We just returned to Taipei after spending five days in Shanghai. It is a beautiful and vibrant city. Individually, the residents were nice enough but as a crowd, it was intense. Shanghai is much different that Taipei. So here are some observations...in no particular order...

The trees in Shanghai are all young. Plenty of trees line the streets along the major thoroughfares and parks. They all look to have been planted within the last ten years,replacing the trees cut down and used for fuel during the Cultural Revolution. In fact for an old and historic city, the trees look like those in Frisco, TX, also recently planted.

The architecture is divided into two groups. There is a substantial number that were built during the heyday of Shanghai and predate the 1930's. The Bund is lined with lovely art-deco style banks and mercantile exchanges. The rest of the buildings have been built in the last 20 years. It makes for a great skyline. But from about 1930 to 1990, it appears that there was almost no construction in Shanghai.

Shanghai is a clean city, by China standards and the air quality was pretty good with a strong breeze blowing in from the Pacific. The Yangtze River which cuts through the greater metropolitan area was home to an incredible amount of barge traffic and had a noticeable chemical smell.

When looking for a restaurant in Shanghai, the choices are many but western chains are many. We spotted the usual McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, HagenDaz, Starbucks, Pizza Hut and also a Hooters. I'm thinking that the waitresses don't look like the American Hooters though. I think they need to eat a little more McDonald's and Burger King for that to happen. The chefs may be a little unclear on some of their ingredients though as our pizza in a lovely Italian restaurant, although advertised as Sicilian pizza was sprinkled with garden peas, an interesting combination with the pepperoni. We did have an amazing meal in a Macao/Portuguese Restaurant.

Western style toilets are common in Shanghai but there is some uncertainty as how one should be used so public restrooms are just scary in some places. Out in the countryside - forget about it.

Also out in the countryside, never eat in a restaurant where the only English word the waitress says is recycled. What she means is that the meat you will be served is recycled from previous meals and will be recycled until someone is hungry enough to eat it.

It was an amazing experience and I would like to go back to explore more of the country soon. The depth of the history really puts us Euro-centric cultures to shame.

But for now, I am glad to be back in Taiwan.