We almost didn't make it. When we tried to check in for our flight at Seoul Incheon Airport, the lady at the China Airlines desk asked us for our visas. We told her we were planning to obtain one of the new 144-hour visas upon arrival, but she looked perplexed. "You can only travel to one city with those kinds of visas. With your layover in Tianjin, that's two cities." Huh? Why do you need a visa for a layover? The answer to that question is a phrase we used a lot in the next few days: "Because, China…"

After a frantic call to United Airlines, an American angel named Wendy saved the day and booked us on a direct flight AND gave us money back because it was cheaper than our flight with a six-hour layover in Tianjin. We breathed a shaky sigh of relief and counted our lucky stars. Within a couple of hours we were on our way to Shanghai and excited again at the prospect of visiting China. Back in Japan, we had talked about it and agreed that Shanghai sounded more appealing than Beijing, with its crowds and acute pollution. While we wanted to see the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, we were far more interested in Shanghai's mix of old and new, knowing that we could always return to Beijing at some point in the future,

When we landed, we passed through customs fairly easily, obtained our long-awaited 144-hour visa and set out for the center of town to find our Airbnb. Fulfilling one of Jona's dreams, we took the Maglev to get there. By the time the train reached its maximum speed of 450 km per hour, we were giddy and our faces were stretched with g-force pressure. The trees and electric pylons outside the window were bending in an optical illusion created by our velocity. The towns and suburbs whizzed by in a blur and we started to feel funny. However, the Maglev only cruises at the maximum speed for a minute or two, then it has to slow down to enter Shanghai. The whole thing took about twenty minutes and we found ourselves at a metro station just outside the city center. We looked around and came to the realization that we were finally in China.

Shanghai is a very modern city where foreigners are encouraged to spend time and money. I visited Changsha a few years ago, so I had some frame of reference when approaching Shanghai. The infrastructure here is great and cheap. In fact, public transportation was our favorite thing about this city; it should be this nice and accessible everywhere. We rode into West Nanjing Road and set off to find our new home. I had one of those moments of intense love and admiration for my wife, as I watched her navigate the streets of this new country, with complete and utter confidence. She led the way, suitcase in tow, down narrow streets and alleys. The best part of this trip has been the opportunity to spend more time together after pursuing our respective full-time careers. There are days when we spent too much time together, but, for 99.9% of the trip, Jona and I have had a truly blissful adventure. This was one of these moments.

After a false start in a dingy apartment complex with dead ducks hanging from the windows, which thankfully turned out to be the wrong place, we found our apartment and set up camp in the Old Quarter. Mao used to live around the corner when he was a young revolutionary and the area is a well-preserved colonial-style neighborhood. We visited his former home, which was fascinating but required the wizardry of Google Translate to read the Chinese explanations.

Our rental was a small apartment at the back of an old complex, down a dark lane, past a security guard who barely acknowledged our presence. While Shanghai is fairly cosmopolitan, it is not an everyday occurrence for most Chinese to interact with foreigners. Years of mistreatment at the hands of colonialists and subsequent decades of Cold War messaging have made the locals very wary. There are still elderly people walking around in blue, Mao suits, who would look at us out of the corners of their eyes. It was hard to grasp what they were thinking and we had few opportunities during our too-short stay to interact with locals. We would smile at them and, more often than not, they would smile back.

If you're into cities and architecture, then you have to make a pilgrimage to Shanghai. The skyline is among the most iconic in the world. On one side of the river is the old, colonial boulevard called the Bundt. It is the epitome of Art Deco elegance. On the other side, a ferry ride away, on reclaimed land, stands the new Shanghai skyline, all skyscrapers and neon lights. Among these buildings, the Pearl is the most visible, soaring above the city, with spheres at three different levels that offer visitors spectacular views. We enjoyed the experience of walking around the area and then going up the tower with hordes of other tourists, mostly Asian—from other Chinese cities, Thailand, Indonesia and further afield.

Of course, there is also a less glamorous side to China. Most people cannot afford to live in the center, where the tourists roam. They live in older apartment buildings much like the ones I saw in Changsha years ago. When you venture outside of the commercial center of the city, it soon becomes clear that life is hard for the average person here. It's heartening to see that many inhabitants have been lifted out of poverty, but growth has been unequal, as in much of the rest of the world.

Despite these sometimes hard edges, we enjoyed our time in Shanghai, walking through neighborhoods, watching children play, adults going to work and teenagers acting their age. As difficult as daily life can be, there is a quiet appreciation for routines and simple pleasures, like games of Go in the park or listening to caged birds singing.

We took some time to explore neighborhoods off the tourist trail to see how people really live and, once again, we saw the common thread that unites us all: wanting the security and comfort of home, and the sense of belonging to a community. The most interesting moments are always the small interactions and exchanges with locals: a smile, the offer of food, or someone trying their hardest to communicate despite the language barrier. While it's easy to feel lost in the crowd in China, we feel privileged to have been able to peek behind the curtain for a few short days. It's a fascinating place and Shanghai was a great place to begin exploring.