Sweating it out in Shanghai

Shanghai. Smoggy, sticky, chaotic, mutli-faceted, noisy, alive and sprawling. What else can say about this a place I almost feared coming too?

My friend says foreigners tend to either sink or swim here. Things are that extreme. I can believe him. I suppose it's not that different from London. According to him most who come here to seek their fortune sink but he's actually doing very well for himself, indeed he loves the place for all its paradoxes and energy. I don't think I could handle living here though and certainly not without learning the language.

The dichotomies are stark. Nowhere else have I see such a mixture of the new and the old, rich and poor, high-rises and quaint terrace houses. It's ugly and grimy in places whilst magnificent and even charming in others.

We woke up late today (a bad habit we're getting in to) to the sound of fighting in the street outside and not the Kung Fu variety we cared to imagine. Not knowing exactly where our hotel is located (all our maps are rubbish) , we have been using our compass to get around. We're quite close to the Bund area by the river so it's hard to go too far astray. What a lot of big buildings there are here, many of which appear to loom from literally out of nowhere as you approach them and yet the smog isn't that bad at the moment, so we're told! I can feel the pollution in my lungs though and don't like it!

Since taxis are hard to find and the metro doesn't appeal we have been walking for as long as is bearable in this chaotic, multi-faceted city which feels like an inferno. We've been on the rather brilliant if incredibly naff Bund Sightseeing Tunnel ride which took us from one side of the river to the other whilst blurting out sound effects worthy of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and meaningless phrases such as 'media storm', 'molten magna mass' ' underwater wars'. Indeed, there was something very Dr. Who about it!

We've also enjoyed dinner in the French Concession area with friends. It reminded me a lot of Kensington with it's swanky bars, majestic houses and tree lined roads.

After a good hour or so of searching for the Yuyuan Garden in the Old Town today, we finally found it hidden within a maze of tea, clothes, gadgets and souvenir shops. Very pretty they are too. We also did a bit of birthday present shopping while we were at it. Ric's becoming ever such a good haggler! I keep seeing things I'd like for my fantasy home in Sydney.

We also found out that the Jade bracelet Ric bought me in Hong Kong is in fact just Agate. We were had!

In some ways the city probably hasn't changed much in several hundred years and never will despite how rich it becomes. People will always cycle with flagrant disregard for traffic signals, other vehicles or pedestrians. Women will always hang their laundry out of their windows to dry. Street food consisting of among many other things, dumplings, noodles and barbequed meat will for ever tantalise the passer by.

I imagine, but this is purely speculative - after all, who am I to know anything about the powers that be here? - that the Chinese Government will always try to pay its workers the lowest minimum wage so foreign companies will continue to invest and outsource their production to here. If this is the case the rich will become increasingly rich and the poor respectively poorer. They are a clever people that's for sure. Shrewd, bold, stubborn and canny. I rather admire them and their business accumen.

I reckon we'll spend another day here tomorrow and then move on to somewhere more rural.