^TM

My favorite time of day in Shanghai is seven AM. Industrious men and women mostly middle-aged gather on wide sidewalks and in many public parks for dancing, tai chi, tae kwon do, and other forms of morning exercises.

I cross the street from my hotel, the Portman Ritz-Carlton, to where a crowd of about fifty stylish people gathers in front of the old Soviet Friendship building. Beside a patch of pavement the size of a small ballroom, I stand watching as couples pair off to "Begin the Beguine."

Every day for about an hour before work, they come together to practice intensely serious waltzes, tangos, even jitterbugs. It s exercise, it s social life and it is an important piece of Shanghai culture. The men wear open-necked white shirts and crisply pressed slacks; the women, print blouses and knee-length skirts and low heels.

Dancing in the streets goes back to the anything-goes days of the 1930 s. In his book, The Chinese, Portrait of a People, John Fraser writes of western ballroom dancing making a comeback, even though, " from 1963 to 1978 dancing was strictly taboo, branded decadent and bourgeois."

The instructor is a slender impresario who explains the steps while dancing with his (unsmiling, bored) teenaged daughter. Latino music emanates from his boom box. He whirls her around the floor, dipping and swirling, as he instructs his eager pupils, "Queeck, queeck, sloow!"

After a perceptive spouse gives her husband a nudge, I am swept up in this early-morning dance mania. My charming partner speaks no English, but he smiles as he moves me queeckly around the floor. Other dancers look up from their feet, beaming encouragement. Welcome to our fun-loving town, they seem to say. Across the street, even larger groups of people are performing Tai Chi. I ll try that later.

Travel writer and old China hand Jan Morris writes of Shanghai's red and shabby buildings, its scummy river, its rusty boats. In the 1920 s and 30 s, when it was a center of vice, drugs and prostitution, Shanghai was called "The Whore of the East," attracting sailors, gamblers and swindlers, untold thousands of them, from around the world.

Now, depending on who is counting, there are at least eight, 13, or 17 million residents competing for space in this burgeoning metropolis. Newcomers arrive by the thousands every day, coming in from the countryside to earn a living in this boomtown. The former mayor of the city, Jiang Zemin, now president of all China, has declared, "To get rich is glorious." And, as if to emphasize the point, Shanghai is now referred to as the "Paris of the East."

While many visitors have some anxieties about visiting China, just mention Shanghai and they are out and out frightened. Yet, as Paul Theroux points out, in his book Riding the Iron Rooster, "Shanghai is an old brown riverside city with the look of Brooklyn, and the Chinese who are comforted by crowds like it for its mobs and its street life." And, as Morris notes, its crinkly sidestreets and the people who live there make this a great destination for travelers curious about how the Chinese live.

The fact is that most people live much of their lives outdoors, since the city s growing population puts huge pressure on living accommodations. The government has allotted each person an interior living space roughly the size of a dining room table. Apartments have barely enough room for bedding, bicycles and cooking utensils, let alone the people.

On the streets and sidewalks throughout the neighborhoods, you can wander around and see a barber getting ready to shave his toweled customer; a woman cutting up scallions and cabbage for her family s lunch; young children being bathed in tin pans scarcely bigger than their bottoms; a scribe typing a letter, his rickety table half off the sidewalk and onto the street. Men play cards or checkers outdoors at the park, while the egg-lady wheels her cart through crowds, delivering fast food, 100-year-old eggs. Over a steel-drum-turned-brazier, a butcher cooks a brace of doomed ducks.

I spent several days, on my own and with a guide from my hotel, wandering between the significant tourist venues and the urban villages, where noise and charcoal smoke blended with freshly washed shirts and overalls hanging above doorways. Some of the building fronts resemble those in the of old Paris by famed classic photographer Atget.

The loveliest thing about viewing these everyday vistas is that as you do so, the Shanghainese will stare at you. You then the curious traveler have permission to stare back. A stare quickly becomes a smile and, voilà! a connection is made. Chinese are gregarious, family-oriented, practical. Children are the easiest, of course. Little kids say, "Hello," in a singsong voice, and then laugh at their ability to spot you at 15 yards.

Since my earliest knowledge of China was through the pages of the "National Geographic Magazine," and their images of the Chinese masses riding their bicycles through the cities, I knew it wouldn't be a true visit without joining the cycle crowd. It s said there are seven million bicycles in Shanghai.

The hotel's manager offered me his bike, a smart shiny black number with tons of gears. But, I wanted to be like the Chinese and ride a no-speed balloon-tire model. One of the kitchen staff kindly offered me his, an authentic "egg-beater."

