Between the shiny, glass and steel corporate office buildings are polluted, crowded streets, lined with dingy, decaying buildings built under 40 years of communism. This is the old Shanghai. It is being eradicated by the city's incredible new growth, but it's definitely still there. Probably the most unpleasant thing about Shanghai is the smell. The smog is extreme, and the rivers stink like a cesspool, clogged with the raw sewage and trash of a billion people.
Environmental concern is one area in which Shanghai has a long way to go.
The exchange rate of 8 yuan to the dollar makes almost everything here cheap. Soon after we docked in Shanghai, close to two-thirds of the shipboard community boarded buses to catch a flight to Beijing. The optional trip to China's capital was pretty expensive, so some students, like myself, opted to spend our whole time in Shanghai. It was nice to focus and reflect on Shanghai without having to contend with the crowds on-ship. There were enough crowds to contend with in the city.