Just Back From ...

Shanghai

Shanghai and the rebirth of the ‘Wow’ factor.

by Bill Lee

I had arrived at Shanghai’s impressive Pu Dong airport late in the evening so, by the time I reached downtown, there was just enough time for a stroll along bustling Nanjing Rd to get my first feel of China’s major economic centre and fastest growing city, then a martini in the hotel’s classic piano bar, then bed.

It’s early when I hit the chilly streets and head for the famous Bund. Suddenly an army of shining swords are pointing in my direction! – but no worries, it’s a sword dancing exercise group utilizing their pre allocated bit of public area for a morning warm up. The whole world seems to be involved in some form of exercise. There’s an amazing variety of Tai Chi groups, drumming groups, a precision marching group of young people with wildly coloured hair who I later find are hairdressers (but never establish why hairdressers march) – and, when the strains of a waltz burst through the morning chill, pairs of straight backed ballroom dancers swirl in strict time and space, efficiently utilizing the complete area of a department store entrance.

The Bund is the Embankment of Shanghai, a waterfront where a thousand vessels of every conceivable shape and size ply the Huangpu river 24 hours a day. As I emerge from the pedestrian underpass the sun begins to break through the mist and catches a red kite which flits high above the river, it’s colour so bright it seems to be ablaze. As the mist disperses I turn and ‘Wow” there it is , the famous Bund. The impressive classical architecture of these buildings has looked out on the most amazing cultural changes since their European ‘lords and master’ erected them. These are the same buildings my great friend Peter Potok’s family would have arrived to when they escaped from Nazi Germany, the same buildings they would have seen as they then fled from a war torn Shanghai. The Bund’s Peace Hotel is the same hotel my mate Barry Payne stayed at in the late 1970s on a buying trip for his fashion house. Then it was Shanghai’s only ‘good’ hotel, now the architecture of a multitude of skyscrapers can only be described as breathtaking.

I’m actually here to test drive a Helen Wong’s Tour and I have to give it top marks. This is a huge city - China is a huge country - therefore location and good tour guiding are of paramount importance. The Central Hotel in Shanghai is indeed central and it’s facilities are excellent. Our guide Lang is a mature, well informed, delightful lady who tirelessly exposes us to a whole array of Shangai’s ‘Wow’ Factors. The beautiful Yu Yuan Garden which is the basis of Willow Pattern China ware ‘Wow”, the exhilarating Shanghai Acrobatic Show ‘Wow,’ scared of heights me hurtling to the top of the Jin Mao Tower, the world’s third highest building ‘bugger’ – oops I mean ‘Wow’, the nearby old river town of Zhujiajiao (Tom Cruise is filming Mission Impossible 3 in one such town at this very time) ‘Wow”, and seeing the Bund suddenly illuminated from a Huangpu river evening cruise ‘Woooooow!’

Yes, just when I thought my ‘Wow’ Factor had been de commissioned along came Shanghai. It’s totally exciting, fascinating, it’s safe, it’s a shoppers paradise – you can buy fake anything here for a song. Any negatives? – not really. With a population of 13 million plus it’s no surprise that everywhere is always busy – the pollution (OK I know I called it mist but I can’t help being an incurable, travel bug bitten romantic) – and the smoking and the spitting, luckily the latter is more accurately directed than the former.

At night I wander back down to the Peace Hotel to see the ‘Old China Jazz Band’ listed on the tourist brochure as ‘ Jazz Band of the Aged’!. These guys are all 70 years plus and practiced together in secret during the Cultural Revolution when western music was banned. I have to beg to get in as there are no tables left. The place is full of people from every corner of the earth on a nostalgia trip – the music becomes irrelevant, but the atmosphere – ‘Wow’!

Next stop Beijing – but that’ll be another story.

If you want to know anything about a Helen Wong Tour to China just call one of our Travel Experts or email me blee@travel.com.au. - go on! Everyone needs a bit of ‘Wow’ in their life.