On a recent visit to Shanghai, I looked high through the trees dome in the former French concession area and realized that heaven was not the usual gray but a glamorous blue.
At a busy junction near the Wukang mansion, a century of landmark reminiscent of the New York Flatiron building, the scene was strangely quiet, such as the few acoustic electric cars and bicycles.
And along a particularly hip of the Huaihai road that will usually attract so many foreigners as locals, domestic tourists walked along the sidewalks from the trash.
After a life of Shanghai’s love, despite pollution, noise and chaos, I felt like I had taken out my roses only to find out that the city had turned pink.
Last year, China began to open after its long pandemic closure. It started offering programs without visa and transit, creating all-in-one applications, such as Wechat and Alipay, to accept international credit cards and order hotels to welcome foreigners again.
In December, the country expanded and simplified the visa program, allowing travelers from 54 countries, including the United States, to enter without a visa for up to 10 days if they are transported to another country. (Tourist theories, which require a personal consulate visit and allow you to stay longer, are still an option). It also increased the number of transit-visa input cities to 60 and now allows visitors to travel freely with each other.
All that is designed to make China easier to visit, but in my two -week stay I discovered a place that was more difficult to navigate in some ways. With the right design and patience, however, the visitors of Shanghai will discover a city equally diverse and sophisticated in its character after the lock.
The almost total transition to the country -based life -based life has brought incredible ease to the locals, but has also created a new obstacle to travelers.
Before, businesses often had multi -language plates or sites. Now, almost everything is digitized and integrated into applications. I have the advantage of Chinese speech, even if my reading skills are limited, but for most visitors, this shift will prove provocative.
As usual, I took out a VPN service before my arrival, allowing me to bypass China’s “Great Firewall” and exclude access to websites, including Google. We also added the WECAT messaging platform and the Alipay payment application and, decisively, confirmed that they accepted my credit card before my trip.
Both applications are required for the most basic features, such as voice or ordering in restaurants. The first time I took Alipay for a transaction, either by scanning the QR code of an installation or letting them scan the mine, the application was glitchy and slow, but on the second day, it worked – most of the time.
One day, I was walking in Tianzifang, a labyrinth of narrow alleys turned me in the mid -19th century Shikumen Homes, a courtyard of a courtyard distinct to Shanghai. Some are still occupied by residents, but many are full of craft shops, modern art galleries and food stalls selling everything from crab pies to fried Stinky Tofu.
When I tried to buy a qipao, a traditional silk dress, the seller’s QR reader would not accept my password. After multiple failed attempts, including a last position on my foreign card that no one expected to work, we both left. I would have been offered to pay in cash, but I had not taken anyone after being told that most businesses no longer accept it, a reality confirmed by the most humble street vendors using Alipay.
Inside Alipay there are several other basic applications, including the Didi route, quite ubiquitous so that it is now impossible to spoil natural cabins. The walks are so affordable-about 200 yuan ($ 27) for a hourly ride from the airport and often a few dollars for domestic city trips-I rarely got the subway. The use of Didi comes with slight obstacles for visitors: drivers allowed to stop only approved areas and confirm riders by demanding the last four digits of their phone numbers instead of their names.
Many language -related topics can be resolved using Wechat and Alipay translation functions, which interpret the application features as well as images and speech. I found the tools more useful in a hole in the wall, the menus of which would not have appeared English even before the pandemic. At a point of seafood in Zhujiajiajo, an ancient city of water that turned the live museum on the outskirts of the city, the tool helped me discover dishes for which I couldn’t read the Chinese characters before.
Other travel infrastructures were also slow to adapt. Although hotels have been ordered to accept foreign cards, it is best to stay in an international brand or call to book a boutique room to ensure that the payment process goes smoothly. Some online booking platforms will accept a card only for the hotel not to accept the payment on arrival. This, along with other changes, such as the now ubiquitous surveillance cameras, may feel conflict with the country’s desire for more visitors.
A new waterfront
Along with the outward growth, Shanghai continues to create new character pockets in its centers. An example is Suzhou Creek, a tributary of the Sangai Huangpu Central River. The creek begins just north of the Bund, the seaside walk that continues to operate as a focal point of the city, which hosts a Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant and almost every big name hotel.
For decades, areas along the Suzhou Creek housed the Shanghai industry, which moved out of the city in the 1980s, leaving behind savings and an infected floating road. But a rejuvenation of the $ 5 billion Creek ending in 2020, and in its heart is a 26 -mile path that functions as a green connection that connects both established and new positions of art and culture.
At the intersection of the creek and the river is the recently open regent shanghai in the Bund, a 135 -room hotel with gold -plated interior and views of the Bund’s Art Deco facades to the south, the glossy horizon of Pudong to the east and the occasional charm of Suzhou Creek ($ 380).
I spent a day cycling west from this point, first stopping at Rockbund, a series of alleys framed by red brick buildings containing galleries, shops and restaurants. At the heart of all is the Rockbund Museum of Art, highlighting the bending works of Asian artists.
On my way to the recently open Fotografiska, a Stockholm Museum of Photography Museum, for lunch at the all -day Mona bistro, I passed the former General Post Building And Sihang Warehouse, an important area of the Second Sino-Japanese War, which took place from 1937 to 1945.
I followed the lunch with a drink beyond the creek in Beer Lady, a cave -filled cave and taps from more than 50 countries, before spending an hour wandering the stripes covered by M50 graffiti, where various galleries are filled. The final stop of the day was 1,000 trees, a band created by British designer Thomas Heatherwick who hosts a shopping center.
The other forts of the visitor of the city were full but free from the crowds I was used to. In Yuyuan, a Ming Dynasty-Era garden surrounded by a bazaar and tea, waiting for pasta soup in renowned Nanxiang bun on steamed took a fraction of the ordinary era.
The crowds were also sparse to the restaurant and shopping of Jing An, except on Friday night I went to Ins, a new nightlife complex at Fuxing Park. It offers access to music festivals to all sorts of spaces for a single entry fee and has hit the post-Lockdown with locals who want to dance more and spend less.
Increasing access
For travelers who want to see more from the country, it is now possible to reach most of the country’s provinces with the Bullet Train. I took the train from Shanghai to nearby Nanjing, an experience that was so easy and comfortable that it felt deceitful.
Even Beijing is now only 4.5 hours by train, compared to the previous 12 -hour drive or 2.5 hours of flight. International travelers who take the Bullet train for the first time must present their passport personally at the train station so they can buy a ticket. After traveling can be recorded directly through Alipay.
This new convenience of access made me excited to come back and see more from the country, but some of the other obstacles let me feel like China’s reality has not enough its tourist goals.
After two weeks, my tangerine reiterated the ability, so it was my ability to use the applications. The city beneath the surface felt exactly a distance.
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