DAY 1: SHANGHAI AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD

April 13, 2006, day 1 of my vacation trip to China. I got to the airport as early as 830 even though my flight was scheduled at 1130 in the morning. The newspaper (Philippine Daily Inquirer) advises everybody leaving the country to be there 3 hours before the boarding time to avoid unnecessary delay caused by the strict airport security. It turns out to be a real sick joke! There wasn’t much of a line and everything went smoothly. I was at the boarding gate by 930 and had to endure more than 2 hours of waiting (my flight was a little bit delayed) under the sweltering heat (apparently the government has turned down the air conditioning to save on cost). Thank goodness, I bought one of my management books to read (also since I’m traveling alone, to keep me company at night if I got bored and lonely). At least, I wasn’t going to bore to death inside the airport. I thought that things would be a lot tolerable once I’m inside the plane. To my chagrin, the same thing happened. Before the plane was in mid air, the temperature is hot and probably near “grilling” point if I were to exaggerate a little! Apparently, PAL is also on a cost cutting mode. Dang, what happen to customer service? I’d arrived at Shanghai two and half hours later. The first thing I saw while the plane is approaching for a landing at the Pudong airport was that the farms surrounding the airport had hothouses in the field. I surmise that the temperature must be too cold in Shanghai for the vegetation to grow successfully. At any rate, I was going to find out exactly how cold was the weather. The moment I stepped out of the airplane, cold wind coming from the open hatch of the connecting port greeted me and brrrrr, it was pretty, pretty cold (the temperature is like 7oC!). Too cold, that my denim jacket wasn’t enough to keep me warm. Luckily, I did bought along a winter jacket courtesy of my sister who does her homework checking the weather the night before I left. Even so, I still felt the chill because I was wearing a Nike running shoe made of cloth (for ease of walking) and not my regular leather shoe. Dang, I do sorely miss my leather shoe then. And my hands are also freezing. I didn’t bring any mittens along the trip and had to hid my hands inside my pocket to keep it warm. Going back, I met up with my tour mates and our tour guide. The first thing we did as a group was go to the toilet! It seems that everybody is dying to drain their bladders! Much latter on, we were to learn from our tour guide that one of the “peculiar” and expected characteristics of a Filipino tourist is in their penchant to go to the “washroom” very often. After that, we deposited our luggage to a bus waiting outside. The very moment I stepped out of the airport, the wind blew and boy, oh boy, it was so cold! I felt like a frozen Popsicle but that wasn’t the worst yet. We left our baggage and took the MagLev (Magnetic Levitation) train, which is operated based on the principle of superconductivity and electromagnetism. According to our guide, the German built train is the world’s fastest bullet train and we are about to find out exactly why. As the train started humming, it began to accelerate and in just a few minutes, we’ve reached a maximum speed of 432 km/hr and it took us just 7 minutes and 20 seconds to traverse 20 kms from the airport to the city center. Dang, that was indeed fast! It was so fast that we had to wait like 10 minutes for our bus to rendezvous us at the station. After getting into the bus, we headed to the Pearl of the Orient TV tower in Pudong, which take us across half of the city. On our way to the tower, we passed by a giant sundial in the middle of the circle, a magnificent piece of art I would say. As I was looking around at my new environment, I noticed that there are a lot of new buildings as well as new ones still being built. Not just a few nor a handful but quite a lot actually as in the entire city! The new buildings were like less than 5 years old! The oldest is probably a decade old. These buildings are not only new but they are also architectural gems as well. Their designs are not only impressive but are also awesome and grandiose! One of buildings has a giant lotus for it’s top. Another still under construction has a “sexy” wavy figure. The city hall, which they called the White House looks more like a museum of modern arts rather than the seat of government. Then there is the impressive, towering, ever conspicuous, black monolith that is the Grand Hyatt hotel at 88 floors, the 4th tallest building in the world. According to our tour guide, there is a new and much taller building that is being constructed near the Grand Hyatt. One in which will be crowned as the tallest building in the world when it is done by 2008. However, in spite of all these, one thing that is noticeable about the new buildings and that is most of them are empty. I figured that it maybe that the property prices are way beyond the capacity of ordinary Shanghai residents. Ordinary folks might be living in the outskirts of the city for I noticed that there is also an equally frenzied construction of apartment buildings at the suburbs. The implication of this frenzied building activity but with no apparent buyers is that the return on investment will be low or probably even negative. It means that real estate developers are losing money; money, which was borrowed from financial institutions like banks, which in turn derive the loans from deposits of ordinary Chinese. What I’m seeing here is the beginning of an asset bubble being formed (buoyant property prices that seemingly defy gravity) and