Loved Shanghai. LOVED. I couldn't help myself from listing the ways I prefer it to Beijing (I wrote the list while I was there):
1. Less pollution, wow! What a difference.
2. Where is the traffic?! Amazed at the lack of traffic here. In Beijing, at any given time of the day, anywhere in the city, you are stuck sitting in terrible traffic.
3. Better food! Sure Beijing has good Chinese food, but I'm talking Western food.... Shanghai has much more options. I've eaten the better this week than I have in the entire 7 months I've been in China.
4. The subway is more efficient and way less crowded. You can actually take the subway at rush hour here without wanting to cry. It also goes all over the place! There are a lot of places in BJ you just can't get to from the subway, or you have a long walk from the nearest station.
5. Shanghai has real bagels! WHAT?!
6. Shanghai is cleaner than BJ.
7. Really pretty architecture, much is European influenced, in some parts of the city you can imagine you are in Paris and in others NYC.
8. Every taxi driver we came across was so nice! And in some subway stations they actually STOOD IN LINE! My friend said it was due to all the World Expo behavioral training the city's residents were recently exposed to.
OK OK I'm ragging on Beijing a little. Beijing is awesome, too. In fact, if you are a tourist, you'd probably be better of coming to Beijing if you can only see one... Beijing does have all the history! But if you were going to choose to live in one of these two cities, in my opinion, the quality of life in Shanghai is better. Just sayin'.
We had a fantastic time! Now we are back in Beijing, which is super cold right now, by the way! Today it was 15 degrees. You shouldn't have to wear 3 shirts, a sweater and a coat just to go outside... and talk about a pain in the butt - gloves and scarves and hats, and then bending down to put on boots.... such a pain! But the sky has been blue so I shouldn't really complain :) I just wish it would snow! I hate being so cold with no reward (i.e.: snow). I don't know what I am going to wear when we go to the Ice Festival in Ha'erbin this January.
Well, that's all I got. I have an apple pie baking in the oven... I highly underestimated the difficulty of making a pie crust. Betty Crocker would cry if she saw what is in my oven right now. LOL. Hopefully it tastes good.
Steph
P.S. Can you believe I only have 5 months left here?! And still don't know where we are going to end up!
P.S.x2. Check out what is waiting for me in the U.S! My new car! I debated getting such a small car but I decided it is the perfect time in my life to go for it.
I'm already picturing cruising down Pacific Coast Highway with the top down. :)
