How Beijing vs. Shanghai, Read Article

I am back in Los Angeles after spending ten days in Beijing and Shanghai.   In Beijing,  I participated in a NBER-CCER conference and made many new friends at Peking University.  I worked with my co-authors at Tsinghua University and toured the Great Wall and the Forbidden City.  We saw some smoggy days and we experienced some Chinese humidity.  The food was great and everyone treated us really well.  Both Beijing and Shanghai have better subways than any American city.

We took the 5 hour bullet train to Shanghai.  The 180 MPH ride was smooth and we saw many Chinese cities as we glided south and east.  These cities featured new housing towers clumped close together.

Shanghai is very different than Beijing.  The river that cuts through it adds to its elegance.   The city has more charm than Beijing as the Europeans who lived there injected some non-communist architecture and style.  Beijing is too "functional". It lacks charm.   Shanghai has real neighborhoods and sometimes feels like a European city.   Both Beijing and Shanghai are "rich" , sophisticated cities.  Shanghai is home to over 200 Starbucks!  That's progress.   Both feature strong and rising economics departments.   Shanghai has a Maglev Train that takes you to the airport and has a maximum speed of 450 kilometers per hour!   It was fast!