Season's Greetings - AHKs

CoMMUniTY CITY TOUR
Rocking
Shanghai
Parked up outside the Post Office Museum
82 December - January 2009/2010
Taking a Ride on a 1930s
WWII BMW Motorbike
and Sidecar Replica Lets you
Discover Shanghai from a New
Perspective
There are a few places everyone needs to
go when they come to Shanghai for the first
time: Shanghai World Financial Center, Yu
Yuan Garden, The Bund etc. Any guide book
off the shelf will tell you this. However, if
you’ve been before, these sites can get very
old, very fast. Good thing there’s another
way to see parts of the city even Shanghai
veterans will be surprised by. Grab a helmet,
we’re taking a ride.
Rock-Star Status
The tour we took started at the Hengshan Rd.
metro station, and the first thing everyone
in a 50m radius will notice is these bikes.
Blacked out front to back, these machines
draw stares unattainable even by the tallest
and blondest laowai. One running joke
among the tour guides is that whoever steps
into one of these sidecars is a rock star for
the day. The tour guide, Hugo, is more than
used to it. He has been living in Shanghai for
six years and he knows his stuff, teaching
at a French MBA programme in addition to
his daytime job. After some cruising around
Beijing Rd. and past the Jing’an Temple, the
first stop was made at Changshu Lu.
Places on the Side
The side cars allowed us to pull right into
a driveway off Changshu Lu. There’s no
need to worry about parking or extraneous
walking like you would with a bus or
multiple cars. As soon as the motorbikes
were parked, Hugo’s passion for architecture
revealed itself. Surrounded by Art Deco style
buildings, we were beamed into the midst
of Laszlo Hudec’s career as an architect. A
Hungarian fleeing from his Russian captors,
Hudec escaped and made it to Shanghai in
1918 where he put his degree as an architect
to use immediately. He would eventually
become a legend designing such landmarks
as the Park Hotel, Chapei Power Station
and Union Brewery. From this one spot,
Hugo showed us an early housing complex
he designed, the first home ever built in
Shanghai with a lift inside (also designed
by the Hungarian), and a barbaric stylised
imitation next door created by the Chinese.
From this one street you can see the history
of Shanghai as it evolved. Hidden locations
like this set a side car tour apart from
walking around by yourself guidebook in
hand. After looking at some more Hudec at
the Park Hotel on Peoples Square we were
whisked off to another hidden gem.
Situated at the corner of Feng Yang Rd and
Shi Men Rd, there is a small residential area
completely insulated from the hustle and
bustle of the main streets outside. Hugo
also knows about the best view in the city,
but asks his group members to swear to
secrecy before taking them there. We can
only confirm that there is hardly a better
one, not even from the observation deck at
the Oriental Pearl Tower. The latter is nicely
visible though, crowned with a mirror image
on Suzhou Creek – but no more hints now!
Things Are Lookin’ Up
There is a lot you don’t see in a car; but you
only start to realise how much when you
rip that roof off and ride with these guys.
Everything feels a little bit more vivid when
you fly around Shanghai just a few inches off
the ground. The people seem a little closer,
the mopeds a little faster, and the buildings
much, much taller. There is no pedestrian
worrying about running into someone or
being run over by a car. Blowing past the
buildings in Shanghai traffic, head tilted
back is a one of a kind experience.
A bunch of the guys getting ready to ‘roll-out’