He's in Denmark, we're in Shanghai

Today we flew from Beijing to Shanghai. Shanghai is warmer than Beijing, and totally different. It almost feels like being in a different country.
It all started at 9am this morning, when they came to pick up our set, and the set of TNT, who also played in Beijing and were on the same plane to Shanghai.



Luckily, this was not how they transported the set to the airport. There was a bus at the end of the road to transport set and people.


At the airport, we had just enough people to push the trolleys we needed to get all of our stuff to the check-in desk.



In Shanghai, we were picked up by Ray and Tracy. (I should probably tell you that most of the Chinese people we've been meeting have English names as well as Chinese names - I think they do it to help us out - so Ray and Tracy are Chinese, and work for the Dramatic Arts Centre in Beijing). The space looks great and has a very nice bar on the 6th floor overlooking Shanghai.



After we checked in at the hotel, we went for a meal and afterwards Bob and I went for a walk to see Shanghai by night.



Shanghai has tree-lined streets and is a mix of old and new, but in a different way from Beijing. The new is very new, very American, and probably tacky and cheap. But very lively. Beijing is more serious, has incredibly wide avenues and feels more like a city you really need to know in order to know where to go. Shanghai seems easier. It's been compared to NY and Vegas, but I think that's not entirely right. It's much more a mix of the most unlikely combination of Europe, Asia and America. NY is a more likely mix. If that makes any sense at all.