Now on Blogger

Welcome to Shanghailander.net on blogger. If you come from the old host, you made it over successfully. I am glad you are staying along. For the newcomers, I write a weekly post about Old Shanghai.
I had been using Typepad as a blog hosting service since the beginning, i.e. two years ago. However, a few months ago Typepad blogs became inaccessible in China. With the Olympics approaching a large number of blogs became blocked. This had not consequence for anybody out of China... but for all my Shanghai friends it became a serious issue. I have tried to go around it using Facebook as a display and giving the address of proxies to a number of friends... but at the end of the day, it is not possible to have a blog about Shanghai... that is not visible in Shanghai. Blogger has been more clever than Typepad on this, introducing a system that allows viewer in China to get through, so I finally move to Blogger.

During my holidays in the Philippines, I have moved all the posts to this new host. The www.shanghailander.net address should be working very soon, i.e. when I have managed to solve some techincal difficulties. That should only take a couple of days. For the subscribers of the blog, there surely is a way to do that in Blogger as well but I have not found it yet. Please send me a mail if you want to continue receive notices about posts.

While moving all the posts I also took time to read them again (and correct some typos). It was a great time to see how this blog has evolved from an simple idea to a weekly column about the great city that is Shanghai. Postings will continue on a weekly basis, so see you at the new address: www.shanghaioldnew.blogspot.com and soon www.shanghailander.net

Red Mandarin dress

This is the fifth novel of inspector Chen. I read the four others last year, after having seen Qiu Xiaolong speaking at the Shanghai Literary festival. The other novels were really enjoyable, so I could not wait to read this one. At first, it seemed just like another inspector Chen novel. Another young chinese girl killed in strange circumstances in Shanghai in the late nineties. Once again, the novel start with a crime that inspector Chen has to solve... this sounds very much like every one of the inspector Chen novels. But this one deviates from the normal course really fast as the killer starts again one week later. Putting the corpses in very visible location (first on Dong Hu lu / Huai Hai lu), on People Square the murderer is sure to create heavy publicity for himself... just at the time when our favorite inspector is putting his job on the back burner... I won't spoil it all by telling the end, but this new novel is a page turner.
Qiu Xialong novel also evolve one after the other. They are all happening in the 90's in Shanghai, but this one clearly includes a number of element that are more from 2000 Shanghai than 1990. From one novel to the next, we see the character's life evolving and the city change. Part of the intrigue is still base on Cultural revolution and dark secrets from this time that come back to the surface many years later, but the whole topic also becomes broader including more part of Shanghai's history. At the same time, the novel keeps in touch with the city's reality and depicting the specific atmosphere of the transforming city. Reading it was a couple of hours of pure enjoyment.

.sh

Saint Helena Island is mostly famous for having hosted Napoleon after he was surrendering in 1815. The British first kept him in Elba island near Italy. The location prooved not to be far enough since Napoleon actually came back and restored his power for a few months. This period is known in France as the 100 days ("Les cent jours"). At their second attempt, the British empire sent him as far as they could, i.e. Saint Helena Island, South Atlantic. The Island seem to have all the features of the dream tropical island with blue sea and palm trees, though it is surrounded by rocky shores. About only 5000 people live on the island... but they found a new resource.
The internet domain name for Saint Helena is sh . It had little use until a clever Shanghai based weekly (8 days) started to use it for its website (the domain does not work anymore since the newspaper has changed its name and ownership). They came up with www.8days.sh. I think that most people in Shanghai associated this URL with 8 days Shanghai. Suddenly, .sh started to find many more usage. There are not so many yet, but I have already spotted www.hudec.sh, celebrating the 50th year anniversary of Hungarian architect Laszlo Hudec death. As Shanghai is become a leading city in Asia and the world, I am pretty sure more of those will soon appear. The 2010 Shanghai World expo should also help a lot.
St Helenans have spotted the opportunity as a .sh domain currently costs USD 120 / year, about 10 times more than a .com or .cn . Like Tuvalu Islands making money out of the .tv internet domains, another tiny island finds itself with a great money maker. Shanghai is becoming richer and richer, and I am sure that this kind of money will not deter Shanghainese to proudly advertise their beloved city. With its (nearly) own domain on the worldwide web, Shanghai is really becoming a world city.

