Heading North Up the Coast. . .

Two years later I went to Shanghai via London, just to see what they know 

Sitting in the lobby bar of the Pudong Shangri-La, what have we learned today? I think I'll go chronologically, and then branch off as the opportunities present themselves. It was a very long flight. 18 total hours, which is what you get when you go the long way 'round I suppose. Two sunrises and sunsets inside of 24 hours makes it that much more difficult. (I have just been handed the stingiest scotch I have ever seen. I have to shake the glass to make sure something is actually in there. I think they just whispered "scotch" over the glass. Although the coasters and napkins are linen.) 
So we arrive in Pudong International Airport, which I think is fairly new, and there is no one else in there. No other flights arriving. In this whole huge airport. Well,there was one, but still. You'd have thought it was some municipal terminal in Iowa somewhere, instead of a major international airport in a city of 20 million people. Perhaps the departure terminal will be different, maybe it was the time of day, but it was an odd first impression. And that impression continued. Things weren't dirty, or broken down, just. . .shoddy. The airport, the subway, the atmosphere, everything just looked put together from B-list materials. Good B-list materials, but not quite the top-of-the-line stuff. The hotel, however, is definitely A-list. It should be, with what they charge for scotch vapors. Hong Kong, by contrast, looks well put together, but with the British having run things for a hundred years, that's what you'd expect. It is settled and secure in its position. Shanghai---the Pudong neighborhood, at least, which was a swamp 20 years ago---is still figuring things out. And it shows. But there are many other , older parts to the city, so we'll see. 
The hotel is right across from the Super Brand Mall, 8 floors and a gajillion square feet of shopping (PLEASE TO HAVE HAPPY FUN TIME!!) I don't mean that disparagingly, but it does bring me to my next HK comparison. In HK, signage and announcements are made in Cantonese and the Queen's English. In Shanghai, they are made in Mandarin and Chinglish, which I absolutely cannot understand. I mean I can understand the meaning of it, but not the reason for it. If you are going to be considerate enough to be bilingual, why can't you be bilingual correctly? Why not "Mall Hours" instead of "Hours to Mall Shopping"? Or "Please take",  not "Please to have"? Would it be so hard to show this stuff to someone who actually speaks English? It's as if you made it to third base and then said "ahhh, close enough." Nice smell in the mall, too. Like cinnamon glazed nuts mixed with perfume and melted cotton candy. I wonder how long I can hold my breath?
Very nice health club, too. Individual lockers and bathrobes and Bill Murray Lost in Translation These Are Way Too Small slippers. But the jacuzzi was just warm, and not very bubbly at that. A cold jacuzzi, too; for after the sauna, I'd guess. Good thing I didn't get in that one. Tomorrow is across the river to the old side of Shanghai; the Bund, and Nanjing Road, which is the Champs Elysee, and the Ginza, and Michigan Avenue all rolled together. That's what the book says, anyway.

Well, security should be a breeze

Capitalism Inc.