Day Seven

After we said our goodbyes to all our buddies who were heading back to the USA, Bill and I set off for Shanghai, China's largest city. The guidebook says: "This huge, sprawling beast of a metropolis has risen from the mud and silt of the Yangzi Delta, pushed aside its rivals and emerged as one of the liveliest and most exciting cities on the planet".  To which I reply: YES YES YES

Shanghai is divided into primarily 2 sections, Pudong and Puxi. Our driver from the airport told us how as recently as 1990, the area where our hotel sits - Podung - was simply farm land. Podung - "east of the Huangpu River" - is where the modern skyscrapers, broad boulevards, museums, concert hall, and fast rising financial center is. The other side of Shanghai - Puxi, west of the Huangpu River - is known as Shanghai "proper". Puxi is where you will see imposing classical buildings built over 100 years ago by the British, French, American, and Chinese lined up majestically along a wide promenade known as The Bund.

My guidebook was printed in 2010 and states the population of Shanghai as then 19 million. In 4 short years, the population in 2014 stands at 26 million! Our taxi driver said that in terms of "fast food", KFC is by far the most popular. One reason is that KFC arrived first in 1985, and today there are over 1000 KFC's in the city. The Chinese people love chicken. KFC's major competition is McDonalds which arrived in 1990, but the people aren't as crazy about beef. We mentioned that we were not seeing any Chinese-brand cars, and we were told that in China there are 2 huge car factories - General Motors and Volkswagen, and therefore most Chinese who own cars own these two types.