Shanghai is coming to you

I was reading a Shanghai based magazine recently, when I caught a full page advertising for Dragonfly Massage. I remember when Dragonfly started, or at least when the franchise had 2-3 shops. The surprise was that they now have many many more. Not only is there about 10 stores in Shanghai, but they also have a branch in Suzhou, a few in Beijing as well as Oslo (yes, in Norway) and soon opening in Dubai. If I am well informed, Dragonfly was originally started by Singaporeans but it's a true Shanghai creation. Thriving business in the city certainly helped them to grow and they are on track to open in many world locations soon. I'm not sure if I will got Dubai or Oslo any time soon, but I can imaging the day I will be passing by a Dragonfly store somewhere in the world and not be surprised about it anymore.
Dragonfly may be the most visible Shanghai franchise taking over China before going worldwide, but they are not the only one. I was recently having lunch at two of the most well known restaurant - Cafe in Shanghai i.e. Wagas and Element Fresh. When I arrived in Shanghai in early 2004, both stores were amongst the very few foreign cafes in the in the business district of Nanjing XI Lu. Both stored opened less than one year before. They now have about 10 stores each, with locations in Beijing and probably plans for other cities in China. They are the kind of franchise I could see soon in Hong Kong or Singapore and later in New York or London. Then, I will be able to say "I used to go to their first store in Shanghai, right when they started". This will probably sound like "I was a friend of Colonel Sander's" or that "I used to get my coffee from the original Starbucks in Seattle".
Services chain are not alone in this, I know at least two design firms of Shanghai that have opened stores abroad, Jooi Design and Shanghai Trio. I cannot count in the famous Shanghai Tang... as it is a Hong Kong brand. They both were opened by expat ladies who got relocated to a new place where they continued distribution of their Shanghai created brand. These circumstances certainly helped... but I was so proud last time I went to Budapest, to walk into the Jooi Design store and say "I usually go to the store in Shanghai". You should have seen the face of the local sales girl, she could barely believe it. Another example is my friends from Phonepha / The French Tailor, shipping suits and shirts all over the world.
These are times when I am proud to be a Shanghai expat (even a little bit of a Shanghailander). This is when I strongly identify with my host city. It surely helps that the franchises I mentioned were created and mostly frequented by foreigners like me. I am also thrilled when I see a add for Haier in France, a Great Wall car dealership in Romania, or can get cash at an ATM in Brussels with my Union Pay Card. But the Shanghai franchises are so much closer to my heart. When I see them expending, I somewhat feel like I took part in their growth. Not only Shanghai welcomes all kind of chains and products from all over the world. Its local firms expend in China and the rest of the world. With the Shanghai touch reaching out to the world, Shanghai is really becoming a world city.

The Fall of Kashgar

Savage destruction of old cities is nothing unusual for people living in today's China. We all have witnessed the fast disappearance of the Hutongs of Beijing and of the Shikumens in Shanghai. These are the most well known examples of what has been happening in China since the 50's. Commercialization and economic opening have accelerated the process since the late 90's, fueled by the appetite of mega real estate companies. They eagerly transform century old ways of communication into "Prime real estate location" with great potential return. In the meantime, they forget that the value of the land was mostly created by the generations that walked these streets before, much more than by the cheaply built concrete stacks they added up on the top of it. This is clearly supported by all kind of authorities whose interest in the process varies from genuine (but sometimes misplaced) will to propel people into a brand new world... to more direct lucrative personal interest. Often both are closely intertwined, the former being an excellent excuse for the later.
Kashgar's case is even more touching, as one can easily feel the ideological touch behind it. Walking in the old city, you fell like you are somewhere between Tehran or Marrakesh, as far away from Beijing as you can be. The last remains of the century old city walls are used as junkyards and old tombs are being surrounded by concrete blocks. A Chinese city that looks totally out of place was created next to the old Kashgar. It is still possible to see really old remains but one really has to look for it out of the fast reducing central old quarter. Most of them are one or two floors buildings surrounded by concrete blocks with blue windows and white tiles... they are scheduled for destruction soon. The most ridiculous of it all is the Aldous Huxley's Brand New World style new city that is standing empty in the middle of the countryside. Designed to host people living in the old city, it remains unused as the inhabitants refuse to leave traditional habitat. The new argument to move them out is the scare of earthquake, somewhat reminding of the destruction of Bam in Iran in 2003. This is surely a real danger, but I somehow doubt whether the quickly built concrete blocks would resist any better to an earthquake that traditional constructions.
Fast destruction of Kashgar is such a remainder of the fast destruction of my beloved Shanghai. Replacing traditional houses with concrete blocks seems the instant solution to urbanization questions at each end of the country.

