain under construction
and in fragments. Cars and trucks clog the
roads and glisten in the early morning
sunshine. Suddenly the Maglev train, which
would have left the airport moments ago,
shoots past the bus at 200mph without a
flicker of a delay. It will reach the centre of
Shanghai in a crisp seven minutes. The bus,
however, trundles for over an hour to the
same destination.
Off the bus, and under the shade of the tree,
it's time to hail a taxi. With Chinese eyes as
they are, interrupting the taxi driver's
peripheral vision requires more than a mere
flick of the fingers. You could be performing
a rendition of Cirque du Soleil's headline act
on the pavement beside them and they still
wouldn't bat an eyelid. What is more, there
is no sign of 'the knowledge' and so you are
expected to give the exact intersection of
the roads of your destination. And, if you do
not have a word of Chinese on your tongue,
you should have the address written down
in characters and hope that the driver is not
illiterate, which is occasionally the case.
Ultimately, taxis are a cool, refreshing oasis
on the hot streets of Shanghai and do not
charge much for their service.
Conversely, real estate in the city is
relatively expensive. This is despite the
huge number of residential blocks across
the city - mostly brand spanking new - that
sit unused and empty. This surplus of
housing stems from the government's aim to
capitalise on China's current cheap labour
force; it will cost them less to build these
residences now and leave them empty for
ten years than build them in ten years' time
when the cost of labour will have
dramatically increased.
All land is government-owned but the
Chinese can buy the property. Generally,
the Shanghainese population live in vast
blocks of flats, which protrude above the
skyline. Unfortunately there are no majestic
Georgian townhouses or leafy Eaton
Squares in Shanghai, (or at least there are
no Chinese equivalents). The majority of
expats live either in hotels or apartments.
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