We need to balance these out with articles like “Shanghai is boringly flat”.

Shanghai is so boringly flat that its highest point is the northern approach to the Jiangning road bridge.

there's always a day trip out to Sheshan for those who miss hills?

No need anymore! They built two fake ones on the old Expo site. Just don’t forget to book!

Must be like this during National Holidays then.

Too risky. The dangers of altitude sickness are ever-present on the Sheshan massif.

I admit when writing another Penny Dreadful on Old Shanghai i reach for, but then always reject, Noel Coward on Shanghai, , “a cross between Brussels and Huddersfield” (1921)….

Ha. A quick Google of this phrase brings up an article you wrote with this phrase in 2012, but since it’s an article about how writers have described Shanghai, you get away with it.

The weather was apparently very overcast when he visited.

But it's a monorail going through a building!!1111111!!1!!1!1!!!

As have the "Pseuds-Corner" quotes: "Countless TikTok accounts now celebrate the vertical madness of Chongqing, with people recording their surreal daily commutes – Sisyphean trials of endless stairs that have the air of a Jacques Tati film."