Life at the end of the lane

Old Zhang is sitting in his home, at the end of the lane, looking at the cranes tearing down the street. “I was born in this street, and now they break it down. It does not look so good but I am used to it and to this neighborhood. ‘Your house is not just a shag, it’s a jewel of XIXth century colonial architecture.’ I’m not sure what it means, but it’s what a passing by foreigner told me with his terrible Chinese. He also told me that the cube of a house next door was a jewel of Art Deco. I am not sure what he meant about either but this all seamed pretty important for him. It does not matter anymore, he has gone away and they torn down this house last week.
They told me that it’s for the best, that our life in a far away suburb, in a new high rise building will be so much comfortable. It’s surely true, but I don’t want to go. It’s not the little money they want to give us to move away, that will be enough in any case. I can’t remember the name of this new place and I don’t even want to learn it. All my friends will be lost, spread into various districts, and I will loose all my life with it. It’s maybe the future, but I’m not sure I want to be part of it. The past was tough some times, but not always so bad. I am so sad for Shanghai and my home that the skyscrapers are rapidly eating.
My son already moved to this new apartment and loves it. He often comes by to take me there, but I still refuse to go. Old Ma, my old neighbor, moved into one of this new tower about a year ago. He was the first ones to go, moving with a smile on his face, realizing the long life dream to have a place of his own. He had been promised long time ago to get an apartment and it finally came. He disappeared for a while, and then started to come back. He comes here everyday now. It takes him hours to cross the whole city, just to enjoy old friends and familiar places. He says life is comfortable there, but there is nobody to talk to. My life has always been at the end of this lane and I can’t imagine it differently. Seeing it disappear makes me feel that I am also going to die soon.

Quelques grammes de culture dans un monde de brutes

The above title refers to a famous French TV 1980's advertising. Lindt chocolate was described as "Quelques grammes de finesse dans un monde de brute" (that could be translated as "a few moments of light in a very dark world"). This really applies to the Shanghai International Literary Festival. As much as I like Shanghai, this city is not a cultural center, but the festival brings a lot of it to us.

Shanghai International Literary Festival was taking place this month. As a literature fan and heavy reader, I spent most of my weekends at the conferences.Events take place in the wonderful atmosphere of Glamour Bar, giving it a real touch of the old Shanghai. The old building of Bund #5, renovated by lovers of Old Shanghai with a touch of modernity is the perfect cradle for the event. In the city of modern skyscrapers, electronic billboard advertising and constant marketing noisy aggression taking about a "old" media like book was a blessing. The weather was foggy, modern towers in the other side of the river were disappearing through the mist. Looking at the next door building (3 on the Bund), it felt like we were back in the days of old Shanghai. We were listening to a single person talking about their love of writing and books, just like our predecessors must have done decades ago. I enjoyed the conferences tremendously, as well as the highly cultural atmosphere.

I have to admit that I did not read most of the books that were discussed before the sessions, but I left with a massive stack of reading to do. Conferences I enjoyed including Qiu Xialong (writer of the chief inspector Chen), Amy Tan ("The Joy Luck Club"), Arlette Shleifer ("Le Bar Rouge" which ends on the Bund), Xiaolu Guo ("A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for lovers") and many others. The closing session of the festival was the launching of the new guide to the Bund by Peter Hibbard.

Shanghai is not the city of culture, but the literary festival definitely brings a lot on that field. Thanks to this great event, Shanghai is becoming a little bit more of a world cultural city.

City of the flat world

"The World is flat" is a book from Thomas Friedman about globalization and the changes it is bringing to the world, companies and individuals. The main point is that the World has become a level playing field on a worldwide basis.
The collapse of Marxist Leninist style of regimes has allowed 3 billions of people (Russia, China, India and others) to join the capitalist system. The Internet and other technologies have made communicating with the whole word something easy. Work flow software allows to cut service work into pieces that can be separated and done anywhere in the world, before being put together. This was previously only possible with production of goods. Manufacturing is now "off-shored" to places like China. Services can be "outsourced offshore". Most people connected to the Internet can "upload" their creations or point of view in such things as this blog, or wikipedia (that is very difficult to access in China because it's banned). All data and information created by humans can be accessed and searched via search engines and the Internet.
I read this book within a few days mostly in the plane as I was traveling between Asia and Europe. For most people involved in international business, it's very clear that the world has actually gone flat. Although, the book did not bring much news to me, it's still enjoyable to read an analysis of this phenomenon that is influencing our lives so greatly. The version I read was the one from 2006, that was already revised, though I think one point was missing. Friedman explain clearly that the information is becoming much more diverse, with a very large share of the Internet being in other languages than English... but the reasoning does not go to the logical conclusion, i.e. that native English speakers should also learn foreign languages instead of waiting for others to learn there, being able to master it along with their own.
During the whole reading, I could not stop thinking about Shanghai today. This city is the center of the business battlefield for the largest market in the world. Any company of a respectable size has to be in China and most multinational companies make it the center of their growth for the next decades. As a consequence, the city is full with foreigners from any nationality you can think of. Shanghai today is one of the metropolis of the flat world... and will maybe become it's capital though there is still a long way to go. Thanks to Friedman's "flattening factors" Shanghai is everyday becoming more of a world city.

