Shang hai was a real mixed-bag experience
for Rob and I. It has probably been the only place so far where we were definitely ready
to leave. This probably should not reflect on the city itself and more on some
unfortunate happenings and frustrations that could have happened anywhere.
The (very) good
A highlight of our time in
Shanghai was easily our viewing of the CircusWorld: ERA performance. Everyone we knew who had visited Shanghai
had recommended this to us. It was very entertaining and the performers were
extremely skilled. I could not fathom how they achieved many elements of the
show! I was impressed with the artistic integration of live performance and
video, as well as the effective use of space. My favourite performance involved
a man using the crook of his ankle to lop several bowls onto his head, all this
while balancing on several layers of wood planks with glasses wobbling
in-between. (Oh and this was in a boat.) Rob most enjoyed an acrobatic ribbon
dance that saw a couple flying round the stage, held up by the ribbons and each
other.
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| Circus night |
We also really enjoyed the
contrast of old and new in Shanghai, the flowers and gardens, some fabulous
dumplings, scrumptious pancakes and the waitress that spontaneously stroked
Rob’s arm to touch his hair!
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| The new! |
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| Enjoying a garden break |
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| Spring: a nice time to visit Shanghai |
The bad
Shanghai promised to be the place
we would finally, after much hard work on an application initiated in 2014,
receive our visa’s to Russia. The backbone of our trip and a part of both our
travel dreams was to across Russia on the Trans-Mongolian route. It was how we
described our trip before we left. However, as we found out in Shanghai, it was
not to be. More details here.
Our attempts to doing anything
on the internet in Shanghai were continually hampered by the Great Firewall of China. I had no idea
it would be this hard. We had set-up a VPN before entering- it did not work.
The biggest problem was not being able to reliably access gmail and use google
maps to organise our onward travel. I now truly understand how much command
Google has over us and a multitude of websites!
The ugly
A day after our visa
disappointment, we met some con artists. I like to think our experience with
the well-known* tea ceremony scam is further evidence that anyone is
susceptible to the work of such people. (I have done a little bit of research
in the psychology of sales.) All the signs were there (distraction: check,
“you’re like us”: check, reciprocity effect: check, likeability: check, etc,
etc.) but somehow we kept going. I think we felt defeated after our visa let
down and wanted someone to be friendly to us. We also hadn’t found too many
people to hold a conversation with in awhile. All that said, and despite the
fact I know that this is what these people do for living and that they are good at
it, we still felt stupid afterwards. And though this could have happened
anywhere in the world, it has left an impression on us that we will always
somewhat associate with Shanghai. On the positive side, we did see short tea
ceremony, have a conversation that day and it didn’t leave too much of a hole
in our pockets.
*Well known but well…we didn’t know!
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| Not a parade: manning the crossings on a busy Shang Hai night. We (maybe) needed one of these guys in our tea "party" |
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| Such tourists! |
We still enjoyed much of our
time in Shanghai but it probably not somewhere I will hurry back to.
SHANG HAI TIPS:
* Go to ERA performance: you will not be disappointed.
* Shang hai is beautiful in Spring.
* There are friendly people in the world but some that appear friendly in Shang hai will be the infamous tea ceremony scammers- be on alert!
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