A fun article about one of my favorite cities, Shanghai, in the New Yorker titled “Buy Shanghai!” talks about the lifestyle and changes (both good and bad) that the city has gone through in the eyes of the author. I stack up my experiences from 2003 and 2005 against this article along with a few quips of my own.

The assorted finials on the tops of skyscrapers will make you think of a bottle opener, a Jell-O mold, a crown roast, a bamboo steamer, a chuppah, a Mobius strip, a snake that’s swallowed some golf balls, the Eiffel Tower, Lady Liberty’s headpiece, and the spiny back of a stegosaurus. Don’t breathe! The air is smelly with garbage juice. The sun, if visible at all, seems dimmer than the full moon on a hazy night. Need more light? You can see everything better after dusk, when the lunatic neon is switched on.

I would have added a skyscraper face that looks at you from four directions, but beyond that the description is sound.

“You can do business with them,” Helen Noh, a Korean who lives in Shanghai, said, referring to the Chinese. “But you should realize that, in the end, they are always going to win.”

Actually, I would say that this is more specific towards the Shanghainese–no matter how low you can bargain on prices there, if you are not speaking in 上海话 (Shanghai dialect) and are not a 上海本地人 (native Shanghainese), then you’re being ripped off. That’s why I had my friends help bargain for me instead–saved both time and money, and at least I don’t lose as badly, because no matter how good your Chinese or Shanghainese, you are still going to lose. It’s a game, so play it well.

There are markets for everything in Shanghai, including crickets. These come in varieties meant for competitive fighting [...] and for keeping as pets[.]

Now, mind you, I never actually saw a market place for crickets, but rather saw single guys with two loads (one on each side of a stick that he put across his back) that likely had 100+ containers filled with one cricket each in them. You can imagine the noise they made just walking down the sidewalk.

“Beijing’s short and wide. Shanghai’s tall and compact.” “Shanghai is more refined. More attention to detail.” “Shanghai’s female, Beijing’s male.” “Shanghai is New York. Beijing is Washington, D.C.” “Shanghai is New York. Beijing is L.A.” “Shanghai is Tel Aviv. Beijing is Jerusalem.” “Beijing is China. Shanghai is Shanghai.”

One cannot get a closer comparison to Beijing and Shanghai than comparing them to Washington D.C. and New York respectively. Whenever I went to a Beijing store, almost every other salesperson would ask why the US invaded Iraq (2003), whereas those in Shanghai would ask if I was French. Nonetheless, to understand Shanghai, remember the last quote — “Beijing is China. Shanghai is Shanghai.” — to understand the respective views of the Chinese people in the respective cities.

[T]he best deal? The underground eyeglass market near the railway station. In this bazaar, jam-packed with booths, you can get a pair of stylish, albeit no-name frames, complete with lenses ground to your prescription–all for a negotiated price of about $22.

Tempting, but good luck trying to find ones that will fit a European face–I actually lost a pair of my glasses in 2003 and could not for the life of me find any that would fit my “American” face–even in a store called “American Eyes.”

In China, it’s not always easy to know what’s going on, even today. CNN periodically blacks out for twenty seconds or so, and good luck navigating your way around the Great Firewall as you trying to get information online about anything having to do with what are referred to as the three “T”s.

True, although back in 2003 as a foreign exchange student I could often get around this through, and this will be the only time I recommend them, AOL. With their own wall-garden, you can access any of your favorite sites blocked, but good luck finding AOL at any 网吧 (Internet cafe).

As I told my friends on why I went to Shanghai instead of Beijing as a foreign exchange student–I wanted to do more than just study the Chinese language, but also learn about China’s history, culture, and economy. In the end, I believe I came back richer for the experience and luckier in terms of a fabulous wife.

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One the things about coming back from a long stay in another area is seeing things that remind you of that area. After having stayed for a grand total of a year in China, a couple of things still remind me of my time in China:

• On my way to work I sometimes see an old Chinese man sitting on a cement bench smoking and just watching the day go by - I can recall many times seeing tens of old Chinese men doing the same thing in Shanghai. Seemed to be quite peaceful just sitting there watching and having a nice slow day.
• Any time the sun is shining and an umbrella comes out on a city street to protect themselves not from rain, but from the sun - Any sunny day on East China Normal University’s campus would be filled with ’sun’ umbrellas protecting their skin to stay as white as possible; a complete reversal of American culture of tanning.