Sliding doors

Shanghai underground train is one of the feature of the new Shanghai. As opposed to Beijing which metro was started in the 50's with Soviet help, Shanghai Metro was only started in the 90's. New lines are being built at fast speed, opening the one after the other. The first time I was in Shanghai in 1998, line 1 was just starting with only a few stations. Line 1 has been expended, line 2, 3, 4 and 5 have been put into actions. The Shanghai Metro authority just opened the extension of line 2 towards Hong Qiao.
The only real node was People Square station for a long time. Peak hours in the corridor going from Line 1 to Line 2 is just like going through a sea of black hair. Riding the metro then always involves a lot of pushing around in the very dense crowd. The trains and stations get packed and everybody is jut trying to keep a little space for him/herself, and trying not to fall on other people. No politeness or manners in here and people nearly climb on each other sometimes. It feels a little like Paris metro on strikes days, when the number of trains is drastically reduced. The most funny or annoying is that people climbing in the train often don't let people go out first. This always creates a mess, and one has to sometimes push people out to be able to escape. I have to admit that education campaigns seem to have an effect as now people step out more often if they are blocking the way, as well as (sometimes) give up their sit for elderlies or women with kids.
Until last year, the Shanghai Metro was relatively simple. The older stations were not really fancy, but pretty effective in carrying tens of thousand people a day. Since then, Shanghai metro has embark on a campaign for modern and fancy look by adding glass sliding doors on the platforms. I am not so sure what is the reason for it. Local people say that people have regularly jumped on the tracks, needing a brand new wall to stop that. As incidents and delays do not seem that frequent I am just convinced that Shanghai metro wants to look like a "world city metro". Like in HongKong and Singapore, they need sliding glass doors. This is where the Shanghai twist comes in. Work was started in some of the stations, without any announcement. There was very little protections for the passengers on the platform. Even better, the glass partitions were installed, but the doors whould not be operating. This made passengers feel very safe behind the glass protection... until they realise that the door was not there... generally when the train was arriving. This whole mess made it look pretty disorganised and even dangerous for unaware passengers. Not all the doors are functioning yet, but after a few monts of being interrupted in the middle, work has restarted. Major stations on line 1 have been equipped and completion now seems near. I am sure the people selling glass doors and separations must have had great connections with the metro authorities. They must now be celebrating. With glass doors and seperations in the it's metro, Shanghai is trying to become a little more of a world city.

Raclette Cheese party

This all started as a joke. I had met this Quebec guy who tried to convince me that cheese in Quebec could rival European ones. To prove his point, he proposed to bring some raclette cheese next he would be in town. Two month later, our Quebecer came back. I then had to organize a raclette cheese party for him to prove the quality of his cheese. The cheese had to be vacuum sealed to avoid smell and get through Chinese borders… but this was only the beginning. Raclette is a very peculiar cheese dish originating from the French and Swiss Alps and Juras mountains. The cheese is melted and eaten while it’s hot with hot potatoes, various dried meets and cold cuts. To do a proper raclette meal required getting the specific cheese (that we had) and the various needed cold cuts that I ordered from my favorite restaurant. However, the most important element was finding a raclette oven. This device is quite popular in France and Switzerland, but finding it in Shanghai was very problematic. I inquired a number of French friends in the restaurant business, but nobody had one. Missing two people to complete the table and I invited a Swiss friend, assuming that he may have access to one. The cheese party was on Sunday lunch. Thursday arrived with still no trace of the needed oven, when suddenly I received a text message from him saying “I will have a raclette oven tomorrow”. I was so relieved that the party could take place… until I received the next message saying “The oven is broken and cannot be used. I should get another one tomorrow.” The whole destiny of my cheese party was hanging on my friend’s plan B. Fortunately the second oven worked out fine. Our lunch on Sunday was really special, as we all had been waiting for it. Eating this dish is truly unusual in Shanghai and we all enjoyed it tremendously. It brought to all of us memories of sky holidays, mountains and snow making us really feel like back in Europe for a moment. This successful lunch required the cooperation of a French bringing Italian cold cuts, a Quebecer bringing cheese all the way from his home land and a Swiss who searched for this special device found only in far away countries. This very exotic experience was shared by another French, a Chinese and a Mongolian friend (who all happened to like cheese very much). This mix of competences and experience was a truly Shanghai story, people and cultures from all around the world mixing in this very special place that Shanghai used to be and is becoming again. Having raclette in Shanghai makes it a little bit more become a World city.

