Shanghai
The alarm is ringing loudly. It's 6:30, but the demobilisation operations required this awakening since the departure of our train was scheduled for 8:30 (the ticket costs 10 euros each person). This time the usual odyssey is saved from us considered the short distance (3 hours by train) to run in order to reach our final stage:
Shanghai. Already now the environment was completely different than what we were accustomed to see further northwards: the glance goes to the enormous skyscrapers placed everywhere, a decidedly more mild climate and a ferment of people even much more intense (if possible) compared to the previous city. For today's trip we opted for public transport (buses and underground, 20 euro cents each person) abandoning the taxi now banned because of our pockets, that proved to be effective as we have also reached the hotel booked for us by a Trevisan moved here in
Shanghai: Alessandra Zanardo (very kind). Once passed the usual formulas related to the traditional check-in to get into the hotel, we directed downtown: despite we already knew what
Shanghai could show, the vision of all these skyscrapers and the classic metropolitan air, left us punctually speechless perhaps also because we were now accustomed to a more "traditional" China.
Our visit extended beyond our expectations, so we decided since we were downtown to test the nowadays famous Chinese cuisine, choosing a distinctive dinner in a little street specialized in spaghetti (noodles). This experiment proved to be more than satisfactory, since the cook prepared our food on real time in the kitchen directly on the street, as our grandmothers did in the past. The price was more than satisfactory (1 euro/each person), especially if we consider the fact that our meal consisted in two big dishes of pasta, two of rice, two of meat and finally other two bowls of vegetable broth: excellent and abundant for troops.
Conclusion on China
Our adventure in China is now finished and we felt it was appropriate to give an opinion on this immense country. First of all, despite our tour was limited to four cities, what seems most obvious is the difference we found between the inland and the coast as between the north and south of the country. While the coast suffered a worldwide influence (and developed itself as result), the interior seems to have been stopped at 100 years ago. Seeing these landscapes seems to enter in one of those grandparents' stories, telling about life devoted to work and sacrifice.
The fruit of our reflection is fully represented in the difference between the two major (and symbolic) cities in China. Beijing still has traditional skyscrapers next to signs of progress, with regard to its ancient soul (see the characteristic popular quarters), speech that, on our humble opinion, can't be repeated for
Shanghai, where the historical part (still existing), is becoming dominated by the desire for progress. The distance between tradition and progress is reflected, directly proportional, in the behaviours of locals matching foreign people (like us): the habit to continuous relationships, brought by the needs of trading, allowed us to entertain more fruitful relations.
The last consideration, of course made to satisfy the criticism of our readers, has to be made on repeatedly cited Chinese cuisine. Before starting with the thoughts, you'd better set yourself free from the stereotypic spring rolls: infact the plates made available to the good rods are so many that even the Chinese don't know them all. Even dinners consumed in the most unthinkable and shady places may reserve pleasant surprises (scissorhands Edward, for example). Saying that, despite everything, it must be considered that Chinese tastes are different from ours and often tend to mix sweet with salty tastes, with the possibility of falling in sensational errors.