Just for fun, you should ask some of the people you meet in each city what they think of the other. When we stayed in Beijing, we were told that Shanghai men were lazy slobs who didn’t work and spent the money their wives earned. Conversely, Shanghai ren told us that Beijing was a dusty backwater populated by narrow-minded bureaucrats and peasants. Those were just the least slanderous slurs that they exchanged.

Either way, the food is better in Beijing.

On driving, I was amazed by both the naked aggression and the skill of Chinese drivers, in contrast to our experiences with Asian drivers in Canada. I’ve come to realize that our stereotype about Chinese drivers if drawn from the fact that most Chinese immigrants we see on the roads here have had little experience driving and — more importantly — have not absorbed the rules of the road by sitting as passengers for the first 16 years of their lives (the way most of us Westerners do). That’s changing, of course, as more Chinese can afford cars.

I’d love to read an explanation of how the automobile came to take precedence over bicycles and pedestrians on China’s roads. On foot, you never have right-of-way, no matter the colour of the light. Westerners are not used to this and I expect serious injuries or death when they arrive en masse in Beijing for the 2008 Games.

I live (and drive) in Mumbai, where honking is an essential part of every driver’s skill set. Someone once likened driving here to “a chess game where vehicles compete to occupy any vacant square, worrying later about how to move on from there”.

I think your point about the differences between the regions of China is probably true of any large and diverse country, including India, Brazil and Russia.

Reynold

It seems to me that the right dualism is rather shangai is to beijing like milan is to rome
Am I wrong ?

I’m little bit confused about china
ciao
nicoletta

Having spent a looooong time cultivating silk mills in Shanghai, I relish your perspective. It is one of my favorite cities — I’ve always felt as though it was a odd combination of Atlanta (with its rough and tumble gentility) and the undeniably romantic sweep of Paris. I miss the Bund!