What other things would remind you of China or other places (either good or bad)?

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The Olympics haven’t even started, but here I am talking about the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. Why? Got sent a link to the English version of the site for the Shanghai World Expo.

I had to go to Wikipedia to get a better understanding of what a World Expo is and then to the Shanghai World Expo site to understand what it will be about:

Expo 2010 Shanghai China will be a great event to explore the full potential of urban life in the 21st century and a significant period in urban evolution.

Know a couple of friends who’d be interested in that–number of times I tell him he should go to Shanghai just for the architecture.

Expo 2010 Shanghai China will centre on innovation and interaction.

Call me when it centers around inventions.

Expo 2010 Shanghai China will also be a grand international gathering.

This I don’t doubt.

Why bring this up? I recall back in 2003 in one of Pudong’s parks a huge sign proclaiming the World Expo coming to Shanghai in 2010 or so…

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Venture Capital continues to increase to China, particularly in advanced of the Olympics, as $3.2 billion has been put into Chinese companies, an increase from $1.8 billion the previous year according to John Boudreau of the San Jose Mercury News on May 11, 2008 titled Money Pours into China, Despite Challenges.

The innovation of the Silicon Valley and its reputation around the world has sparked interest within China to create its own areas, with most of the money being sent to Beijing or Shanghai metropolitan areas as centers of China’s high-tech world.

It may be easy to get money for start-ups within China, but the brutal secret of business within China is just how competitive the environment is. China may still be the new land of opportunity, but to really make a stable Silicon Valley environment, it will require a stable supply of energy for the industry, strong individualistic sentiments, and lack of government regulations that are often hard to come by in other nations.

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David Temple at Multilingual Search notes that the next Search Marketing Expo will be in Xiamen, China:

Third Door Media, Inc. producer of the Search Marketing Expo events, the Search Engine Land news site and the Search Marketing Now webcast series, announced they will produce Search Markekting Expo (SMX) events in Xiamen and Shanghai, China this year. Third Door Media has partnered with TimeV Media, an internet and search marketing conference producer in China, to produce these events. The Xiamen event will be held April 18-19 and Shanghai in [October].

That said, I’m more interested in the one that will be held in Shanghai in October, maybe I can convince my wife to up our time to visit Shanghai to October and get a pass to visit SMX Shanghai.

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The concern over electromagnetic radiation from the proposed extension of the Shanghai Maglev reminds me of the days when people were freaking out about the same kind of radiation from power line towers (not to mention the same from cell phones). In fact, that concern grew so much back in high school we actually nicknamed one park in Fremont “cancer park” since it was under a couple of power line areas. People would refuse to buy the homes that were near those power lines, so freaked out they were over bogus reports.

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After seeing Carl Pei’s article over at To Be Rich Is To Be Glorious, I had to follow-up with my own list with some taken from his as well. First the good reasons:

1. Food: During 4 months, I ate out for lunch and dinner every day. Everything is available for a cheap price there. Japanese? No problem, 5 minute walk to Aeon Jusco (Japanese supermarket chain) where there’s a really nice Japanese restaurant on the third floor with a sushi bar (the rolling band type), good tempura and ramen too. Phad-thai, Korean barbecue? No problem. Also, there’s a host of Chinese restaurants for all Chinese flavors; Cantonese, Sichuan & Northern. Fast food was close at hand too, with KFC and McDonald’s within a 5 minute walk.

No doubts about that, could get any type, anywhere, for cheap.

2. Transportation: Taxi everywhere, all the time; have a chat with the taxi driver and you’re at your destination. Effortless. Especially useful when out late.

Yeup, had a great time chatting with them as well, good at practicing your Chinese in addition.

3. Nightlife: Nightlife in Southern China rocks. Party like a Rock Star (you’re free to interpret that ), party until 6 AM. Anything is possible. Clubs and bars are much better renovated, and staff are much friendlier.

Nothing could beat the nightlife like Shanghai from food to bars and ‘discos ‘ (clubs essentially).

4. Civilization: Zhuhai is situated close to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Macau & Hong-Kong. Whenever you need some fast-living, you know you’re never far.

Heck, even the suburbs around Shanghai are bigger than San Francisco. (more…)

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