if the negative return persists, bank runs will follow, precipitating into a financial crisis, which coupled with the size of the Chinese economy could be worst than the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, probably a magnitude of 10 in the Richter scale. What makes my analysis worst was that all of this frenzy was encourage by the government especially the Shanghai government. One could hear the incessant comparison by the tour guide to New York, the premier city of the world. They are no longer content in comparing themselves to Hong Kong or even Tokyo but New York. Take the MagLev for instance, it was losing money (due to slow passenger take up and subsidized fare) but the government persists. It was for “show”. They are trying to project an image of modernity and confidence. Being modest in Shanghai seemed quite out of place these days. Just look around and one will see why. Taken in that context, one wouldn’t be awed by the entire scene of frenzy but rather worry. Can’t help but think the implication of a bubble burst and its effect on the world economy. A bubble burst would result to falling or negative growth, pull out of foreign investments, massive unemployment. All this would force the Chinese to export their way out of the rut and would probably do so by devaluing the Renminbi, which in turn could trigger a region wide “competitive currency devaluation”. Cheap Chinese imports would flood the Philippines (if it is not flooded already) and thus put tremendous competitive pressures on the manufacturers like me and coupled this with cost pressures due to the weakening currency, the future would looked very bleak indeed (Couldn’t help it, I’m an MBA)! As we arrived for our tour, the bus parked at the APEC building, which by itself was an impressive architectural work. The building’s façade is Gothic in appearance much like the Lincoln memorial but with windows and walls and complete with columns. On either side of the building are two huge globes. One might think it’s a barbell but it actually is not. The entire designed seemed “proportionate”, the globes are neither too big as to dwarf the sandwich building or are too small as to look like dumbbell weights. It’s quite pleasing to the eye. The Pearl of the Orient tower on the other hand looks more like a “trophy”. According to our tour guide, the epistemology of the name is derived from a Chinese poem about the spring drizzle. The droplets look like pearls hitting on the jade plate that is the leaf. The seven spheres on the tower represents the “pearl” while the base of the tower is the jade plate. Base on the information on the leaflet that I took, the tower is 468 meters tall making it the tallest TV tower in Asia and the third in the world. There are three places to go in the tower to have a panoramic view of Shanghai. One is the Space Module, located at 350 meters above ground. According to some, one could Chin Huang Island far out in the China Sea from that vantage point. Another is the Revolving Restaurant at 267 meters, the highest elevated restaurant in Asia and the last is where our tour is heading, the Sight seeing floor at 263 meters. The ticket cost if my memory serves me right is something like 100 RMB (or was it the admission price for the restaurant, at any rate, the ticket is already included in our package), roughly 670 – 700 pesos. As I reached 263, I was quite amazed by what I saw. The view of Shanghai at the top is quite exhilarating. Sky scrappers literally littered the skies and it is not just a few of them or “scattered” around in clusters but seems to “cover” the entire Shanghai as far as the eyes could see. A few years back when my mom visited Shanghai, she told me that Hong Kong “looked” a lot better. However, from up here, the story is different. In a space of few years, Shanghai in my view has overtaken Hong Kong as the bustling megapolis of Asia. One could see a “growing” city complete with the busy streets along with the heavy traffics and the numerous constructions, the dazzling “light shows” from the buildings (its almost dark at that time), and the bustling harbor literally underneath my eyes. The naked ambition of a proud city is all too plain to see from my vantage point. Here at the top of the world, one would not only “see” Shanghai but the face of the New and Modern China as well. On our way out of the tower, I was to encounter another face of Shanghai and indeed, probably the rest of China – the hustlers. A set of crystal penholder, with lights and paperweight in the shape of the tower souvenir is selling at 200 – 300 RMB inside the tower but that same souvenir however is being peddled for 50 RMB by the street hawkers just outside the tower! They swarm at you, trying hard to convince you to buy to the extent that they seemed to be harassing you. One of our tour mates actually bought several of them from these hawkers and guess what, she bought them for 20 RMB (or was it 15 RMB?). What a hustle! Dang, if one is not skilled at bargaining (expert level required), one could really fall for their sales “trap”. Next in our schedule was the tunnel sightseeing tour. The tour would takes through the underwater tunnel and to the other side where our bus is waiting. The tunnels are “decorated” to dazzle the passersby and relieved them of their boredom, I supposed. Anyway, at the entrance of the gate, the themes of each tunnel rides are prominently advertised. One of them is a dazzling light show coupled with techno music and other is about Ancient Chinese Sex Culture (I wonder if it’s a tunnel tour or a bund tour, anyway, it is a very interesting topic). For a few of us in the group, the idea of the tour through