Falling in Luv with Shanghai

When all the roads start connecting in your head, when the city map becomes less used, you know this city is becoming your home. Shanghai is becoming my home now. My other home, with all the good vibe, is still Hong Kong, Shanghai is the new upcoming wave. I get to live between Asia’s two most exciting cities, choose where I spend the weekend, and this by default makes me one lucky duck. People ask me about the difference between the cities. It’s hard to point to out a single item that makes the difference, but if I must choose, the idea of “roughness” encapsulates it. Shanghai offers the roughness that HK lacks or has lost. The starving artists, the rocks gigs organized for the love of music, not the royalties, the New Orleans bands playing at no cover charge, the artists displaying/selling highly promising work at an art warehouses at Hongqiao for RMD 1000 (USD 120). As an art lover I feel at home here.

It’s when a taxi driver takes a route longer than he should, you know he can’t take you on a ride at home. Home it is.

Saying hello to Shanghai.