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On Shanghai's Nanjing Road, Westerners face relentless pestering from an army of pedlars touting counterfeit designer bags and watches.
China may have officially pledged its allegiance to various worldwide copyright agreements, but out on the streets as far as fakes are concerned anything still goes.
Not everyone who stops you, however, is hoping to sell you an ersatz Prada bag or a rogue Role
City lights: While Shanghai might generally be less elegant thank Hong Kong, it can still draw visitors
One earnest man, after hearing me speak, tapped my shoulder. Sir, you are British perhaps. Rule Britannia. Yes? How is Tower Bridge, sir?
The days of British gunboat diplomacy and opium wars may have left a scar on China, but for many of its inhabitants it seems Britain still inspires fond feelings.
In Hong Kong, an anxious taxi driver asked me: And how is our gracious Queen?, sounding a little like a relative who regrets that a favourite aunt no longer keeps in touch.
Britain was once the presiding power in this part of the world. Now were more like Magic FM, a place that exists to broadcast happy memories. While Britain may not have moved on much in 20 years, in the same period Hong Kong and Shanghai have raced ahead.
Boom town: A shopping area in old Shanghai - younger residents of the city have a taste for designer clothes
Both can now claim to be among the most exciting cities not just in Asia but the world. When I last visited Hong Kong in the days when it still flew the Union Jack the most exciting part of the trip was the famously terrifying approach to the old Kai Tak airport.
Arriving aircraft had a habit of lining up their final approach to the runway by wheeling around a hill-top cemetery; looking out of the window, you seemed to be within touching distance of crumbling gravestones.
Suddenly the plane would plummet to earth on a route that appeared to require the pilot to weave his way through a housing estate, as the close-up view of gravestones was replaced by drying laundry on balconies practically scraping the wingtips.
Just as you thought you were about to touch down on the high street, the plane hopped a perimeter fence and the pilot began a ferocious battle to stop his jet careering off the abbreviated runway and into Victoria Harbour.
Full sail ahead: Hong Kong boasts a fascinating history but it is rushing ahead in terms of modernity
A good landing is one where you dont get your feet wet, a Hong Kong pilot once told me.
This time around, landing in Hong Kong was like a trip to the future: our Hong Kong Airways Airbus gently descended on to an impossibly vast runway Chek Lap Kok airport (the worlds most expensive, built at a cost of $20 billion and opened 14 years ago) was created on reclaimed land.
Once inside, it seemed to me that the vast spaces of the terminal building were intended for giants.
From the old airport, you joined the snarled-up traffic on a slow-go into town; now there are wide motorways and fast trains that whisk you towards the centre which also bristles with modernity.
Its a forest of elegant tower blocks and cavernous shopping malls, each with their generous ration of Gucci, Prada and Louis Vuitton.
Compared to Hong Kong, Shanghai is generally less elegant, with the exception of the glorious Art Deco riverside Bund (imagine a Liverpool waterfront on steroids) and the low-rise old French Concession quarter.
City of the future: The glittering, high-rise Hong Kong skyline at night is a spectacular sight
Shanghai is, however, not to be outdone when it comes to designer labels. While Nanjing Road has a thriving market selling fake designs, dozens of shops on the same street sell the real thing. And its hard not to notice the number of luxury car showrooms.
Locals turn up at the Ferrari dealer with cash in a suitcase and generally want their new car in pink. Thats no problem now that head office in Italy has approved the colour after a crop of dodgy local resprays threatened to damage the marques Chinese reputation.
Its hard to imagine how Shanghai has journeyed so fast from Maos Little Red Book to Ferraris Fiery Red Car. The city map from the local tourist office even carries a big ad for the local Hooters restaurants, staffed by bosomy waitresses.
What would Mao say about this, you wonder? But while the Communist Party may have admitted defeat in the fight against capitalism, it seems to have no intention of relaxing its controls on free speech.
When I switched on my laptop on arriving at my hotel, I was annoyed but not really surprised to discover that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were unavailable.
Searches on Google came back via the companys Hong Kong site as a string of indecipherable Chinese characters Google has had a long-running dispute with the Chinese government.
China has its own heavily policed version of Facebook but expats know how to access Twitter, Facebook and any other restricted site via virtual private networks, or VPNs.
The TV approach to censorship is a little less elegant. If the BBC World Service TV station strays on to matters that are considered unsuitable, somebody somewhere hits an Off button and the news channel abruptly vanishes from Chinese screens.
Most people feel that Chinas battle against the forces of the web and worldwide TV news are comparable to King Canute attempting to turn back the tide: China will have to change the question is how and when.
But walking around the city, there is little to suggest that, in many ways, life in Shanghai is really any different from, say, life in Manchester. Some of the differences that do exist are perfectly delightful.
Every morning from about 6am, the park next to my hotel would fill with people mostly senior citizens joining a variety of jolly exercise classes.
