20 years ago I had the opportunity to move from Cape Town to continue working for my American company in Shanghai. I had to complete my 6 month assignment in Cape Town and then deliver a 2 year engagement in Shanghai. I took the risk of not going to Shanghai for the lucrative career move it would have been at the time, well I had met sharki3 and the rest is history as they say. 

Now, all these years later I managed to get to Shanghai and this time not through work, but on my own two feet, not forgetting my backpack of course.

Walking the city streets in the evening down to The Bund to see the skyscrapers across the river light up the skyline was amazing. The buzz of spending our Christmas Day together in Shanghai was weird, as they do celebrate Christmas in this part of China, well maybe all the expats who live and work here!

I am very happy to have finally visited this city with its amazing metro, fabulous shops, only a couple of temples and amazing promenade, but I could not help wondering about those dark barges that you could barely see, with no lighting and that floated down the river very quietly, yet continuously. Perhaps fuelling the nation with coal, exporting goods (nope, wrong vessel type) or something more sinister. Oh dear that’s my paranoia creeping in again, got to keep it in check, who would dare move radioactive materials down the river through Shanghai only under the cover of darkness….not the Chinese!:)