Enter the Dragon: Flying from Sydney to Shanghai

Shanghai!

I've reached China, Communist China which looks like something out of Blade Runner. Shanghai is a superb city. Its a relatively new city with a space age skyline and in a country that is booming and becoming one of the worlds biggest economies. Shanghai is about making money. Shanghai draws in the workers and is sort of set away from the rest of China. Shanghai has one eye on the past but has its foot pushed down on the accelerator towards the future.

I now sit in the Metropole hotel. This is an art deco classic with 1920s architecture and I get four star service at a reasonable rate. Its a very famous hotel and was once the "Claridges of the Orient". Am I really in Communist China?

I now sit in the Metropole hotel. This is an art deco classic with 1920s architecture and I get four star service at a reasonable rate. Its a very famous hotel and was once the "Claridges of the Orient". Am I really in Communist China?

Fourteen hours before I was still in Sydney. I walked up Kings Street in Newtown to the station in the chilly morning.The hotel has been an experience. I dont think I have seen a more disreputable hotel. I didnt even see the owners when I checked out. I put my key in a cubbyhole. Then it was $12 ticket to Kingsford Smith international airport. Then through the airport and a sense of weariness of another flight. The flying down to the Antipodes is very wearing. I might park myself in a risque Meditterranean island next year.

I changed my remaining Aussie dollars into Chinese yen. My focus is now on China but I am sorry to be leaving Australia. I can see why it is so popular. It lacks that spark of Europe, Asia or the US. But what they have got here in sense of natural wonders is extraordinary. And it is exotic - lorakeets in the parks, tropical vegetation, and endless desert. i dont think I have scratched the surface of this vast country.

Then ten hours flying to Pu Dong in China. We crossed Australia, over the Phillippines an over the South China Sea and up the coast. We touched down at 7.30 at night. It was warmer then Sydney, they are coming out of their summer. I didnt spot a pre-paid taxi desk but took an independent taxi driver. When I pulled into the Metropole hotel he tried to charge me 450 instead of 250 as agreed. He didnt tell me about the toll motorways. I paid him the 250 yen agreed amd decided Pu Dong really needed a pre-paid desk.

I had a marble bathroom, beautifully decked room and television. I luxuriarated in this and ruminated that only a week ago I was sleeping in a swag in the desert.

Such is life.