Freezing Shanghai

Winter has fully come to Shanghai. I escaped to the earliest cold wave in late December by flying to a sunnier destination, but holidays are now finished... and the winter has come back. Temperatures during the day are about 5C, but it's below 0C during the night. This would be no problem in anywhere else apart from China, as people have heating... but in Shanghai it's a real pain.
Shanghai old houses used to have fireplaces at least the villas and they were great to heat up those big houses and keep them warm just like their sisters in Europe and USA. Uinfortunately today's Shanghai is different. Sometimes after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, it seems that Chairman Mao decided that people in South China do not need heating. I could imagine that people were supposed to be warmed up by belief in communist ideology... or that all this wood and coal was better used for the development of heavy industry... or something like that. All fireplaces inside houses were filled up with concrete and pipes were broken down (like picture on the left). I also heard that the radiators were melted down to use the metal they were made of. In any case, it was probably a fast track way to reduce energy costs.
The whole issue is about defining what South China is. The actual dividing line is a river, that runs north of Shanghai making the city and the surrounding provinces part of the South... I can tell you that it is cold here during winter. As a consequence, people use air conditionners to heat up rooms. If airconditionners are fine for a slightly chilly climate... they are clearly unsufficient for Shanghai's climate. People push them to the maximum to get a mere 18-20C in rooms. The sales of electric heaters soars along with comsumption of electricity. Because of the real bad efficiency of electric heating and the lack of insulation of houses, a lot of energy is wasted... contributing to more pollution... Shanghai in winter is somewhat less of a world city.

The nexus of Shanghai

It is only a few minutes walk from my beloved and quiet Anting Street, but it's always a shock for me to go to Xu Jia Hui. This area is a major concentration of new buildings in South Western Shanghai. Within a few hundred meters, one can find dozens of shopping centers, including the biggest techmalls (mall specialised in computers and technology products) of the city. It includes one of the major metro station of the (Xu Jia Hui), one of the largest road in Shanghai (twice four lane Zhao Jia Bang Lu, larger than many European motorways), as well as hundreds of buses crossing the district in all directions at all time of the day and night. The area is next to the Shanghai stadium(the largest stadium of the city) and the beginning of the South-Western Shanghai, an area in transformation from industrial to residential. Hundred of thousands of people live in or around Xu Jia Hui making it a major hub for transportation, living, working and shopping. It is also hosting major construction projects and the population is still increasing at a high speed.
This district was always densely populated,mixing industrial and living areas. It used to be covered by little houses with red roof that are still very common in Shanghai. It's now covered with twenty to thirty floors buildings and new ones are being built all the time. Between two skyscrapers, one can discover the largest cathedral and the old south railway station of Shanghai, (now a restaurant, the new station has just been opened a few kilometers further out) and the Shanghai catholic covent.
An unforgettable experience one can have every day is to try and get through the area at peak hours. My friends who working in the area compare it to the experience of going to a major concert... every morning. At that time of the day, the whole district is covered with people and it's nearly impossible to find an empty space. As Xu Jia Hui is also a major shopping district, it gets even more flooded with people on bank holidays. It's difficult to describe this feeling... it's a bit like being in a large demonstration, where the only thing you can is do is to go with the flow. With all kind people mixing, loudspeakers from sales booth, buses and taxis constently horning, the whole area feels like straight out of Blade Runner. Towers, lot's of people, shopping centers everywhere surrounded with car... this is the way that Shanghai is becoming a world city.

Sympathy for the Uighurs

They are around in Shanghai. They cook meat sticks on the charcoal barbecue, sell raisins and dried fruits, try to push you into buying a slice of their sweeties or whole skins of wild foxes. Most of us don't pay much attention for these people that definitely do not look like Han Chinese, and barely speak Chinese anyway. The only time we interact with them is generally around 2 am, when the late night make the smell of grilled meet impossible to ignore. They grill a few meat sticks for us, and we forget them in the night. Most of them are Uighur people, coming from the faraway province of XinJiang.
Like many of the foreigners living in Shanghai, I have heard Xinjiang a lot and I wanted to go there for a long time, so I spent my October holiday there. Ulumuqi was the first shock. In the middle of an uninteresting Chinese city, stands a large Muslim style shopping center... with a Carrefour supermarket in the middle. Walk the street behind, and China disappears for a crowd of central Asian faces, smells and sound. People barely speak Chinese, and prefer broken English to address foreigners. My preferred place was a small square with lot's old guy playing chess under the trees and a supermarket full of products imported from Turkey. This was just the very first time when I had to ironically remind myself that I am in China... otherwise I may simply forget it.
Turpan is another shock altogether. Apart from the People Square and the modern Chinese city, the rest of seems much closer to Tehran or Istanbul than... Beijing. Raisins dry in red brick houses. The muezzin calls for pray several times a day and the most dishes are made of potato and lamb. The deeper you go in Xinjiang, the more you live China behind you. Going to markets in small towns like Yarkan or Markit is just like walking on a market in the middle East or North Africa. Donkey carts are nearly the only available vehicle and women wear various kind of the Islamic veil. By looking around and talking to the local one quickly realize that the local law applied is the Islamic sharia more than anything else.
XinJiang feels like really far from the rest of China, and not only because of the distance. Most people there come from "ethnic minorities" and what you see around does sound, taste,feel and smell very different from the China I am used to.
It's touching to see the proud lords of the desert and mountains of XinJiang province in Shanghai. So far away from their homeland, trying to make a few Yuan selling things but still bringing with them the sun of their province. Now that I have been to their homeland, I appreciate them even more.They bring a lot of colors, sounds and tastes to our all-too-modern and formatted cities. As Shanghai is becoming a world city, I hope they will find a better place here.

