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Showing posts from October, 2014

How's China?

The story of five contrasting Chinas.. There is one in Shanghai - international, materialistic and world's most populous city, growing at a pace sometimes beyond recognition, from French concession to the Bund you can see the present sitting comfortably in past's lap;  One in Beijing - political, rough on the edges, lot more 'Chinese' than Shanghai, and you feel the past as sort of the elephant in the room that no one wants to address;  Then one in Xitang - an ancient watertown which has traded very little for anything shiny and has that old-world charm and laziness you want when you have lived in Shanghai too long, life here is lived in slow motion - just sit and watch boats float by and enjoy a not-so-local coffee in an old house by tge canal , this is getting closer to 'China' but then not really;  There is one in Macau where East collides with west and you can eat 10 yuan noodles with chopsticks near a casino called lisboa where even 1000s of yuan ma...