Had a wonderful trip to Shanghai, China this past week. This was my first visit to what has now become the worlds largest city (20million+ people). I explained the view as stacking 50 New York Long Islands side by side. Our ride from the airport to the hotel took approximately an hour and a half and at no time were we out of view of sky scrappers.
The cultural variations are amazing. You have high-priced autos mixing in with people powered tricycles. You have 50-60 story sky scrappers standing next to historic temples. The one observation I found the most interesting is the lack of people smiling or laughing. Setting in a sidewalk cafe, we observed people walking by for almost an hour. During that time we did not see a single person smile or laughing.
We did get a good look at where our government is headed if things continue. We experience crosswalk police on every corner telling people when the walk light was green or red. Yes, that is 4 police officers on every street corner. In addition, we saw workers painting garbage cans, one person per can or rail. Thats a lot of painters. Anyway, the visit was well worth it.
