Lady or fishmonger

The Bund of Shanghai and its many buildings are one of the city's most important sites. [Photo/Asianewsphoto]

There are few more delightful ways to pass the time than to lounge on the Bund and watch the sunset, striking up conversations with old-timers about the change across the river.

"Shanghai is an elegant lady. Beijing is a fishmonger," a woman from Shanghai said to me during a highspeed train trip from Beijing to Shanghai. I was visiting Shanghaifor the first time and had asked how the city differed from the capital.

But was Shanghai really a city of class, sophistication and worldliness compared to Beijing's dingy, disheveled drudgery? On the other hand, were Shanghai residents really the way Chinese from other cities described them?

"All Shanghai people care about is money," a girl fromNortheast China told me. "Shanghai women boss their men around all day, and control their bank accounts."

"In Beijing, if we're going to fight, we fight. In Shanghai, they'll say they want to fight and then run away," a Beijing resident told me.

Other people claimed: "Shanghai residents hate outsiders." Going to Shanghai for the Chinese National Day break inbreak in 2012, I was about to find out.

And what did I discover? First of all, no one was mean to me. Granted, I'm a foreigner, and plenty of people did try to swindle (or should we say, "Shanghai") me, but that could just as easily happen in Beijing's Wangfujing district.

What I did notice was how much more alive the city felt. Unlike the centrally ordained flat grid of Beijing's ring roads, Shanghai's southern humidity, hills and river intertwine to give it vibrant fengshui.