Zhongnanhai

So there I was in Shanghai, taking my friends around town. They had stepped off a long flight from Vancouver via San Francisco, and it was both of their first time in China. The purpose of their trip was to visit Tibet, and quick stops in some Chinese cities was only a bonus.

Shanghai is definitely a beautiful city, and tends to impress those from out-of-town, or even those out-of-country. I greeted the two weary travelers at Pudong Airport, but they perked up when they boarded the state-of-the-art Maglev train, a perfect introduction to "modern" China, whatever that means. But "modernity" and "China" seemed to be the prevailing topic of conversation as the weekend progressed.

Admittedly, Shanghai isn't like Xi'an, Beijing, or Guangzhou when it comes to historical sites. Shanghai is a shopping, nightlife, and entertainment mecca and its history only dates back to the end of the Opium Wars back in 1846 (or thereabouts). Considering the history of the other cities in China, Shanghai is just a spring chicken.

I thought, though, that Shanghai would be a welcome halfway point between the west and China, before they dig deeper into the western regions of the country in Chengdu, Tibet, Xi'an, and elsewhere. But I was a little surprised by one of their observations: China isn't as modern as people say it is.

For years, people coming over here, I think, have expected farmers in straw hats and dusty streets filled with bicycles. Sure, part of that still exists. But on nearly every television channel, newspaper article, radio story, and blog, people are talking about the glistening new buildings, nightlife, shopping, wealth, and the "quality of the wi-fi in the lobby of their Guangzhou hotels", according to noted columnist Mark Steyn. This hype has been building up for years in advance of the Beijing Olympics, yet many of the run-down and dilapidated old apartment buildings still exist. What's more, in arguably China's wealthiest city of Shanghai, we saw the usual assortment of vagrants minus limbs crawling around asking for change, boarded up windows, children asking for spare kuai, and pollution as bad as I've ever seen it in the city. How modern is all that... and how will Beijing, less developed and more polluted, look in comparison?

Perhaps the incessant media coverage of China's rise has risen expectations to the point where they can't be reached. Although I sound like a Xinhua mouthpiece, China does, in fact, remain a developing country. And despite the glitzy headlines, we have to remember that.

I'm also eager to hear what my friends think of Shanghai's modernity, after two weeks in Tibet!