Blade Runner Utopia China

Arrive in Shanghai in the early evening and you will be completely dazzled by the postmodern neon landscape. After negotiating your way from the space-age airport into a taxi, you zoom into the city along a super freeway at breakneck speed through what used to be a vast swathe of crop fields and rice paddies. All around you, skyscrapers stretch for miles as you approach Puxi, on the western side of the Huangpu River, which is definitely the side where all the action is. You could opt for the Maglev (the bullet train from the airport) but it will only get you to the outskirts of Pudong, on the eastern side of the river, where you’ll either have to find a taxi or take the metro to the city centre.