Shanghai fair and square

Shanghai is on the clock. The eastern Chinese city is counting the rotations of the Earth until the start of Expo 2010, the international fair expected to draw 70 million visitors over six months.

349 days, 12 hours, 5 minutes and 3 seconds.

It's the first time the high-profile event is being held in a developing country. Beijing, take a seat; now it's your sister's turn.

349 days, 12 hours, 4 minutes and 52 seconds.

Throughout the city of 18.8 million people, oversized clocks loom on plaza squares. Many visitors, especially Chinese, stand beneath them, grinning for the camera as Shanghai goes a few ticks closer to opening day.

While Shanghai is fixated on the next horizon, I wanted to take a few steps back, to return to the past before catapulting towards the city's future. But first, I had to drag myself away from that clock.

For a crash course in Shanghai's chronology, find a spot on the Bund, the quay along the Huangpu River and spin 360 degrees.

During that whirl, you will see tourists snapping pictures and eating cotton candy; 19th-century buildings once lorded over by Western traders; and, across the water, the Jetsonian skyline of Pudong, the most recent district to spring from Shanghai's soil. In that gaze, you will witness the old, the new and the now.

“The city is both ancient and modern,'' said Zhu Tao, a student I met at the City God Temple, a Taoist shrine built almost 600 years ago that was destroyed and then reconstructed and repurposed many times.

Blurred limits

Unlike other Chinese destinations, the former village near the mouth of the Yangtze River was shaped by Western influences, a consequence of the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing.

Europeans and Americans streamed in, unpacking their tastes from home, such as horse racing and red meat. They staked out settlements, leaving the Shanghainese with a small patch of land now called Nanshi, or Old Town.

Wars, political movements, including the Cultural Revolution, and progress have altered and even obliterated the vestiges of yore.

Despite the government's best efforts, the rise of the global market has blurred the borders and fuzzied the characters of these neighbourhoods.

On a map, the areas appear clearly defined; on foot, I never knew whether I was in the French Concession, the International Settlement or Old Town.

Historical experience

Sleeping with history isn't as musty as it sounds. The Astor House Hotel was the city's first Western-style accommodation, built during the Qing Dynasty. Famous guests included Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein.

Although I tucked myself into a commoner's room, one with dark wood and Victorian sensibilities, I took breakfast in the old ballroom, imagining my steamed dumplings engaged in a Viennese waltz.

En route to East Nanjing Road, I walked along the Bund and through the International Settlement, passing banks, trading houses and other financial firms once run by the West's elite.

The mile-long strip is an architectural buffet, embracing such styles as Art Deco, Romanesque, Gothic and Beaux-arts.

Standing before the HSBC Building, a neo-classic model with a Greek-inspired dome, I was teleported to a European capital; the sound of Mandarin snapped me back to Shanghai.

Nanjing is considered one of the busiest shopping streets in the world. Archived photos at the Urban Planning Exhibit Hall in Renmin Square show buggies rolling along the unpaved road.

More than a century later, the mode of transportation has changed but the thoroughfare's purpose remains fixed.

Market medley

The blocks-long shopping strip is stripped of retail snobbery. Emporiums, boutiques and department stores flow into one another.

I could buy a hand-sewn silk jacket for $160 (Dh588) and then go two storefronts over for a pair of beaded “silk'' flats for $9 (Dh33). This is also the marketplace for knockoffs.

Unlike brash East Nanjing, Old Town revealed itself with a whisper. The back lanes were lined with laundry draped from lamp posts, wires and cornices, ghostly figures dancing in the breeze.

Before 1949, this area was a Chinese settlement encircled by a wall built to rebuff Japanese intruders. Now East meets West meets Visa. One of the main attractions here is the Yuyuan Bazaar.

The stores sell the best of China — pearls, tea, silk, chopsticks and cats with bobbing paws. Abutting the outdoor mall is Yuyuan Garden, a sanctuary built by a government official for his parents, completed in 1577.

As I tried to find my way, I was approached by a man with a round face, crooked teeth and button eyes. He asked if I needed help but knew what I required: directions and a cup of tea.

As Chen Shen Sheng guided me to his shop, I told him about my quest to find Shanghai's past. He looked at me with a mix of amusement and regret and said:

“If you want to see 2,000 years of history, you go to Xi'an. If you want 500 years of history, go to Beijing. If you want to know what will happen, go to Shanghai.''