Id heard of the Chinese doing Tai Chi at dawn but there were also lots of less structured keep-fit groups and scores of people wandering around many walking backwards all clapping their hands and tapping their arms.
Some were busy embracing tree trunks, to free up the energy channels, apparently, while a couple of people were teaching themselves the saxophone. It made me wonder why British people dont throng our parks in a similar life-enhancing fashion.
At the central park in Shanghais Peoples Square, a large section is used by parents seeking partners for their unmarried children, with swathes of noticeboards advertising the marriageability of sons and daughters.
In a country where the one child per family rule still holds sway, parents clearly worry that they will not become grandparents.
It should have been no surprise that China continues to be the home of good food. I joined an excellent food tour of Shanghais backstreet noodle restaurants and had a real gastronomic treat I would never have guessed that peanut-butter-flavoured noodles would be so extraordinarily delicious.
My hotel, the PuLi, was surrounded by Louis Vuitton and Chanel shops and was thronged
Getting around by taxi is cheap, but even cheaper is the metro, where a sign warns travellers to avoid jumping into the tunnel. I successfully resisted the temptation.
While Shanghai and Hong Kong have much in common, it surprised me how different they are. Hong Kong has retained its independence after China regained administrative control from Britain 15 years ago.
I imagined it would quickly lose its identity, but it remains very much its own place with its own style. It has restaurants such as Sevva, with its famous rooftop terrace and an ambience plucked straight from Londons Shoreditch House.
And bright new places emerge all the time: the Ritz Carlton has become a bastion of cool with its Oxygen bar (a firm favourite of Lady Gaga when she was recently in town) and, from last month, the new View 62 restaurant run by a former chef at the legendary El Bulli restaurant in Spain has been pulling in the crowds.
Most people will find more than enough to amuse themselves in Hong Kong centre, but thanks to the metro you can be deep in the countryside in less than half an hour. I took the line that leads to Disneyland, which opened in 2005, but travelled one stop beyond to Ngong Ping for the 3.5-mile cable-car ride up to the giant Tian Tan Buddha statue.
You can pay extra to travel in a cable car with a glass floor, which offers an experience similar to the feeling that you are flying. On the way up to the Buddha, you get a glorious birds-eye view of the airport.
In the tourist village next to the Buddha, I was tempted to make a visit to the fortune-teller. When I was last here, one of them told me that I would live until I was 91 and I wanted to know if this was still the case.
Read more: Hong Kong and Shanghai holidays: Elegant bustle and energetic ambition in China | Mail Online
China may have officially pledged its allegiance to various worldwide copyright agreements, but out on the streets as far as fakes are concerned anything still goes.
Not everyone who stops you, however, is hoping to sell you an ersatz Prada bag or a rogue Role
City lights: While Shanghai might generally be less elegant thank Hong Kong, it can still draw visitors
One earnest man, after hearing me speak, tapped my shoulder. Sir, you are British perhaps. Rule Britannia. Yes? How is Tower Bridge, sir?
The days of British gunboat diplomacy and opium wars may have left a scar on China, but for many of its inhabitants it seems Britain still inspires fond feelings.
In Hong Kong, an anxious taxi driver asked me: And how is our gracious Queen?, sounding a little like a relative who regrets that a favourite aunt no longer keeps in touch.
Britain was once the presiding power in this part of the world. Now were more like Magic FM, a place that exists to broadcast happy memories. While Britain may not have moved on much in 20 years, in the same period Hong Kong and Shanghai have raced ahead.
Boom town: A shopping area in old Shanghai - younger residents of the city have a taste for designer clothes
Both can now claim to be among the most exciting cities not just in Asia but the world. When I last visited Hong Kong in the days when it still flew the Union Jack the most exciting part of the trip was the famously terrifying approach to the old Kai Tak airport.
Arriving aircraft had a habit of lining up their final approach to the runway by wheeling around a hill-top cemetery; looking out of the window, you seemed to be within touching distance of crumbling gravestones.
Suddenly the plane would plummet to earth on a route that appeared to require the pilot to weave his way through a housing estate, as the close-up view of gravestones was replaced by drying laundry on balconies practically scraping the wingtips.
Just as you thought you were about to touch down on the high street, the plane hopped a perimeter fence and the pilot began a ferocious battle to stop his jet careering off the abbreviated runway and into Victoria Harbour.
Full sail ahead: Hong Kong boasts a fascinating history but it is rushing ahead in terms of modernity
A good landing is one where you dont get your feet wet, a Hong Kong pilot once told me.
This time around, landing in Hong Kong was like a trip to the future: our Hong Kong Airways Airbus gently descended on to an impossibly vast runway Chek Lap Kok airport (the worlds most expensive, built at a cost of $20 billion and opened 14 years ago) was created on reclaimed land.
Once inside, it seemed to me that the vast spaces of the terminal building were intended for giants.
