Robert Hargrove

I recently took a trip to Shanghai China in late August (09), a city whose intensity is unmatched by any other in the world. Let’s start top down from the heavens. Shanghai has more skyscrapers than New York City…2000. New York has a 1000. These giant architectural wonders loom over your head everywhere, making you feel somehow miniscule.

Then there is the weather. When you walk outside your hotel room, it’s as if you are walking into a hot oven saturated with humidity. I couldn’t walk for more than ten minutes on the street without feeling like I was going to wilt. I kept finding myself walking into micro convenience stores to buy a local green tea concoction, trying to cool down.

Finally there is the hustle and bustle on the street, throngs of people on the sidewalk, hundreds of taxis, cars, and motorcycles at every street corner. Everyone is in a hurry to get somewhere. The women, who I couldn’t help but notice because their feminine appearance, were all dressed up in designer clothes, often skirts and dresses of the lightest gossamer fabrics.

Whether you go to Shanghai for business or personal reasons, this extraordinary heated intensity is the backdrop to whatever you will do there. More on China to come...