Upstairs in the tea shop, Chen sat beside me and started talking about the history of tea, Shanghai and his past and present.

Over cups of jasmine tea and oolong, he spoke about how, during the Cultural Revolution, he was sent 900 miles away to “learn about the land and the farm''. He taught himself English by listening to the Voice of America.

When the government's economic policy shifted from agriculture to urban factories, he was allowed to return to Shanghai and his family. On my way out, he handed me a freshwater pearl from an oyster tank near the door.

Shanghai, an economic bull, is not shy about its achievements and expansion. In terms of bluster, it's almost like Texas during the oil boom.

It shows its might through multimillion-dollar skyscrapers and a brocade of neon that outshines the constellations. Any concern about communism squelching capitalism is dismissed by the images of Mao Zedong on kitschy souvenirs.

A harmful consequence of the accelerated growth is environmental degradation: The air is thick with pollution and the river has become a dumping ground for untreated sewage.

Nearly 20 years ago, the land now occupied by the business district of Pudong was farmland. Now the so-called New Open Economic Development Zone is commerce on the fast track, with hulking conference centres, hotels, financial offices, malls and a stacked skyline.

The most recent addition to this vertical mise-en-scene is the 1,614-foot Shanghai World Financial Centre becoming the tallest structure in China and the second-highest in the world.

The structure that most screams “ascend me'' is the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in Pudong. The 1,535-foot-tall building features a pair of bulbs on a frame that lights up like Christmas in Vegas.

Looking ahead

Up in the observation tower, I walked the circumference, ticking off the monuments deserving a dot on Shanghai's timeline: the Bund and the International Settlement, Nanjing Road, Pudong and the Shanghai World Financial Centre.

Then I peered beyond the bright lights into a dark and empty stretch of ground along the Huangpu River. In 349 days, 11 hours 42 minutes and 3 seconds, Expo 2010 will open and the future of Shanghai will become the present.

Go There . . . Shanghai . . . From the UAE . . .From Dubai

Emirates flies daily. Fare from Dh3,045

Cathay Pacific flies daily via Hong Kong. Fare from Dh2,335

Thai Airways flies daily via Bangkok. Fare from Dh2,335

— Information courtesy: The Holiday Lounge by Dnata. Ph: 04 4380454

Where to stay

• For hotels with history, stay near the Bund. The 130-room Astor House Hotel (www.pujianghotel.com) has hosted guests such as Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein.
  
  Nightly rates from $88 (Dh323). Broadway Mansions Hotel (www.broadwaymansions.com), built in 1934, has a fitness centre and French, Japanese and Chinese restaurants.
  
  Rates start from about $89 (Dh327) a night. To be in the middle of modernity, book a room in Pudong. Opened in 1999, the Oriental Riverside Hotel (www.shicc.net/english) is steps from the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. Rates start from $150 (Dh551).

Where to eat

• Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant, in the Yuyuan Bazaar, has been rolling out dumplings and other Shanghai specialities for 100 years.
  
  Don't be scared off by the long line; the soup dumplings are worth the wait. The bazaar also serves street food from around China. Dine along the historic quay at M on the Bund, housed in an old shipping building.
  
  The menu caters to Western palates, with dishes such as mussel soup. In Pudong, the food court at the Super Brand Mall leaps beyond Sbarro.
  
  Options include New Age Veggie for meatless dishes, Ajisen Noodle for Japanese ramen, Fu Jun Korean BBQ and Banana Leaf for South East Asian dishes and McDonald's and Pizza Hut.

What to do

• Stroll along the historic Bund, then walk up East Nanjing Road towards the pedestrian plaza. The street leads to Renmin Square, a green space dotted with cultural institutions, including the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre, which contains centuries-old photos of the city and a floor dedicated to Expo 2010.
  
  Other sites on the square are the Shanghai Museum, the Shanghai Art Museum and the Shanghai Grand Theatre. In Old Town, find Taoist deities and rituals at the City God Temple, which abuts the Yuyuan Bazaar and Yuyuan Garden.
  
  For tea and pearls, go to Chen Shen Sheng's store in the Yuyuan Souvenir Centre. The 50 Moganshan Road Art Centre features art galleries housed in warehouses. The M97 Gallery specialises in photography.

Information

• Visit Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration at lyw.sh.gov.cn/en; China National Tourist Office at www.cnto.org; and Expo 2010 at en.expo2010.cn.