I love to travel, but I hate being a tourist. Most especially, I really don’t like being one of 50 or 60 tourists going from one historic site to another in a bus. A gaggle of people, piling off the bus, gawking at whatever it is we’re there to see . . . it’s just…
For the record, let’s give the Chinese their due. A little more than two weeks ago, with all the appropriate pomp and ceremony, a freight train stacked with containers left the city of Yiwu — it’s about 175 miles south of Shanghai — and set out on an inaugural rail journey to Madrid, Spain,…
In hindsight, I didn’t allow enough time for Shanghai. There is just too much to see and, understandably, visitors are taken by the incredible, even breathtaking architecture of the soaring, modern skyscrapers in the Financial District. Given more time, however, I would have liked to seen more of the traditional old parts of the city…
Government and politics in China are centered in Beijing, but Shanghai is the heart of business and commercial activities. That was apparent right away when I stepped off the high-speed train and once again found myself in the middle of a huge, new train station. Shanghai is a city of striking contrasts. For instance, there…