Charminar to China...

Browsing for the shopping places in Shanghai and Beijing, packing lot of warm clothes, expecting colours to eyes, I(v) left to China. With the usual transit time (which I love and spend usually in sketching with lots of reading) and midnight flight schedule, I kept my feet in Shanghai. Shanghai was worth it all..

The drizzle, the cool breeze, the huge marvellous buildings, the greenery in the clean city was a perfect background as in any Karan Johar's movie as the chinese gals sashayed down everywhere with their high heels and long stockings.

Our package for a week included time in Shanghai Trade Fair, visting places in Shanghai and Beijing and Shopping (:)).

The Shanghai Trade Fair was a host of exhibhition for many Hydraulics and Ware-housing companies.

It was interesting to watch the open monopoly, marketing, gimmicks. It was good to see mostly women in marketing speaking good English.

You dont need to make a list of visitng places in Shanghai. Every road, every building, every flyover is truly a celebrity by itself.

The Hung-pung river that flows in Shanghai divides the east part from the west. The river seems like an artist who has given the traditional touch on one side and the modern touch on the other. The west part called the Puxi has a modern touch with skyscrapers. The east part called the Pudong with a taste of traditional china is a bread of buildings from British time. The Bund, Zhongshan road is a famous waterfront and is the symbol of Shanghai from very long. More than an hour ride in Ferry sails you through river. The lit buildings in the evening look like the ready brides.

The MagLev-Magnetic leviated train is an attraction too. Maglev uses magnetic field to float above  specially laid electromagnetic tracks. the maximum speed attained is 550kmph. Every morning and evening, twice in a day two trains coming in the opposite directions pass each other and if you are very cautious, you will have a glimpse of it for a fraction of a second.

The Financial Centre of China, JinMao Tower (called the Bottle opener), the Shanghai centre are truly skyscrapers. Walk around the these buildings makes you feel as a person real in Mission Impossible movie.

Chinese have diversified talents. You name it and they have it. China excells the global market by its innovation. Every small product in our daily lives has the brand 'Made in China'.

Shopping in China was not so entertaining in price as expected. But the experience itself was enjoying. Nanjing road is a street selling branded stuffs. But there are inner streets where you have 10RMB shops.(1yuan/RMB=8Rs). nanjing road is believed to be a romantic area where couples come for dating. Towbou market is a mall in the area nearby Nanjing Road, where you can bargain a lot. The quoted price for anything will be 400RMB, but with your bargaining skills you can come down to 40RMB.

 Chinese paintings are marvellous.China is famous for Fresh water pearls and Jade.

Shanghai was a true magical hug.

Beijing, the capital of China is slightly sober compared to Shanghai. Undoubtedly, the Great wall of China was a great challenge of stamina in China. The fact says the wall is 6500km long and was built for two centuries.

The Bird's nest stadium is the dubbed bird's nest and is called the National Stadium of China.

The forbidden city is truly a forbidden talk in China. The entry wall of the forbidden city holds the portrait of chairman Mao. They say that during the city lives, there was a rule that a woman once entered the city was never supposed to come out.

Tinanmen Square is the square where many Chinese students had laid their lives down fighting against communalism in China. Around the square are the Governement buildings.

You do not get much on net to surf on China's Communalism or the facts of Tinnanmen square .When you are in China, you do not get access to Facebook or YouTube. Few call it the Great Firewall of China. People of  China's younger generation do not know the facts of Tinnanmen square and the people who know, do not talk about it.

China has laid its own rules in her land for the people – One child policy, Divorce laws, Forbidden talking on Communalism, Beijing/Shanghai citizenship, Huge taxes for buying a 4 wheeler in Beijing and so on. With many anti-communalism groups sprouting in the land, China is seem to be easing the communalism. But for a zero-communalism country dream of many, its still a mirage.

During our travel back from Shanghai, many flights were delayed due to fog. Ours was one too . The sitting area in the airport was full and lot of Chinese people checking in after us didnt have place to sit. Guess what the secruity officials did! They asked us all to get our luggages scanned again. By the time we finished the whole process, we were left with no seats to sit :)

A nice saying goes as- 'To see the goodness of any thing, you need to have lots of positive attitude'. Being heard that, I think China's pace of growth is amazing. She is surfacing above the language problem too. Every street vendor attracting tourists in Shanghai/Beijing knows English. Chinese follow -Early to raise, early to bed, eat less spice. May be the reason for the chinese gals being so slim :)

Its time for India to wake up and catch the game. How well are we prepared?