Before the storm

The weather was so hot three days ago. The temperature reached 37 degrees (about 100F), and taking a walk outside was the best way to loose liters of water within a few minutes. Streets were deserted, and people were finding refuge in the air-conditioned metro stations, buildings hallways and shopping centers. The temperature dropped a little two days ago, as the wind started to blow the city. From my office on the 18^th floor I could see banners floating, pushed away by the invisible force from the sea. This strong wing sometimes reminds us that Shanghai is a city on the sea (上海 literally means “on the sea”), although we see so little of it. The more and more clouds made the sky darker and darker, as night fell much earlier than usual. We were all waiting for the storm to splash the city coming from the Southern provinces and we were all apprehending it... but the storm did not come. Yesterday morning brought a feeling of relief, as the sky cleared. The very idea of a storm seemed just like a collective nightmare...
Pictures of last year's storm come through my mind, torrent of rain pouring, wind blowing the trees downs, cars looking like boats floating half a meter of water. There are not many storms like this in Shanghai. Typhoons in Hong Kong are very frequent, people simply leave offices and go home when the drill comes. They are prepared, ready for the tempest descending on the city. Typhoons are rare in Shanghai, and the city is far from ready for it. Last year, many of the luxury villas of the suburb were flooded, the designer just did not think so much rain could fall on the city. Some friends got water coming into their expensive apartment, as the construction was just no thick enough to resist the pressure. The wind blew also an advertising sign killing several people in its flight. I can not stop thinking that some of the stuff hanging on balconies on tours and skyscrapers could easily take off and fall on somebody.
The wind has started to blow again today, even stronger than yesterday. Trees are starting to shake, clouds are flying fast in the sky. The whole city is going through the anticipation, the presentiment of the events to come. Everyone knows the storm is coming, everyone can feel it. All streets are crowded, all taxis are taken by people trying to reach home as soon as possible. The city will become a gigantic traffic jam tonight, before getting quiet under the pouring rain. The ambiance is electric, expectancy mixed with fear and haste. The atmosphere before the storm is just really special.

Decadence on the Bund

It's another Sunday, waking up when most of the mornings hour have already vanished. I am thinking of going to brunch, which is just another way of forgetting that breakfast should have happened a few hours ago... when I was still in the first hours of my sleep. I'm looking at time passing so slowly and so fast at the same time, feeling somewhat guilty of this lost morning of free time. I could have used all this time for the many interesting things that have always been planing but never done, instead of staying in my bed, recovering from last night's dancing and drinking. I'm trying to remember what I did last night. Snapshots of drinks, dance music and happy people come back to my mind. We talked about going to a new club where a famous Dutch DJ was playing last night... instead I ended up in old favorite Bar Rouge.
There is only one bar like this in Shanghai. It opened about 2 years ago along with the restaurant below (Sens & Bund). Brand new design in an old ostentatious building, bringing a team of French managers and skillful bar tenders with them. Management probably initially thought that Bar Rouge would be "The bar of Sens & Bund" ... when this very bar has become infinitely more successful than the restaurant below. Some people love it, some people hate it, but everybody in town has been to Bar Rouge at least once... I have long lost count of how many evenings I have enjoyed on the 7th floor of Bund 18 looking at LuJiaZui towers on the other side of the river... or the amount of money I have spent there, that only somewhat equals the amount of bad things people have told me about this place.
Yes! Bar Rouge is the center of attentiong the newly rich foreigners as well as jet setters and posh tourists in Shanghai. Yes! people go there to be seen, much more than to enjoy and everybody seems to try being just something else than what they really are. Yes! Service can be appaling on overcrowded weekends if you don't know the bar tenders personaly. Yes! prices are astronomical compared to Shanghai bar scene, not to mention the local living standard BUT this is exactly why Bar Rouge is so great. Managers of foreign multinational companies, Russian models looking for a salary complement, new stars of the Chinese Media, winners of the "end of communism" game, foreign trainees looking for a little more of student life, foreign tourists looking for some posh action or maybe a little trouble at half the price of home, entrepreneurs celebrating business successes, Chinese working women willing to become your instant friend for the night, foreign buyers from all nationalities recovering from hours of drive on terrible roads visting factories, a new generation of young Chinese enjoying the fun of parties and nightlife, business visitors shown how much China is a "hardship posting", foreigners coming to Shanghai to study Chinese and ending in the most foreign place of the city, all of them and many more dress up and enjoy the pure decadence of the this place, the ablaze Champagne bottles, colorful lab tubes in ice, heavy cigar smoke, flamming bar and Formula One style Champagne aboundantly shaken by the beat of the dance music spinned around by excellent DJ's.
I don't always want to, but more often than not I find myself ending up in Bar Rouge. There are so many other great places in Shanghai, but going there is somewhat convulsive... there are nights that I just need to go there, because only there can you find this kind of atmosphere. There is true feeling of old Shanghai in this place. Like the Majestic dance hall, the New World and the Paramount in their times Bar Rouge is the place where Shanghai business people show off their success and release from the stress of the intoxicating life of this city. A night there is to feel just how Shanghai is becoming a world city again.

