My sister just completed her Mandarin language course. On December 20th 2007, the family decided to pay her a visit where she was at China’s largest city – Shanghai.

We got acquainted with Shanghai quickly during adverse cold weather conditions. Daily temperatures range between two and six degrees Celsius at this melting pot of modern Victorian architectures and skyscrapers; and old Hutongs and slums. It epitomizes a bustling city growing up in a hurry within the motherland of China.

Shanghai’s public subway system made it convenient for us to travel from almost any part of the city to get to the next destination. Its shopping belt Nanjing Lu was linked by subway. So was my sister’s apartment at Hongqiao Lu which we stayed at. So was my 4th uncle’s family who bought a Capitaland condo by Weining Lu. A one-way subway trip costs between RMB 3-5 (S$0.60-$1.00). A public bus trip costs RMB 2 (S$0.40).

The city is served by two airports – Pudong and Hongqiao (domestic). There’s a really quick (and cheaper: RMB 50, if you show your plane ticket stub you pay only RMB 40) way to get to the city center from Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport – on the maglev which reached a top speed of 430km/hr in 8 minutes flat, which would take 40 minutes by taxi. (roughly RMB 160 to Hongqiao Lu)

The city is also served by two railway terminals – the modern Shanghai South Railway Station (which looked as impressive as an airport) and the slightly older Shanghai Railway Station. Both are an inexpensive way for Shanghai inhabitants to travel to the other Chinese cities. We took the rail on two occasions to Hangzhou, and Wuxi.

Hangzhou was once described by Marco Polo as the finest, most splendid city in the world. We chartered a boatman for a trip along the scenic West Lake (Xi Hu), and lunched at Lou Wai Lou restaurant at the recommendation of a Hangzhou girl I met during the railway trip. The local specialty Beggar’s Chicken (jiaohua ji) was so-so, however the Dongpo pork was heavenly. On our daytrip we slotted in a visit to the local silk factory and tea plantation which produced one of Hangzhou’s best-known exports – Longjing teas.

According to information on Wikipedia that I had with me on my Nokia E61i at the time, due to recent developments, Wuxi has been dubbed “Little Shanghai”. It left its indelible mark in history as being one of the five strongest kingdoms during the Spring and Autumn Period due to the brilliance of military strategist Sunzi, author of the famous “Art of War” who came to assist the King of Wu. It was precisely due to its colorful past that it is also home to film studio-cum-theme park CCTV Wuxi Movie/TV Base which contains Tang Dynasty, Three Kingdom City and Water Margin City which often were used as shooting locations in filming. Return of the Condor Heroes was also shot on location here. It felt surreal for me to be standing at location of the Kingdom of Wu in the Three Kingdom City. I enjoyed the visit and made a mental note to return for another visit sometime in the future.

It was during the tour bus ride to the studios that got me acquainted with an Indonesian family taking their youngest daughter on a vacation to China. Their eldest daughter was studying medicine in Suzhou which was a 15 minute rail stop away. A decision to send both their daughters was made on the conviction that having tertiary education in an international school in China yields the dual benefits of learning both English and Mandarin languages in a conducive environment while building a network of Chinese contacts from all over the country as well as international students who had come in increasing numbers to enroll in China’s universities.

I thought about this and found this logic to fundamentally make sense. In the not too distant future as the quality of education in China continue to improve and gain worldwide recognition, instead of sending their children to traditional centers - the US, UK and Australia, more parents may well opt to send their kids to China. Indeed on the rail ride back to Shanghai, a north Indian family whose children were chatting in fluent Mandarin was in the same train carriage with us.

We took a domestic flight to Beijing, which was firstly declared the capital city of China in 1057 BC by the King of Wu. We stepped out of our China Eastern airplane to find snow blanketing the grounds in the -10 degrees Celsius winter. The cold weather was an understatement. However, we managed to visit the Olympic site, hike up the Great Wall from Badaling, and visit the breathtaking Forbidden City, which served as the imperial palace from the mid-Ming Dynasty till the end of the Qing Dynasty.

Generally I found the shopping to be better in Beijing as compared to Shanghai as the vendors started offering prices at much lower levels to the ones in Shanghai. In other words, one needs not do too much bargaining to achieve closer to cost which is really great value. To put into perspective, a shirt which retails for S$30 here could be bought for RMB 40. (S$8 after bargaining) I bought a NBA Spalding leather basketball which is selling above S$50 here for RMB 70. (S$12 without much bargaining) Ties which cost S$15 here was bought for RMB 10 (S$2 with bargaining) there. Region 5 DVD costs RMB 5 (S$1) while region 9 ones cost RMB 7. (S$1.40)

While Beijing is China’s Sydney, Shanghai is her Melbourne. I discovered the arts, fashion and music scene in Shanghai to be alive and well. Small independent boutiques were flourishing along its big label cousins in Nanjing Lu. On viewing the local art paintings, I also made a mental note to make room for paintings on my next visit. On Christmas Eve, I visited the oldest jazz and blues pub in the city, The Cotton Club and watched its resident band perform. The audience was made up of 60% foreigners and 40% Chinese. The anchor performer is an American guitarist Greg Smith with another foreign bass guitarist and Italian drummer. There were two young Chinese trumpet players in their early 20s. Though one is better than the other and they were nowhere near as good as the American guitarist, they struck me as being the physical embodiments of China which is hungry to learn and developing fast and in the case of these young performers, it won’t be long before they chalk up enough experience and develop their own style of playing.

Tea has always been part of Chinese culture and its history. My interest in it was rekindled by Vivian, a tea vendor I met in Beijing who quit her desk job one day when she realized she was spending all her monthly wages on purchasing all the teas she could afford. That was how Vivian entered the tea business. It quickly became evident that she was genuinely passionate about Chinese teas as she regaled me with stories about its history, varieties and tea making as she poured me cup after cup of Tieguanyin, Pu-erh and flower teas for me to taste. Three hours spent with her flew by quickly.

I brought back a bag of Tieguanyin leaves from her and two zisha teapots, in addition to the one I got in Wuxi, which is famous for its zisha pottery.

On the 5 hour plane ride back to Singapore, as I was reading The World Is Flat (a gift from my sister) by Thomas L. Friedman, I reflected on my trip to China and gained a sense of the pulse of the country; I was moved by the forward looking outlook of its hardworking citizens. Since China opened up its economy to the world on joining WTO, millions of Chinese people strived to improve their language skills and get ahead in this modern world. Evident are the four rows of bookshelves dedicated solely to English language education and a row on Japanese and Korean languages in a book store in Nanjing Lu – Bookstore East. One-third of people in Dalian have taken Japanese or Korean as a second language in high school. The future looks very bright indeed for China.

Not only have I gained a first-hand impression on China’s economy, I was left with renewed appreciation and wonder for Chinese arts, history and culture.