Season Guide - China - Hilton Racing

Anyone detecting a slight disparity between these two statements, both of which are equally true for me after half a dozen times in this endlessly delightful madhouse, should consider it an early taster of Shanghai, the city I now rate as my joint favourite alongside London and New York.

Shanghai is a place where nothing makes sense. Nobody appears to do anything much, yet they can throw up a stunning skyscraper or a sweeping superhighway in months. It’s the second city of a hardline communist country but the Shanghainese are the most business minded in the world.

The state of permanent yet endlessly entertaining bafflement that will engulf you for most of your stay starts the moment you land at Pudong Airport and look for the Maglev, the German built magnetic levitation train that whisks you to the city at 431 kph, making it the fastest train on Earth.

Except that this being chaotic China, you are unlikely to find the Maglev as there is only one sign to it, which points nowhere and, fantastic though the seven-minute ride is for three quid, it doesn’t take you much nearer Shanghai. You end up instead queuing for a taxi to Shanghai in another part of Pudong, the boring, city-sized Canary Wharf-style business district.

The Maglev experience with all its delights and disconnects is nonetheless a great introduction to Shanghai. Your Hilton awaits, right where the interesting action is, and in the loveliest bit of real Shanghai, too, the old French colonial Concession.

Think Manhattan, Nice, Mumbai, San Francisco and Liverpool rolled into one and you will start to get Shanghai. Everywhere you go, you’ll be surrounded by the same insane Brownian motion of people and bicycles going who knows where, or on what mission.

Then there’s The Bund, the heart of colonial business Shanghai, a vast version of that iconic stretch of Liverpool by the Mersey. The Bund is tourist central and on the tacky side. Don’t buy the fake watches and DVDs you’re offered every few steps and if you must have a shoeshine, haggle; the guy will start at about 500 Yuan, which is close to £40, but you should be able to get him down to 5 or so. I did say the Shanghai people are good at business.

Be sure to be like a local and eat wherever you go. Your best policy is to sample both Shanghai’s top end and its street food and noodle shops. Don’t worry about language; point at what other people are having. If there’s a disaster dish, you will only have invested 20p or so.

It’s far back from the river that the real Shanghai is found. There are still seagulls squawking and the occasional faint ship’s horn to remind you this is a port city, but here you’ll find the dazzling malls and office towers right alongside winsomely pretty, quiet streets lined with plane trees, quirky little shops and cafés (some traditional, many now über-trendy), art galleries and antique shops and superb villas built in several different European styles. This really is where the genuine Shanghai experience happens, something that makes the chaos, the noise and the occasional frustration seem like a perfectly fair price.