Today, we had to get up very early in order to catch our flight to Shanghai. After a 2 hours journey we all arrived safely in the modern metropolis and were eager to take the new Maglev train, which runs from the airport to the city and hits top speed at 430 km/h. Our hotel, the Magnificent International Hotel, was soon found and everybody was ready to dive into the fascinating town and meet the 15 million inhabitants of Shanghai. Some of us inspected the various shopping malls, others just strolled around and soaked up the new impressions.
In the evening, Prof Rüttimann took us for a city walk along the waterfront of the Huangpu River. The famous skyline was breathtaking and we felt a little like some Japanese tourist group as we took thousands of pictures. The ferry brought us to Pudong on the other side of the river, where we sat together for a couple of drinks. Since it was Saturday, most of us could not go to bed without enjoying the nightlife of Shanghai, which was loud, vivid and to some extent no different to other big cities.
We all were delighted by the first impressions of this mega city, even though it was less exotic than we expected it to be. Maybe the lonely planet guide is right when it stats that Shanghai is real China, but perhaps just not the real China you were after. “
