Beijing vs. Shanghai vs. Hong Kong

So, this is a question I get asked a lot: which city is your favorite in China? Which do you like better, Beijing or Shanghai? Where does Hong Kong fit into this mess?

SHANGHAI

Photo credit: http://blog.chinatraveldepot.com/tag/shanghai-vacation/

Let me just start by saying, I think about cities like a director might think about where to stage her next film. When I first arrived in Shanghai, my first thought was, “This city would be perfect for a film noire,” something classy and in black and white. Shanghai is situated on the water, so we get these fog blankets cast over the city every other day (yes, actual fog, not just pollution).

Picture this: The sun has set, and you are walking through poorly lit streets, where the only beacons of light are those cast from the neon signs of restaurants and hotels looming stories above your head, piercing the sky, too high to see the peak. The fog settles betwixt the buildings alit with every color of light, and the city takes on this surreal quality, like you are in a theme park after dark. All signage is in a combination of Chinese characters and Romanized Chinese pronunciation. From the balcony of the apartment, the city seems to float in the night, so many buildings like ships set out to sea.

I am telling you, film noire. Shanghai is TOTALLY a film noire set waiting to happen. And don’t get me started on that nouveau French aesthetic of the French Concession, or the art deco atmosphere of Tianzifang.

BEIJING

Photo credit: http://rashbre2.blogspot.com/2005/03/beijing-smogwatch-webcam.html

When I arrived in Beijing, I was too jetlagged to form an opinion of the city. It came to me slowly, over time, that Beijing would be the perfect place to film a post-utopian apocalypse film. I’m talking zombies, robots vs. aliens, something catastrophic and involving lots of empty streets, broken lamp posts in the night, gunshots in the distance. Perhaps this sounds like an insult to Beijing; in truth, I love Beijing for its intensity. The city’s utilitarian architecture is essentially composed of apartment after apartment built in the same style. In a word, the theme of Beijing buildings is often austere. If Beijing was a shoe, it would be the combat boot. If it was a mood, it would be teen angst in a night club after dark. Beijing is very gritty and real, nothing soft or indulgent about it. It has an allure like that of a great action film; you went to see the film to feel alive, not for rainbows-and-butterflies nonsense. Beijing is excitement mixed with pollution and a shot of baijiu. That, in summary, is Beijing, in my mind. I’d go back for another screening of that film a second.

HONG KONG

Photo credit: http://www.tropicalisland.de/china_hong_kong.html

If you are in the market for the perfect set for a cyberpunk martial arts action film with a bent towards cyber warfare and in need of an anti-materialist backdrop, Hong Kong is your city. This place is a visual assault to the senses in the best way possible. It has the harbor and the jungle reminding you that nature is just around the corner, barely beaten back by the cement towers of the city. At any moment, the subtropical foliage might swallow you whole, if the urban jungle doesn’t claim you first. The architecture of Hong Kong is tall, unnaturally so, buildings so high the sun cannot reach the street. You look up from ground zero, and the sky is a strip of blue obscured by layers of decks and awnings and red neon signs announcing dim sum is around the corner. The street level is not for pedestrians; this is a car’s domain. Pedestrians instead climb through overpasses that weave in and out of buildings, passing major highways with eight or more lanes, cutting into art districts and through megamalls. It’s the Amazon jungle of humanity’s construction, built from concrete and Ethernet cables, electricity and plasma screen. Hong Kong is a place you could lose yourself; lose yourself to the electric show, the fast paced lifestyle, the sheer immensity and complexity of a city that only spans a tiny island south of the Chinese mainland.

So, which do I love best? How do you pick between such dynamic and disparate cities? I think, if I had to live somewhere for a long time, for years, Shanghai or Hong Kong would be the cushiest and most hospitable sets for the future film of my life. Beijing would be a hell of a ride, but it would be a fight every day, a challenge every second. Do I love Beijing less? Not at all; I love these three cities equally, each in their own ways.