A 20-hour train journey from Kowloon brought me to Shanghai! Thankfully, I was the only person in my train compartment, which was probably the only thing that preserved my sanity. I had, what I think was truly the most awful meal ever, in the bar car of the train! Swine flu panic was in full effect and I had my temperature taken 4 times before I was actually allowed to enter “China.” God, the people are paranoid!
Shanghai is an odd city, and may well epitomize the dysfunctionalilty of Chinese culture. It’s touted by the government as being an international city, but the main train station had no information boot, no ATMs and no one that spoke a word of English in the general vicinity. The city is chock full of international companies and loads of sky-scrapers, but yet, the ordinary citizens (of which there are many) live in an essentially very rural and often squalid environments, all crammed into apts., with poor infrastructure, toilets in the ground or outhouses, laundry hanging out the windows, etc. Traffic is a whole other nightmare, with loads of bicycles, scooters, cars and trucks all vying for space on the crowded city streets. Mind you, no one pays any attention to things like stop signs, traffic lights and designated lanes. Crossing the street is a dangerous proposition! All of this is further complicated by Expo 2010, some huge international event that Shanghai is preparing for next year, which they’ve decided means that they need to create absolute chaos in an already crowded city by putting up new buildings practically on every block.
Ended up staying at a fab hostel in the north-eastern part of the city, was a bit out of the city center , but it was well worth it…great place, was in a beautiful old European style building near a park and on a historic street that‘s closed to cars. Recently remodeled with fantastic, big bathrooms, new comfy beds, awesome bar and rezzie and free wifi. The owners and the staff are young, fun and very helpful. Actually ended up hanging out with Debra, this recent uni-grad that’s working there because she can’t find a professional job in her field of study. She ended up being sort of my private tour guide and we spent one very rainy day walking through the old part of the city and eating excellent freshly made xiao long bao dumplings!
Susan S. Singh Art 
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