Appooppanthaadi -39

Shanghai is simply superb. No wonder our rulers, cutting across idiological lines always promise their people about  sparing no efforts to turn our country like Shanghai. I only wish our netas and babus succeed in this sooner or later. In a lighter vein, we should admit that turning Shanghai into India is much easier!!

Right from the airport we get the feeling of being in a world class city. (Interestingly, the Pudong International Airport, Shanghai does not give a great look. Our New Delhi International Airport looks more world class than this)

The Maglev at the background of the Shanghai Airport

Walk down to the railway station. Catch the high speed train to the city. This train can run at a speed as high as 500 kilometers per hour. This is the world's first rail line that works on the principle of magnetic levitation. I should once again commend the Chinese. They use technology in a better way. China bashers, please excuse.

"Maglev (derived from magnetic levitation), is a system of transportation that uses magnetic levitation to suspend, guide and propel vehicles from magnets rather than using mechanical methods, such as wheels, axles and bearings. Maglev transport is a means of flying a vehicle or object along a guideway by using magnets to create both lift and thrust, only a few inches above the guideway surface. High-speed maglev vehicles are lifted off their guideway and thus are claimed to move more smoothly and quietly and require less maintenance than wheeled mass transit systems – regardless of speed"

"The highest recorded speed of a maglev train is 581 km/h (361 mph), achieved in Japan by the CJR's MLX01 superconducting maglev in 2003,^[5] 6 km/h (3.7 mph) faster than the conventional wheel-rail speed record set by the TGV"

There is an express higway road from the airport to the city centre. It was a 30 KM drive from the airport to the Punjabi Hotel in the city. It took 220 yuans by the car. The Punjabi Hotel offer a room at 300 Yuans per night. The highlight of the stay there was the restaurant. One should travel to Shanghai at least to have a lunch or a dinner at the Punjabi restaurant! There are a chain of four or five Punjabi Hotels in Shanghai.

Shanghai is famous for its skyscrappers, wide roads, large flyovers bulit all over the roads and neatness. The infrastructure development is amazing. One may be easily blown over by the charm of Shanghai. 

Amidst this jungle, some live trees also grow. Most of the arterial roads and also many busy roads are having thick array of maple trees on both sides. While the man made tall trees look to reach out to the sky, these nature's gift just stand dwarfed.

This is Dubai's concrete jungle...looking from the aircraft 
that just took off

Of course, there is no comparison. Nature's creation is more beautiful than man's. Perhaps if there were no maple trees, Shanghai would just have looked like Dubai.

Shanghai's concrete jungle..looking from Oriental Peral Tower

Whereever we look, we see only high rise buildings. All well built with so much of architecture and meticulous engineering went into them. In fact, Shanghai is a concrete jungle with excellent planning of roads and public transport system.

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