My first few moments on the bike were terror-filled. After finding my place in the line of heavy traffic, I was afraid that my unsteadiness would cause a rear-ender. I would panic each time the crowd surged forward. Once I found the rhythm of my group, I gave the thumbs-up sign. Everyone around me laughed and returned the salute. As with the dancing, there is a certain pattern that you just have to try to learn.

And, so it is with savoring the rest of the city. For many visitors, Shanghai is a mere stepping-off point to points beyond, undeservedly overlooked. It is only when you stay for several days that you begin to discover the variety of the neighborhoods and the exuberant cultural institutions.

The best-known sights of the city are found in the Old Town and around The Peace Hotel (built by the Sassoon merchant family), the major tourist crossroads where Nanjing Road meets the river. Along this area of faded grandeur, known as the Bund, Anglo-Indian for quayside, is a mile s worth of 1930 s buildings. It is said that there are more art deco buildings here than anywhere else in the world except Miami.

In the Old Town, the Huxingting Tea-House and Yu Garden offer unforgettable sights. A visit to Dr. Sun Yat-Sen s house, now almost a museum, gives insights to the political pressures of the early 20th century.

The original settlement was just a fishing village in the year 960 AD, when the name Shanghai, which means "on the sea," was first used. Located on the Huangpu River, a tributary of the Yangtse, the city was in an ideal position to become a bustling port. By the middle of the 16th century, residents built a 23-foot high crenellated city wall and moat to protect themselves from invading Japanese pirates.

In the 1800s, first British, then French, Japanese, Americans, and White Russians had carved out colonial concessions (spheres of influence). Their European-style buildings lord it over the eastern end of the Nanjing/Nanking Road, named after the 1842 Treaty of Nanking that ceded sections of the city to foreigners. Understandably, this attempt at foreign domination is still a source for much ill will today.

Nanking Road, cobbled originally, was built for horsemen and called the Great Maloo, the Great Horse Road. John Steinbeck thought it was one of the most interesting streets in the world. More than one million tourists flock toward this part of town every day. You often see bridal parties posing here, with the river and her aging boats and the modern space needle symbol of the Pudon in the background.

Shanghai, President Jiang Zemin s hometown, is now leading China s projected transformation as a world economic power. An entirely new city within Shanghai, the Pudon, is being created here, a New York/Hong Kong entity, largely devoted to the business sector. You can see more than 1500 construction cranes at work, building new skyscrapers, tearing down old buildings. In a Chamber of Commercesque manner, business interests are working to attract foreign investment.

Yet, for the kind of business and tourism assistance that is readily found in Hong Kong, for instance, the Shanghai Tourist Board is a work in progress. Most visitors rely heavily on their hotels and incoming airlines, such as Cathay Pacific, and their subsidiary, Dragonair.

At the 600-room Ritz-Carlton, for instance, the creative and young concierge staff amazed me with their energy and ability to solve problems and to provide advice and assistance. The hotel is located in the large Portman complex of shops and business enterprises and is a leading residence for businesspeople trying to establish economic ties. The Ritz has the city s largest health club and a 990-seat theater.

With the launch of "Friday s Night Of The Stars," The Portman Ritz-Carlton, Shanghai chefs present culinary events on the last Friday of each month beginning April 2001. Diners are welcomed with a cocktail in The Lobby Lounge. They are then feted to a four-course progressive dinner that takes them through the Hanagatami, Summer Pavilion, Palladio Restaurants and The Ritz-Carlton Bar.

Upon arrival at Hanagatami, Chef Hiromitsu Muranaka whets diners palates with appetizers: simmered abalone, fish roe, sea bream sushi, fried salmon, sea urchin in jelly, vegetable bean curd, and prawn with caviar. Guests are then escorted to Summer Pavilion, where they savor double boiled shark s fin and dried scallop in coconut. At Palladio, Chef de Cuisine Angelo Sabatelli presents almond breaded lamb rack filled with goose liver and black truffles served with chestnut puree and traditional balsamic vinegar sauce. The evening ends in the Bar, listening to jazz, having a drink and a few desserts: bitter-sweet Manjari chocolate cake, apricot yoghurt sorbet and cassis tuile, and petit fours. A gourmet evening as fine as in any restaurant in Paris!

To a degree far greater than any other city on mainland China, Shanghai has accommodated an influx of millions from the provinces and around the world. In a city so crowded and well murky, I never expected such a homey feel. Shanghai is meant to be explored and savored!

Cathay Pacific: 1-800-848-5008, 1-888-888-0120

Ritz Carlton

Shanghai Development Websites

E-Pudong
Shanghai's Special Development Zones

Photographs by Marguerite Jordan

Back to TravelLady Magazine