You know you're in a totalitarian country when...

3 minutes of silence for a recent catastrophic earthquake is marked and enforced by the blaring of sirens and carhorns. I knew it was the right time to be quiet because it was suddenly really really noisy. Still, despite this, and the problems many people seem to be having renewing their visas as the Olympics approach, Shanghai feels on the surface much like any western city.

People here mostly live in apartments with modern facilities and go to smart office buildings for work and eat out at nice restaurants and shop shop shop in endless malls. Beneath the surface though, the differences become more apparent; what you see here is a city that has undergone dramatic changes in the last two decades. In fact one whole half of Shanghai (Pudong - east of the river), was a marsh until about 15 years ago, and has since become the financial centre, home to the tallest buildings in the city, and the richest expats.

Shanghai is a place of many contrasts - a few broken-down slums remain cradled by towering office blocks and residential flats. People hawk and spit, and urinate all over the shiny new metro platforms, and tunnels and several times I've even seen someone gob whilst on the train. This guy yesterday spat onto the floor of the carriage and then smeared it with his foot, which was unpleasant to say the least. My eyes are constantly full of dust from the roadworks outside my flight, and my nostrils are assaulted everywhere I go, especially at aforesaid roadworks, at which (nocturnally I might add), workmen are installing an underground sewage pipe. Which yes, does mean that the pipe was previously above ground, along the edge of the pavement, so that you had to hop over it to get into a taxi.

Shanghai is a Mecca for all things commercial - history and culture are to some extent cast aside in the search for new and more interesting places to put shopping centres. Believe me, I thought the centre of Birmingham was the most shopping-centre filled place in the world until I got here. There are so many shops and consequently shop employees that it's a wonder anybody is left to buy things. I work very close to Jing'an Temple - which despite being a still-functioning, ancient, Buddhist temple, also boasts a selection of shops around its circumference, and a metro station directly beneath it.

But don't get me wrong - I like it here. There's something very honest about this city. The commercialism isn't just present like it is in the West (where we're kind of used to the idea by now), it's brazen. Embraced by people who haven't had it for so long and are trying it on and finding it fits and buying 10 pairs just because they can.

I feel as though, having been here for a month, I'm finally getting to grips with Shanghai. I know my way around a little, and we've been through one cycle of the magazine (which will be out on 1 June with several articles etc. penned by me, woohoo). I'll write again soon with perhaps more detail about what I've been up to. Just thought I'd give you an overall impression for now.