Transit to Shanghai

For the purposes of my project, there has to be a second city. In China we have decided to be much more ambitious than the minimum requirements that the project demands. In China there is not just a second city, but a third, fourth and even fifth. Still, one of them has to be chosen as the one I will write about and so I have chosen Shanghai. For the record, we have also visited Hong Kong, Guilin, Yangshuo, Nanjing, and  Xi'an.

Shanghai is China's second city in much the same way New York is America's second city (this probably comes as news to New Yorkers) Washington DC is first, only because it is the capital. Shanghai is number two, only for the same reason. Its population is larger. In terms of economic activity it is more vibrant. Walking along the Bund at night, it is hard to imagine a more vibrant spot anywhere on the planet. It is lit up like Las Vegas and several times the size.

Our visit to Shanghai began with a chance encounter. My son, Alexander, is in law school at USF and this semester is taking a class in comparative law. One day he told me they had a lecture scheduled by a visiting professor from China. Was I interested in attending? Absolutely. So I went and heard a very interesting talk on the Chinese Constitution given by a Professor Ma, from Shanghai. After class, I said hello and explained I would soon visit China. "Shanghai?", he asked. "Then we must meet when you are there", he said. I was expecting lunch, maybe tea.

A month later and our plane touches down in Shanghai, he is there at the gate to meet us. He dropped pretty much everything he was doing to show us Shanghai, take us to Nanjing and eventually back to the airport for flight to Xi'an. His remarkable generosity and that of his lovely wife Vivienne, made our visit to Shanghai an extraordinary experience. As if the city itself were not remarkable enough.