This is certainly a country with more extremes, the recent economic growth has affected a lot of people, but certainly not everyone yet. Exiting my friends luxurious apartment (on the 46th floor of a high rise with multiple views of the yangtze and the city), past the numerous gate guards you walk straight into a very old neighborhood where people are washing themselves in the streets, and little markets where they sell homegrown vegetables, assorted animal bits, live ducks, skinned ducks, and processing all stages in between.
Traffic here is yet crazier than in Korea (and I haven't been to India yet!), sitting in the front seat of a taxi is an interesting rollercoaster of near-misses. Busses, vans, cars, mopeds, bikes, pedestrians all use the same space with no organization, lanes and traffic signs are mere decoration. As with everything here, taxis are so incredibly cheap (a 10 minute trip for little over a dollar) so there is little point in using public transport.
Food has been hit & miss, certainly my favourite sofar has been "hot pot", where you get a pot on a fire on your table, split in 2 for spicy and non-spicy soup/broth, in which you then cook your own meat/fish/vegetables as you eat.
If, as a guy, you think you can't possible get enough of girls wanting to chat you up, then you haven't been to Shanghai yet. At first I thought it was cool, locals trying to talk to me, but after a whole day of "oh, you're so tall" every 5 minutes, I had to start ignoring them as if they were beggars, which was quite surreal.
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