{"content":[{"text":"9 – SHANGHAI","bbox":{"left":0.407937,"top":0.129406,"width":0.18378399999999995,"height":0.025698}},{"text":"The name Shanghai (上海 – literally ‘on the sea’) conjures up a picture of a \n prosperous international seaport filled with Europeans and Chinese; words \n like the Bund, the Concessions, and the Waterfront spring to mind. Like \n many great seaports, Shanghai had developed from a small fishing village. \n However, most of the bustle, colour, prosperity, and rickshaws had gone \n since the country had become Communist; all that was left now was the ugly \n Western architecture and a certain amount of industry. \n I was not really looking forward to visiting Shanghai, for I felt that I would \n be rather disappointed by it. My first impression of it as we made our way \n out of the special exit ‘for foreign travellers’ and drove through the dark, \n drab streets, confirmed my misgivings, though I was determined to make the \n best of my stay here. \n Shanghai was the first city in which we saw evidence of commercialism. \n Here the shop and business signs were more brash, and for the first time in \n China we actually saw a garish neon sign on the top of a high building. \n Although it appeared to be a thriving city, it did look rather scruffy. There \n was quite a different atmosphere here, like a dim shadow of Shanghai’s \n former cosmopolitan self. After the whitewashed shacks of Suzhou, which I \n now realized were full of character, it was depressing to look at large \n buildings and skyscrapers built in dark brown-red brick. Everything appeared \n to be out of date; the prevailing style of architecture belonged to the early \n 1900s. \n Our hotel, the Jing Jiang (formerly the Cathay Mansion), was a tall and \n ugly-looking building. It had an entrance fit for a mansion, with flights of \n stone steps leading up to the doors. Inside it was a little more pleasing to \n the eye. The lobby was quite large, with a reception desk and shop on one \n side, a small aquarium full of colourful fish in the centre, and reception \n rooms on the other. \n We arrived here at 7.30 p.m. After we had been checked in and had been \n handed slips of paper with the numbers of our rooms written on them, we \n made a dash for the lifts behind the aquarium. The pleasant and smiling lad \n in our lift seemed to be delighted that I could speak a little Chinese, and was \n consequently quite friendly towards me. \n Most of us were on the tenth floor. At first we could not discover where \n we were supposed to collect and return our keys; it slowly dawned on us","bbox":{"left":0.150857,"top":0.220618,"width":0.696856,"height":0.681605}},{"text":"!","bbox":{"left":0.150857,"top":0.932491,"width":0.0044410000000000005,"height":0.016707999999999945}},{"text":"88!","bbox":{"left":0.488874,"top":0.932776,"width":0.026775999999999966,"height":0.016707999999999945}}],"images_bbox":[],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[]}