From the old airport, you joined the snarled-up traffic on a slow-go into town; now there are wide motorways and fast trains that whisk you towards the centre which also bristles with modernity.
Its a forest of elegant tower blocks and cavernous shopping malls, each with their generous ration of Gucci, Prada and Louis Vuitton.
Compared to Hong Kong, Shanghai is generally less elegant, with the exception of the glorious Art Deco riverside Bund (imagine a Liverpool waterfront on steroids) and the low-rise old French Concession quarter.
City of the future: The glittering, high-rise Hong Kong skyline at night is a spectacular sight
Shanghai is, however, not to be outdone when it comes to designer labels. While Nanjing Road has a thriving market selling fake designs, dozens of shops on the same street sell the real thing. And its hard not to notice the number of luxury car showrooms.
Locals turn up at the Ferrari dealer with cash in a suitcase and generally want their new car in pink. Thats no problem now that head office in Italy has approved the colour after a crop of dodgy local resprays threatened to damage the marques Chinese reputation.
Its hard to imagine how Shanghai has journeyed so fast from Maos Little Red Book to Ferraris Fiery Red Car. The city map from the local tourist office even carries a big ad for the local Hooters restaurants, staffed by bosomy waitresses.
What would Mao say about this, you wonder? But while the Communist Party may have admitted defeat in the fight against capitalism, it seems to have no intention of relaxing its controls on free speech.
When I switched on my laptop on arriving at my hotel, I was annoyed but not really surprised to discover that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were unavailable.
Searches on Google came back via the companys Hong Kong site as a string of indecipherable Chinese characters Google has had a long-running dispute with the Chinese government.
China has its own heavily policed version of Facebook but expats know how to access Twitter, Facebook and any other restricted site via virtual private networks, or VPNs.
The TV approach to censorship is a little less elegant. If the BBC World Service TV station strays on to matters that are considered unsuitable, somebody somewhere hits an Off button and the news channel abruptly vanishes from Chinese screens.
Most people feel that Chinas battle against the forces of the web and worldwide TV news are comparable to King Canute attempting to turn back the tide: China will have to change the question is how and when.
But walking around the city, there is little to suggest that, in many ways, life in Shanghai is really any different from, say, life in Manchester. Some of the differences that do exist are perfectly delightful.
Every morning from about 6am, the park next to my hotel would fill with people mostly senior citizens joining a variety of jolly exercise classes.
Id heard of the Chinese doing Tai Chi at dawn but there were also lots of less structured keep-fit groups and scores of people wandering around many walking backwards all clapping their hands and tapping their arms.
Some were busy embracing tree trunks, to free up the energy channels, apparently, while a couple of people were teaching themselves the saxophone. It made me wonder why British people dont throng our parks in a similar life-enhancing fashion.
At the central park in Shanghais Peoples Square, a large section is used by parents seeking partners for their unmarried children, with swathes of noticeboards advertising the marriageability of sons and daughters.
In a country where the one child per family rule still holds sway, parents clearly worry that they will not become grandparents.
It should have been no surprise that China continues to be the home of good food. I joined an excellent food tour of Shanghais backstreet noodle restaurants and had a real gastronomic treat I would never have guessed that peanut-butter-flavoured noodles would be so extraordinarily delicious.
My hotel, the PuLi, was surrounded by Louis Vuitton and Chanel shops and was thronged
Getting around by taxi is cheap, but even cheaper is the metro, where a sign warns travellers to avoid jumping into the tunnel. I successfully resisted the temptation.
While Shanghai and Hong Kong have much in common, it surprised me how different they are. Hong Kong has retained its independence after China regained administrative control from Britain 15 years ago.
I imagined it would quickly lose its identity, but it remains very much its own place with its own style. It has restaurants such as Sevva, with its famous rooftop terrace and an ambience plucked straight from Londons Shoreditch House.
And bright new places emerge all the time: the Ritz Carlton has become a bastion of cool with its Oxygen bar (a firm favourite of Lady Gaga when she was recently in town) and, from last month, the new View 62 restaurant run by a former chef at the legendary El Bulli restaurant in Spain has been pulling in the crowds.
Most people will find more than enough to amuse themselves in Hong Kong centre, but thanks to the metro you can be deep in the countryside in less than half an hour. I took the line that leads to Disneyland, which opened in 2005, but travelled one stop beyond to Ngong Ping for the 3.5-mile cable-car ride up to the giant Tian Tan Buddha statue.
You can pay extra to travel in a cable car with a glass floor, which offers an experience similar to the feeling that you are flying. On the way up to the Buddha, you get a glorious birds-eye view of the airport.
In the tourist village next to the Buddha, I was tempted to make a visit to the fortune-teller. When I was last here, one of them told me that I would live until I was 91 and I wanted to know if this was still the case.
Read more: Hong Kong and Shanghai holidays: Elegant bustle and energetic ambition in China | Mail Online