Singing trees

Shanghai is a very noisy city. Taxis and buses constantly horn, people often speak loudly, advertising and various kind of music resonate all the time. It's also not rare to hear the song of an air hammer a three o'clock in the morning, but if you look for it, you can find some pockets of quiet between the old buildings. The entrance of a lane can be on a busy street, but get through the door and it suddenly becomes much more quiet. Within ten or twenty meters, the traffic noise slowly disappears, giving away space for live noise of people talking with each other and households noises.
Lanes going through Shikumens are small narrow alleys serpenting between two-three level houses. The real gem is to find a lane leading to larger villas. Those often have gardens and trees, surrounded by a very special sound. The noise comes slowly from the sky, going crcrcrcr and taking everybody by surprise. It inflates and inflates and inflates until one cannot hear anything else for a while and then disappears on a slow descrendo. Silent regain the floor for a few minutes and the noise comes back again. Most of people living in newly built tower have never heard it.
This mysterious noise is the song of the cigalas. They are large insects, creating noise by vibrating their wings to attract females cigalas. This cigala's "love song" is a typical noise of the old Shanghai. Along with intense heat and Spanish style old houses, it gives a strong Mediterranean feeling to old parts of the city. Cigalas are still a privilege of the old Shanghai, as they seem to prefer old trees. Trees in the new parks and residence gardens do not seem to have been found yet by the little animals... or maybe the traffic noise is covering the Cigalas song there. Sitting in my old house looking at the garden, I hear the cigalas song and suddenly feel miles away from China. This sound is for me like a trip on the Mediterranean, somewhere between Marseilles, Thesaloniki and Oran. Cigallas song is one of these little details that make summers in old Shanghai so special.

Tourists in summer Shanghai

Summer in China is not really different from other seasons. Schools are closed for holidays, but the activity does not diminish much. Despite the heat, people keep on being pursuing their activities as usual. Summer in Shanghai is a very different matter. Downtown Shanghai is the host of many foreign companies... who's manager often go on vacation during summer. Clients and colleagues abroad (particularly in Europe) are also on holiday, releasing a lot of the pressure on employees shoulders. Bars and (foreign) restaurant tend to be less crowded their main costumers have disappeared. During this quiet time, foreign regulars are complemented by another crowd of strangers. Tourists in Shanghai are clearly in the rise, helping China to reach its future status of number 1 tourist destination in the world. Shanghai is the main door in and out of China for tourists. No tours of China can take place without showing the wonders of economical progress in Chinese economical capital, the Jin Mao Tower and LuJiaZui. You can also find many groups at the various temples of Shanghai and around YuYuan Garden. They are looking at all these Chinese wonders that are often fake or seriously transformed by renovation. I always find it amusing, that tours focus on traditional Chinese scenes in Shanghai, when much better examples can be found in Beijing or other Chinese cities. Most of these group miss what is really unique to Shanghai, the small streets and old buildings of the old concessions.

People with backpacks and lonely planet guides often seem more adventurous. They also go around the business districts and modernised Shanghai, admiring the brand new towers and one can also find a lot of them on the Bund and around YuYuan Garden. But the French concession part is where many western tourists go, looking for the glory of colonial times. With the renovation going on (for the part that is not being destroyed), this part of town is transforming into a major entertainment area, with small restaurant and cafes opening everywhere, creating a great atmosphere and lot's of nice spots for a rest between two visiting walks. With more cafes and tourists, Shanghai is really becoming a world city.

