Saturday, October 28, 2006
A Shanghai Surprise
Greetings from Shanghai, folks. I got here this afternoon and I am on a well-deserved two week vacation, of which China will take up the most time. This is a trip that I've been excited by more than most, because I've always, always, wanted to visit China. I know China is not Shanghai or Beijing, but one has to start someplace, right? First things first though. All this talk of comparisons between any Indian city (specifically Bombay) and Shanghai is absolute rubbish and noone who has seen both cities will even bother making any comparison. Shanghai is lightyears ahead of Bombay in terms of liveability, infrastructure, style etc. It will take Bombay about 20 years to get to where Shanghai is today, and even that will take about $50 billion in additional investment in the next 10 years. The real benchmarks for Shanghai are New York and Hong Kong, not any city in India. Not even remotely.
The two things that most impressed me today since I arrived were the Maglev train from Pudong to Longyang, and the seemingly amazing freedom enjoyed by women in the city. The Maglev train is clearly one of the fastest trains in the world and it feels unbelievably fast too, though at some sharp turns, one does feel a little nervous given that these turns are being done at 300 kmph+. The top speed I observed today was 431 kmph, which the train maintains for about 2 mins, and the distance was covered in about 8-9 mins. Here are a couple of before/after pics to illustrate my point.
A quick word about the freedom enjoyed by women as well. I just returned from a stroll down from my hotel to the Bund and it's about 2:30 am now. All along the street I walked on, there were women strolling about, with and without men accompanying them. There were single women waiting at bus stops (the buses seem to run regularly at night) and there was absolutely no issues. Now, I don't know if this is peculiar to the area I was in, but nonetheless something that really impressed me. The ability for women to walk about in peace and without fear of harassment, is to me, a hallmark of a great city.
Depending on the availability of access, I hope to keet this blog updated with my general impressions about Shanghai, Beijing etc. In the meanwhile, if any of you are in Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok, Singapore in the next couple of weeks, and would like to grab a beer, please let me know via e-mail. I am looking forward to hanging out with my co-blogger and wikipedia maven, Andrew Lih, and my close friend from NYC, Valerie, whilst in Beijing. Anyone else?
PS: Lest any of you think I have become an unadulterated fan of China, that's not true at all. Shanghai might have all this insanely good infrastructure and architectural style that would leave most western cities in the dust, but that still does not mean I can access blogspot with any reliability, for obvious reasons, I presume. I cannot seem to access any blogspot blog including ZS, though it's no problem reading then using bloglines. And between basic freedom of speech and an insanely fast train, you know what I would choose :)
The two things that most impressed me today since I arrived were the Maglev train from Pudong to Longyang, and the seemingly amazing freedom enjoyed by women in the city. The Maglev train is clearly one of the fastest trains in the world and it feels unbelievably fast too, though at some sharp turns, one does feel a little nervous given that these turns are being done at 300 kmph+. The top speed I observed today was 431 kmph, which the train maintains for about 2 mins, and the distance was covered in about 8-9 mins. Here are a couple of before/after pics to illustrate my point.
A quick word about the freedom enjoyed by women as well. I just returned from a stroll down from my hotel to the Bund and it's about 2:30 am now. All along the street I walked on, there were women strolling about, with and without men accompanying them. There were single women waiting at bus stops (the buses seem to run regularly at night) and there was absolutely no issues. Now, I don't know if this is peculiar to the area I was in, but nonetheless something that really impressed me. The ability for women to walk about in peace and without fear of harassment, is to me, a hallmark of a great city.
Depending on the availability of access, I hope to keet this blog updated with my general impressions about Shanghai, Beijing etc. In the meanwhile, if any of you are in Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok, Singapore in the next couple of weeks, and would like to grab a beer, please let me know via e-mail. I am looking forward to hanging out with my co-blogger and wikipedia maven, Andrew Lih, and my close friend from NYC, Valerie, whilst in Beijing. Anyone else?
PS: Lest any of you think I have become an unadulterated fan of China, that's not true at all. Shanghai might have all this insanely good infrastructure and architectural style that would leave most western cities in the dust, but that still does not mean I can access blogspot with any reliability, for obvious reasons, I presume. I cannot seem to access any blogspot blog including ZS, though it's no problem reading then using bloglines. And between basic freedom of speech and an insanely fast train, you know what I would choose :)
