It’s a kind of disappearing act. Not 4 weeks ago there was space along our road for 20 cars to park. Then some bright spark got the idea of turning half that space in to a motorcycle/scooter only parking area. So from the beginning of the month, all the car drivers have been competing for less parking spaces. Given the fact that the breakfast store and the fishing tackle shop on the main part of the road decide all the time to block off another three parking spaces, and the building site a little further on has blocked off the entrance and exit to their location, and in total we’ve lost something along the lines of 25 car parking spaces.

And then, to top it all, they decide to dig up the road, just past where they have added the motorcycle parking area, thus eliminating all bar 2 places to leave your car overnight. Sure there are plenty of other spaces further down along the river, but then you have to walk a long way, and with an ever-growing noodle who seems to get heavier by the day – taking after his father – that’s not ideal.

Having taken the day off on Monday to take the noodle to the clinic for a check up, we left the car in the motorcycle spaces, taking up as little space as possible, despite the fact that there were 30 available spaces and just 2 scooters around. Relaxing upstairs in the apartment, the air con on, we got a call from our security guard saying get downstairs ASAP – they want to tow my motor.

So I rush down, and the pigs have already loaded the Nissan on to the back of the red tow truck. I look at Plod and tell him, in my best Chinese:

“Give me my car back”

I am not in the mood for any crap, officious or otherwise.

The guy driving the truck wants to drive off. He’s ready. All he needs is the go ahead from plod, and the green traffic light and he is gone.

“You parked illegally,” the pig informs me. Like I had no idea.

“Only because it’s impossible to park legally in this town,” I retorted. “First you turn car parking spaces in to motorcycle spaces, then you dig up the rest of the road. Where do you want me to park? Linkou?”

I follow up by giving him my Paddington Bear stare, which – very surprisingly – works in my favour. Either that or the security guard saying something to the pig in Taiwanese did. Doesn’t matter – plod told the guy in the truck to leave the car, so he gets out, looking all pissy (no doubt the guy is on a commission deal for each car he tows), releases the rear wheels then lowers my car down.

I have the decency to thank him for it. He has the decency to ignore me whilst looking even more pissy. Nob.

Plod walks off, I smile at him. He doesn’t look happy or unhappy – totally indifferent. What do I care? I get the car, drive off and take a wee while to find a legal parking spot. A short time later there is someone parked right behind me, on a red line. Needless to say, the next morning when I woke up and headed off to take the noodle to his nanny, that car was still there, despite being illegally parked too. Plod knows when he’s been beaten. 

Shanghai is a city which – I get the feeling – is struggling to cope with the crazy speed of change whose grip it finds itself firmly in. Everywhere you go, you see the cranes of construction, new buildings appearing almost overnight, out with the old and in with the new.

It’s vibrant. Living. 24 hours a day, a city you can get a cup of coffee in at 2 in the morning. Where you can get your favourite food any time. A city that does not sleep, in the truest sense of the phrase. You see people walking down the street at all hours, a taxi driver taking a leak at 3 in the morning next to a gated apartment building. A city where so many shops are open, even in the small hours of the morning.

Coming from Taiwan, where convenience is key, it looks like Shanghai has made it an art form. There is nothing you can’t get – massages, clothes, food, sex. It’s all here for you, and you don’t have to look far to find it. From KTV’s which appeal to the masses of Taiwanese who have moved or been relocated here, where even Taiwanese hostesses can be hired by the hour, to an abundance of 7-Elevens and Family Marts, Taiwan looks in comparison like a sleepy village.

And no wonder.

But the people who have been living here for their whole lives, they are the ones who suffer the most, from the observations I have made. Zhong Shan Park in Chang Ning District on a Saturday lunchtime is full of older generation people, getting together and playing their traditional music, singing, playing mah-jong. Others, with children, fly their kites against a backdrop of green trees and new high rise blocks; children practicing their acrobatic moves against the constant noise of construction in the background. The city of Shanghai truly never stops growing.

I did not get to ask people how they feel about this – they are not very open to foreigners here, unlike in Taiwan, and I was eyed with suspicion – but I could see it in their eyes. There is a sadness in them, perhaps of something that they have lost. Shanghai was once a city with a huge French influence. Today there is little left of that, and the park tries hard to bring back some reflections of old times, recreating bridges and pagodas from the Qin Dynasty, attempting the nostalgic look for a city that seems to lose more of its traditional values than it keeps. But somehow, in among all these relaxing surroundings, it just does not quite work.

It’s a one block park, prime real estate and you have to wonder how long the city will resist building on it. It’s close to the public transport network, and right in the middle of a major business district. With some nice walkways, an abundance of trees, all of which are losing their bark – another prime example of the ecological issues that this country is facing – and all types and colours of flowers, it is a relaxing place for a city that can’t stop moving.

But progress – if it can be termed that way – is never far from you. At the exit of the park is a McDonalds. That’s enough to make me go and join those sad older people in the park, reminiscing of times past, where a man could walk for days in this country without finding a KTV, a coffee shop and a fast food restaurant.

Those times have long gone. Is China ready for this revolution?