The best thing about M on the Bund, though, is the view. After lunch, we stood on the patio watching scores of barges plow up the Huangpu in what looked like an industrial regatta. Loaded with dunes of sand, they pushed along the river, muddy water churning just below their gunwhales. A red buoy divides the Huangpu into upstream and downstream lanes, but no one pays attention, because this is Shanghai and everybody is trying to hustle their way out of the developing world. An acquaintance of mine here once said that Mao Tse-tung's greatest feat was suppressing the Chinese entrepreneurial spirit.
Shanghai is a case in point.
After the Communists took over China in 1949, they turned out the lights on the city, which had been a bastion of capitalism. Shanghai began to revive in the early 1990s when Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping decided to unshackle the city to push along the nation's flagging economic reforms. The renewed vitality and modern attitude makes for a striking contrast with some of the city's remaining Communist relics. After lunch on the Bund, we walked through Fuxing Park in the city's French Concession. We happened upon two couples in white tuxedos and satin wedding dresses posing for photos in front of a sculpture of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.