Paarl, the pearl of the Boland, has a glistening natural landmark that wows tourists. Shanghai, the financial capital of China, also has a pearl – the Pearl Tower – that looks more like that other Paarl attraction, the language monument, lovingly nicknamed die taalpaal by locals.

Shanghai’s pearl

Dinner in the revolving restaurant at the top of the Pearl is a reasonable RMB 160 (which is clearly where Rand Merchant Bank got its name from, the abbreviation for Renmimbi). About R200 buys you an all-you-can-eat buffet of salmon and tuna sashimi, sea snails and various noodle dishes with hacked up chunks of meat that look like they were involved in a Welkom FNB ATM blast.

The food is fab, but in the drinks department, not a single bottle of SA wine is available. There is French and Australian aplenty. Perhaps someone should start a WOSA: Wines Of Shanghai from Africa. Funded by a reversal of the punitive 20% extra tax SA producers pay when compared to other southern hemisphere producers like New Zealand and Chile.