I recently returned from a week long trip to Shanghai to speak at a conference. I love being immersed in a whole new culture – the food, the money, the people, the landscapes… every tiny thing becomes a new life experience. New life experiences are the absolute best way to generate fresh ideas. So I present these interesting snippets to you as little fire-starters – use them to spark your own ideas. Imagine a business challenge you’re facing right now and let one of these observations spark an idea for you to solve that challenge.

Shanghai Maglev Train (Magnetic Levitation)

This train, which takes you from Pudong International Airport to the outskirts of Shanghai city clocked a top speed of 501 km/h shortly after it was launched. Our speed reached just over 300 km/h. The one way trip cost about $6 and covered 30km in about 8 minutes flat. There comes a point where you simply cannot keep looking out the window at the traffic because there is no way to lock your eyes onto anything.

Magnetic levitation is a form of transport that suspends, guides and propels vehicles – mostly trains. The train levitates above a steel rail while electromagnets, attached to the train, are oriented toward the rail from below.

The video at this site gives a real indication of what it’s like to be on the train :: http://vimeo.com/8962575

Population and Urban Growth

One of the first things that hits you is the sheer number of people out and about on the streets of the city. This is a city with a population of 21 Million – the entire population of Australia in a city approx 100 x 120 km.During the time I visited, it was Chinese summer holidays PLUS Shanghai is hosting the World Expo which does compact the issue slightly! World Expo is hosting over 500,000 visitors a day and most of these are domestic citizens – can you imagine?

The famous skyline of Shanghai, which truly comes alive at night – many of the highrise buildings turn into giant TV screens – was ENTIRELY built within the last 20 years. 20 years ago, that skyline was farming swampland.

This pic shows a full miniature scale model of the main part of Shanghai city, on display at the Cultural Centre.

Miniature model of Shanghai

Our tour guide, when trying to let us know how important it was that we stay close to her, said ‘Let’s be the sticky rice, ok?!”. She told another interesting fact – that, at the Public Gardens, there is a spot called Blind Date corner. This is where you can go to find a potential husband. But because the young adults are all so busy with work, the PARENTS will meet there with printed profiles of their children, and they’ll do all the groundwork on behalf of their kids.

Entertainment

We went for cocktails to MOCA – the Museum of Contemporary Art on one night and you can imagine the jaws dropping when the roving entertainment appeared!

body painting

It was quite a shock, because everything seems very conservative in China. Another notable thing from this evening were the tiles in the bathrooms – they were patterned with extreme profanity (you had to look closely – at a distance the words just looked like a flower pattern) and we were all left wondering whether something had been lost in translation!

On another night we visited Mint Bar – which has a ?17 metre long shark tank running across the top floor.

The hotel we stayed at (Hyatt on the Bund) had a rooftop bar with a spa/jacuzzi in the middle of the outdoor seating area!

My favourite building was one that many people thought was just horrible. And it does look pretty damn ordinary during the day, but you’d have to admit it’s something different! It’s called the Oriental Pearl Building and is a TV tower… those are my fingers down the bottom!

Oriental Pearl Tower

The heat and humidity were a real problem, and stopped us from visiting World Expo because the lines for every exhibit were between 2-3hrs long and there was no shade while waiting.

I’ll leave you with this ‘50 reasons’ list about Shanghai from a CNN blogger :: http://www.cnngo.com/shanghai/none/worlds-greatest-city-50-reasons-why-shanghai-no-1-590704

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