Although Shanghai is the largest city in China with over 20 million
people, sometimes it was easy to forget that we were in a sprawling
metropolis.  We did do a little sightseeing in Shanghai, but Meggan and
I mostly just aimlessly wondered around. 

What we found interesting is that you could be in a plush modern
development of shops, restaurants and apartments in one block and then
seemingly old world China in the next.  Unlike some other big cities
we've seen, this didn't seem like a discrepancy of wealth issue, it
seemed to be simply a different lifestyle.  Shanghai seems very
comfortable with embracing development without forgetting the past, old
signs of tradition are just as common as a new skyscraper.
There is no better way to get the feel for a place then walking.  We
met some really friendly people that pointed us to all sorts of great
places we wouldn't find on our tourist map with the cartooned
landmarks.  We also used our tried true system of lining up for food.

If you ever see a long line for food, stand in it.  We have yet to be disappointed.  We waited about 30 minutes for Nanxiang
Mantou Dian pork and crab dumplings.  Amazing.  We did it again the
next day… and the next after that.  Cheap, delicious, authentic.  Oh,
sorry, no photos of the food.  We were distracted by eating. 

No matter what portion of Shanghai you're in, old or new, you will be
100 percent guaranteed to see two things:  Hanging laundry and
Bicycles.  Laundry hangs off of everything, residential or non
residential.  Laundry can hang on long sticks hanging out windows,
telephone lines, complicated pulley systems to hoist the laundry above
the sidewalks and many other inventive techniques.  
We would like to
nominate Shanghai as the clean clothes capital of the world.  
I guess it's no surprise that there is a lot of bikes in Shanghai.  With 20
million people around there's bound to be a few bikes around.  I love
bikes (see more bike shots last post), I find myself taking photos of
them all the time, usually with a local looking at me wondering why. 
Crazy tourists.