Shanghai is a city of superlatives that does not seem to mind. It is the biggest city in China by population, with more than twenty million people, and it sprawls across the delta of the Yangtze, a flat, humid plain cut by creeks and canals. Until the nineteenth century it was a fishing and trading town, and then, after the British forced China to open the port in the 1840s, it grew into the most cosmopolitan city in Asia, with foreign concessions, banks, department stores and nightclubs along the Bund, the riverside street lined with grand stone buildings that still stand.
Across the Huangpu river from the Bund, Pudong was rice fields thirty years ago, and now the glass towers there, including the twisting Shanghai Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the world, form one of the most famous skylines on earth. The old city, the French Concession and the quiet lanes of lilong housing hold a more intimate Shanghai of plane trees, cafés and small shops, and a morning walk on a back street is often the best way to get a feel for the place.
The afternoon trip described here heads north-east to the Chongming Dongtan wetland on the island of Chongming, at the mouth of the Yangtze, an important stopover for migrating birds. The trip uses the Yangtze River Tunnel and Bridge, which opened in 2009 and carries a long, fast expressway across the water. The road is smooth, but traffic can be heavy at weekends, and speed cameras are everywhere.
Shanghai restricts motorcycles in the city, plates are expensive and tightly controlled, and a foreign licence is not valid for riding. The metro, taxis and the high-speed railways are the practical alternatives, and an organised tour is the way to reach the wetlands.
Fuel, food and everything else are in endless supply. Try xiaolongbao, soup dumplings, and the sweet braised dishes of the local cuisine, and finish the evening on the Bund with the lights of Pudong across the water.