Facts and Figures...The Big and Small of it

Even before we arrived I really tried grasp the idea of living in a city, one city, that had a population of 24 million people.

Some facts to compare to cities important to my frame of reference:
*courtesy of google

NYC 8.4 million
Philadelphia, PA 1.5 million
Jerusalem, Israel 780,000
Stamford, CT 126,000
Boynton Beach, Fl 71,000
Shanghai, China 22 million
Beijing, China 18 million
Guangdong 12.3 million
Hong Kong 7.1 million

With the above information to actually live in a city with such a dense population can seem over whelming to some.  I definitely think I am a city girl.  I like the beat, the accessibility, the lifestyle, the subway systems, even with kids living in a city that is child/stroller friendly, playgrounds, to me, seem more enjoyable than living in the suburbs (I reserve the right to change my mind down the road but right now this is how I feel).  Part of the reason making this move with my family seemed easier than some would thing is because Shanghai is very much an urban infrastructure I could adapt to.

I can't seem but to compare my experiences to past cities I've traveled to.  Shanghai feels very much like Vancouver.  It's a huge city but has a suburban feel to it (houses yet a downtown, subway, night life; different than New York City where all the houses are in the outer boroughs).  Shanghai is expansive. It has tons, I mean tons, of high rises all over.  The skyline is expansive with beautiful buildings in every neighborhood.  The subway is relatively easy to figure out. It takes 20-35 minutes to get to other neighborhoods but it's clean and easier than taking taxis (most of the time).  Everything takes time but it is accessible and urban.

An area of the city called Pudong, just east of the Huangpu River, is 45 minutes away! If I went 45 minutes away from Manhattan I'd be nearly in Stamford, CT! So to have this area within this city is sometimes hard for me to wrap my head around the geography.