Cancoillote girl

Cancoillote is a semi liquid cheese from Franche-Comte, a region of North-East France, next to Switzerland. It's quit stinky and has a strange taste for people that are not used to eating French cheeses. It's a very local cheese, being unknown by most of the rest of France (and the world).
I was spending time at a professional networking event a few days ago, when I engaged conversation with a pretty western women. She was from Kansas and we talked a little bit about America as I recently made my first trip there. She explained how different life was in Kansas where she grew up, and in New York or Chicago, that I had just visited. This is when the conversation took a very different turn.
She started to speak to me in French, and said "I have spent a year at the University of Besancon". Besancon is the capital of Franche-Comte, the French region next to mine. It's a charming city and supposed to be very lively, though I am not quite sure how it could retain the attention of a foreigner for one full year. She also knew my town (Dijon), that is a little larger as she was spending weekends there. Then she said a really unexpected sentence: "Do you like cancoillote?" Here I was in Shanghai, drinking sparkling white wine dressed in a suit in a professional gathering, being asked about a cheese that I did not eat since about 10 or 15 years by this very pretty women from Kansas that I had just met. I have to admit that I was truly flabbergasted. We then chatted for a while about this cheese (that she did not like at all) and this part of rural France that I used to go skiing to. This was a really nice conversation and I could not help thinking about the wondeful taste of cancoillote on freshly boilled potatoes for a few days afterwards.
This conversation, with it combination of surprise and real fun, was typical of the new Shanghai. Shanghai today is the place where people from all over the world come to work, visit or study. As most of us have left friends and families, we go to cafes, bars, restaurants and networking events to make new friends and meet people. It's a melting pot of every nationality you can think of, coming here attracted by business opportunities and adventure in this world famous city. I have stopped counting the number of countries or Chinese provinces (larger than many European countries) that I have friends from, but it's probably around 100 by now. This is Shanghai today, and was also Shanghai yesterday. The old Shanghai was also a place where people from all nationalities and origin would meet and live together. The French concession did not have only French, nor the international settlement only Brits and Americans. Large numbers of Europeans, Russians, Americans and many other as well a Chinese immigrants from other provinces were attracted by the spectacular growth. The old Shanghai was the melting pot of Asia, as much as Hong Kong became later. Like New York or London, this city has a talent to bring people from everywhere in the world and make them meet and interact. Although it was frozen for many years, the spirit was kept alive in the memory of many people both abroad and in China, and it has come back. Shanghai is really becoming a world city again.

PS: I am going to France in a few weeks... be sure that I will have some Cancoillote then.

A short trip far away

Restaurants in Shanghai abound, new places opening constantly. This should lead to a lot of diversity, imagination and surprises... but it does not. Western restaurants are all of the same for the most part. There lot's of American joints serving burgers from McDonald's to (soon to open) upper-class burger restaurant (please explain me what that is exactly). We also have about 20 French restaurants, from the cheap bistro to the creme de la creme Relais-et-Chateau. Real Italian restaurants are in number in Shanghai, but the one I (sarcastically) prefer are the Japanese copies of Italian restaurants. I think I have to explain this more in depth as I also needed some time to understand the concept of it. They are chains of Italian restaurants, that were started in and expended all over Japan. They often already have outlets in Taiwan, Hong Kong or Korea... and now they come to China. Having very little link with real Italy... the food can be sometimes surprising. The pictures on the menu are always great, it's when your pizza, fettuccini or espresso come that comes the surprise along. The result generally ranges from "more or less right" to "I think an Italian would have a nervous breakdown when eating it".
Amongst all this repetition of variable quality western food, one also find some peculiar places, trying to serve a cuisine away from the norm. I recently had lunch in a Suriname restaurant. I am not sure all internationally minded readers know where Suriname is... let alone most Chinese people. I admire the lady who opened this restaurant, as she probably spends many hours explaining to people where her country is, and what you can expect to eat there. Anyway, I had my roti like in Holland (where Surinamese restaurants are available in mass) and the feeling that I had taken a trip away... 10 minutes from my office. I'm looking forward to far and unknown places... with more of those coming here, Shanghai is really becoming a world city.

Clash of two worlds

Standing in a Metro entrance, waiting for a friend who is late. I have time to look at people passing... as well as being showered by the looks of the hundreds of people passing in front of me. It's about lunch time, and this entrance is the connection of most busy metro station of Shanghai, with one of the main brand new shopping centers. The Shanghai metro is like all metros, functional, used by thousands of people a day. The shopping center is just a different world, clean, bright with marble and bright lights of advertising flashing around.
I noticed a little girl about 5 with a women about 35 (her mother probably) and a man 60 (I would guess the grandfather). I would guess they come from one of the neighboring provinces or one of the faraway parts of Shanghai. They are not really at ease with the whole environment, somewhat looking for their way in the labyrinth of corridor. They have just bought a Mickey Mouse puppet for the little girl. I guess, it comes from one of the street vendors and it's probably a fake one. I also guess it's a substantial amount of money for the family, just to please the little girl. They stop just before the entrance of the shopping center, the grandfather squatting like Chinese people do in the country side. The face of this man is marked by nature, hard work and age. He probably spent many years in the factory, the field or something even worse. They start to unpack the puppet and play with it.
It took about 1 minutes for the security guards from the shopping center to ask them to move away. They were polite but firm. The family wanted to stay but after a short discussion stood up and started to move along. What marked me was the look of total incomprehension on the face of this old man. He obeyed the big guys in white shirts, just as a routine because they represent authority and this is what he has learned all those years. Having been through years of hard work and political turmoil... he just to find he just find himself pushed away again, because they say he does not belong here. I guess the new Shanghai is just impossible to understand for people like him. I have seen the same look from Budapest to Saigon, on the face of these people that the disappearance of the communist dream world took by surprise... it still deeply touches me.