On a recent visit to Shanghai, I looked up at the wooden canopy of the former French concession area and realized that the sky was bright blue rather than a conventional grey.
The scene was oddly quiet, as the barely audible electric cars and bikes roared at a busy intersection near Ukan Mansion, a century-old landmark reminiscent of New York City's Flatiron Building.
And domestic tourists strolled along the sidewalk, particularly along the hip stretches of the Huaihai road, which usually attracts as many foreigners as locals.
Despite the pollution, noise and confusion, after my beloved Shanghai life, I felt like I had taken off my rosy glasses just to discover that the city had turned pink.
Last year, China began opening after a long pandemic closure. They began offering visa-free and transit VISA programs, set up all-in-one apps such as WeChat and Alipay, accept international credit cards and instructed hotels to welcome foreigners again.
In December, the country expanded and simplified its visa program, allowing travelers from 54 countries, including the United States, to enter without a visa for up to 10 days during transportation to other countries. (Standard question tourist visas that require in-person consulate visits and allow you to stay longer are still an option). The number of transit visa cities has also been increased to 60, allowing visitors to travel freely.
Although designed to make it easier to visit China, in a two-week stay, I discovered a place that in a way was more difficult to navigate. But with proper planning and patience, visitors to Shanghai discover diverse and refined cities with post-lockdown characters.
A much similar transition to app-based living in the country has provided incredible convenience for locals, but has also created new barriers for travelers.
Previously, businesses often had multilingual signs and websites. Now, almost everything is digitized and integrated into the app. Even with limited reading skills, there is the advantage of speaking Chinese, but for most visitors, this change proves to be challenging.
As usual, I was able to download the VPN service before my arrival, bypassing China's “Great Firewall” and access blocked websites, including Google. We also added messaging platform WeChat and payment app Alipay, but importantly, we confirmed that we had accepted credit cards before our trip.
Both apps are required for the most basic features, such as rides and ordering at restaurants. The first few times I pulled up Alipay for transactions by scanning or having the facility scan the QR code, but the app slowed down with glitches, but by the second day it was mostly working.
One day I took a walk through Tianzifang, a maze of narrow alleys converted in mid-19th century Shikumen The style of the house in a courtyard, a different courtyard from Shanghai. Some are still occupied by the inhabitants, but many are now full of craft shops, contemporary art galleries and food stalls selling everything from Krabi shell pie to fried, smelly tofu.
When I tried to buy the Qipao, a traditional silk dress, the vendor's QR reader did not accept my code. After multiple failed attempts, including the last resort swipe of my foreign card, which everyone was hoping to work, we gave up both. I had offered to pay in cash, but after being told that most businesses would no longer accept it, I got nothing.
Within Alipay there are a variety of other essential apps, including Ride Haling Diddy. The rides are very affordable, about 200 yuan ($27) for an hour ride from the airport, and often a few dollars for a centre trip – I rarely took the metro. There are slight barriers to the use of Didi. The driver can stop in the approved area and check the rider by requesting the last four digits of the phone number instead of the name.
Many language-related issues can be solved using Wechat and Alipay translation functions that interpret app features and images and audio. I found the most useful tools in wall wall restaurants that didn't feature English even before the pandemic. At Zhujiajiao's seafood spot, the ancient water town has become a museum that lives on the outskirts of the city. This tool helped you discover dishes that previously could not read kanji.
Other travel infrastructures are also slower to adjust. The hotel is instructed to accept foreign cards, but it is best to stay with an international brand or book a boutique hotel room to make sure the payment process goes smoothly. Some online booking platforms accept cards only to allow hotels to not accept payment upon arrival. This, along with other changes such as the now unified surveillance camera, can feel a discrepancy in the country's desire for more visitors.
New waterfront
As Shanghai grows outwards, it continues to create pockets of new characters at its centre. One example is along Suzhou Creek, a tributary of the Central Famp River in Shanghai. The creek begins just north of Band, a waterfront promenade that continues to serve as the city's tourist focal point, and features Jean-George Vongelichten restaurants and almost all of the famous hotels.
For decades, the area along Suzhou Creek housed Shanghai's industry, moving outside the city in the 1980s, leaving behind a rundown warehouse and contaminated waterway. But Creek's $5 billion revitalization will end in 2020, with at its heart a 26-mile pathway serving as a green link connecting both established art and cultural spots.
Creek and River Confluence is located in Shanghai, a recently opened ingested regent. This is a 135-room hotel with golden interiors and views of the Art Deco facade of Band to the south, with a glassy skyline from east to west and casual charm to the west (from $380 West).
I spent the day riding my bike west from this point, first stopping at Rock Band, a series of alleys adjacent to a red brick building that includes galleries, shops and restaurants. At the heart of this is the Rock Band Museum, which presents genre-bending works by Asian artists.
On my way to the newly opened Fotografiska, the front post base of the Photography Museum in Stockholm, I passed the former General Post Office building for lunch in Bistromona all day. and the Sihang Warehouse, an important site of the second Chinese War, held from 1937 to 1945.
I continued my lunch with a drink across the beer lady stream. This was a spongy space lined with fridges and brews from over 50 countries, where we spent an hour wandering through the graffiti-covered M50 lanes. The last stop of the day was 1,000 trees, and a complex tree created by British designer Thomas Heatherwick houses the Over-the-Top Mall.
The city's other visitors' base was bustling, but there were no crowds I was used to. In Yuyuan, a Ming Dynasty garden surrounded by bazaars and tea houses, waiting for soup dumplings in the famous Nankian steamed bread was just a small part of the usual time.
The crowds were also sparsely found at restaurants, but Jing An's shopping hub was aside from Friday nights spent at INS, Fuxing Park's new nightlife complex. It was a post-hit lockdown where music festival-like access to all kinds of venues was offered for one admission, and locals were trying to watch more dances and spend less.
Growing access
For travelers who want to see more of the country, it is now possible to reach most of the country's states by bullet train. I took the train from Shanghai to nearby Nanjing.
Even in Beijing, it's only 4.5 hours by train compared to previous 12-hour drives and 2.5-hour flights. International travelers on a bullet train for the first time must present their passport directly at the station so that they can purchase tickets. Your next trip can be booked directly through Alipay.
This new accessibility made me excited to come back and see more of the country, but some of the remaining hurdles felt like China's reality was not keeping up to its tourism targets.
Two weeks later, my mandarin had regained its urgency and had regained its ability to use the app. The city beneath the surface was immediately felt.
