I've done my best to stay within a 2 square kilometer area of the city I can -- there's no wanderlust in me. So if anything, I've got a very small view of a very big city. How big? Try 41,000 square kilometers. About 12 million people live here. Of them, I'd say I know maybe 25 of them somewhat. Most of these have been my students. They've been good to me and I've enjoyed being here with them. The others are the hotel staff. In short, what I know of China isn't much different than it was where I got there. For all the other things I've had to say about the place, this one thing is true: I've actually seen, felt, smelled and tasted so little of it that I shouldn't talk much about things in a general sense.
If you somebody like me: Not from a huge city, not very adventuresome and more interested in your work that doing the tourist thing, coming to Shanghai is going to be a mixed experience. Its easy to get overwhelmed. The sheer scale of things here is impressive. There's a crush to things like I've only experienced in places like New York and Chicago. And I suppose the less of it you see, the more magnified these things become. I think I'd probably not mind coming back as a tourist -- provided I had a good guide and stayed in the part of town. Its taken me five days to get comfortable with it.
Signing off from Shanghai, next posting from Omaha.