the Ancient Chinese Culture caused quite a problem not because we are all prudish but rather because little Megan is 10 years old and me and a few others don’t want to “unwittingly educate” her at a very tender age. Well, we came up with a solution to our little dilemma, which is to cover Megan’s eyes while we are “sightseeing”. It turns out that we worry too much because we took the light and sound show (dang!). The tunnel length is actual short but the travel is extremely slow. It took us 15 minutes to get to the other end. The vehicle that took us there is small, good for 15 people. It was glass panel on all sides and with only 2 seats. It is automatically driven without a driver and you have a very beautiful lady ushering you in the train. I would say that the light and sound show is quite refreshing and gives one the feeling that he or she is entering a futuristic time warp of sort. As we alighted at the other end of the tunnel after the show, I would admit I’m a little bit disappointed. After all, sex and history taken together is a very, very, very interesting topic (I’m a historian). Too bad, I won’t be able to “study” about it. We had our dinner next. The dinner is quite sumptuous (more like a feast actually) with 7 or 8 dishes, soup and eat all you can rice plus soft drinks. The food was actually nice and ok but not great. One thing I notice about the food culture here in Shanghai (and in Beijing as well) was that they served the soup at the end of the meal as opposed to the Philippines wherein the soup was served at the start of the meal. They also don’t put serving spoons on each dish. We all have to “volunteer” our soup spoon for public use instead. After the dinner, we all went to take ferry cruise down the Pudong river. The ship we took is twin deck wooden(?) hull motorized ship. Took us probably half an hour to an hour to cruise a significant section of the river. Dang, the night view is great. All the buildings along the river coast are lighted, some even “performing” a show. According to our guide, the city government ordered the building owners to “cooperate” in order to project an image of vibrancy. It is amazing that they are actually doing this in spite of the fact that China is suffering from power outages. Anyway, the lower deck is enclosed, has chairs and is quite cozy and comfortable but is peopled with “seniors” (as in people older than me). At first, I stayed down, since it was cold outside but I suddenly realized that what in the world I’m doing? Here I am in Shanghai having paid my way to it and only to cloister myself with the “oldies”? Updeck, the beautiful doctor and little Megan are having a blast from sightseeing. Well, the choice was quite obvious. I went up. However, the very second I stepped unto the deck and embraced the wind. Well, it wasn’t cold but simply very, very, very, chilly. I couldn’t feel my nose. My fingers are stiff and numb even though they’re inside my pocket. My knees were probably shaking from shaking from the chill. My winter jack was totally useless, for it cannot keep me warm. I felt like standing naked inside the cold room although honestly, I haven’t tried that (cut me some slack for the exaggeration, ok?)! There is a shed near the center of the deck and it somehow protect the people inside from the chilly wind and I would have stayed there for the duration of the cruise if not for the fact that the good doctor and little Megan were “outside” taking pictures of the scenery (dang! Aren’t they cold at all?). And I am supposed to be the “man” and yet I cower inside the shed? Boy! So I stayed “out” with them and “occasionally” (like 60% of the time) served as their photographer even if I suck at taking pictures (for which little Megan called me “the low tech boy” for not knowing how to take pictures with a modern digital camera but I’m flattered to be called a boy)! The ship passed by a real 5 star luxury cruise liner. Call me a simpleton but this is the first time that I actually saw a luxury liner and boy, its huge! Gigantic would be a better term. At the topmost deck was the dinner section and I saw two beautiful women having dinner together beside the window. From my vantage point, I actually can’t tell if the women are indeed beautiful but what the heck, I waved at them. To my surprise, they actually waved back at me! Afterwards, we’d reached our end point and just about wrapped up our tour for the day. The tour guide brought us to our hotel, The Huating hotel, one of the 17 five star hotels in Shanghai (there is a six star hotel, which is the Grand Hyatt hotel). The hotel looks nice, modern in it’s design style with certain elements of minimalism. My room (I’m staying alone) is quite cozy, rather spacious. The bed is actually good for 3 persons. Lucky me (of course, I paid extra for the it in my tour package but still). The bathroom amenities though nice seemed to be “outdated” compared to the bathroom amenities in my hotel at Beijing. At any rate, the first thing I did when I got into my room was to turn the knob on and fill my tub with hot water and soap. It formed a little bubble and I soak in it to “defrost” (one reason that why I didn’t get sniffles that others in the group got). As I was soaking, I try to recall the events of the day and ask myself this question, Shanghai = New York? In all fairness, I’d never been to New York but given with what I’ve seen and the people I’ve met plus the rate of expansion, I would say 5 years or give another 2 years to that (if what I saw in TVs about New York is any indication). I might be exaggerating a bit here about my assessment but the pace of Shanghai is going right now is no exaggeration at all.