[Vlog] Shanghai – China’s Real Melting Pot

I've lived my life near the water. Near ports. Near the quiet, massive machinery of global trade: Suez, Rotterdam. Liège.

Each of those cities shaped how I see the world: the cranes, the containers, and the constant movement of goods from one side of the earth to the other. You grow up around that, and you start to understand, instinctively, how interconnected everything really is. So when I stood at the waterfront in Shanghai and looked out over the Port of Shanghai, the world's busiest container port, something clicked into place that no statistic could have prepared me for. I've come full circle.

🌊 Three port cities, one lifelong education.

Suez: a chokepoint that reminds you how fragile global supply chains truly are. (We all felt that in 2021.) Rotterdam, Europe's logistical heart, is a masterclass in infrastructure built around the future of trade. Liège, my home, is often overlooked, yet quietly keeps a continent moving at the crossroads of Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. Each taught me something different about how the world works beneath the headlines, beneath the brand names on shelves. And then there's Shanghai.

🏙 Shanghai doesn't just participate in global trade. It defines it.

China's largest city. A powerhouse in finance, technology, manufacturing, research, and culture. And at its edge, a port that processes more containers than any other on earth. Walking the Bund, with its colonial facades facing a skyline of towers and light, I thought, This city has always been a crossroads. Built on the exchange of goods, of ideas, of cultures. Just like every port city I've called home.

I should say, this wasn't my first time here. I visited Shanghai in 2023 for the Building Simulation conference. But that trip was brief and largely touristic: a glimpse through a window, not a walk through the door. This time was different. This visit was about going deeper: infrastructure, urban sustainability, the systems that make a city of 24 million people actually function. Seeing Shanghai through that lens, as a practitioner, not a tourist, changed everything.

🍵 But what moved me most was something far quieter.

I arrived during the International Tea Culture Festival. The opening ceremony brought thousands together, tourists, specialists, and locals, to honor a practice that has existed for thousands of years. In a city that never stops moving, here was an invitation to be completely still. Tea in China is not a product. It is a ritual of attention, of respect, of presence. And standing there, I realized: every great port city has two sides. The side that moves things, and the side that holds things still. The cargo and the ceremony. The crane and the teacup. The cities that endure are the ones that never forget which one feeds the soul.

🗺 What Shanghai offers beyond the port:

→ The Bund: history and modernity facing each other across the Huangpu River

→ Yu Garden: 400 years of classical Chinese design, in the middle of 24 million people

→ Oriental Pearl Tower: architecture built to inspire awe, and it delivers

→ Nanjing Road: global and local, side by side, unapologetically

→ Zhujiajiao Ancient Town: Ming and Qing Dynasty bridges over quiet canals; a world outside of time

→ The Former French Concession: tree-lined streets that whisper the city's layered history

💡 What living near ports taught me, and what Shanghai confirmed:

1. The world runs on movement. Supply chains, trade routes, container ships: the circulatory system of modern civilization. Understanding them is understanding power.
2. Every great city has a soul beneath its economy. Suez, Rotterdam, Liège, Shanghai—all built on commerce, all carrying something deeper in their streets and their people.
3. Curiosity is the most underrated professional skill. You don't understand a city or a market from a report. You understand it by standing in it, breathing it, and letting it surprise you. And sometimes, you need to come back a second time to see it truly.

In Shanghai, I felt at home, because I've always lived where the ships pass through. I'll be back. And I'll be paying even closer attention. Have you ever lived or worked near a major port? I'd love to know how it shaped the way you think. 👇

📽️ Watch the vlog here: 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnME5pVovho

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