In case you’re paying close attention to
the date on this post, Golden Week was actually last week. In Japan, a series of (unrelated) state
holidays are all scheduled within the first week of May, so that a large
fraction of the country has the week off of work. Japanese hotels and tourist sites are booked
to capacity, so a lot of Japanese people spend their week off traveling outside
the country. With a week off of work and
Quinn in the US visiting her family, I did the only thing that seemed logical –
travel to somewhere that Quinn really has no interest in visiting. China.
My trip lasted a week, but instead of blogging about the whole thing at
once I’ll do this in installments.
The first stop on my big China adventure
was Shanghai, where I had an overnight layover before proceeding onward to Hong
Kong. The first thing that struck me
about the place, as soon as I got off the plane, was the smog. It felt oddly similar to being at a very high
altitude – it was difficult to ever really take a deep breath and I could
always sort of feel the air in my lungs in a bad way. I suspect it was worse than usual.
I took the Maglev from Pudong airport to
Longyang station (the only other stop on the Maglev). I wanted to get a good picture of the train (see below) but everyone else had the same idea so it was impossible to avoid getting a picture with one of my fellow passengers in it. After that, I caught the
subway to People’s Square, because this is where Google Maps (erroneously, as
it turns out) told me that my hotel was located. I walked around and around the neighborhood,
becoming increasingly worried that I might have booked a room in a non-existent
hotel. Eventually I talked to a French
couple who lent me a cell phone with which I called the hotel and confirmed
that they did in fact exist, but that the address I had was wrong. The couple I’d spoken with knew enough
Mandarin to help me talk to a Chinese guy who helped me hail a taxi and explained
to the driver where I was trying to go.
After smog and helpful strangers, the third
thing that impressed itself upon me was the traffic. After living in Japan for almost a year,
Shanghai traffic is terrifyingly chaotic.
Pedestrians cross everywhere; they often seem to avoid looking at the
approaching traffic because making eye contact or changing your walking speed
might be considered a sign of vulnerability.
There’s no reason not to jaywalk, since red lights are sort of optional
anyway. Add in the scooters and mopeds
which are about as numerous as the cars and are apparently bound by no laws
whatsoever, and you have a situation that is, ummm…. different from what you
see in Japan.
After dropping my backpack at the hotel, I
set out to do some exploring. I first
went to the Bund. (For the Germanophones
out there, it’s actually “bunned”, not “boont.”
I got it wrong at first too). It’s
almost an opportunity-to-reflect-on-the-modern-China cliché of Tom
Friedman-esque proportions: a raised promenade that offers two impressive
views. On one side, the 1920’s-era
British-style architecture of the old downtown Shanghai. On the other side, across the river, was the
sci-fi-style skyline of Pudong, apparently all of which was built since 1990. There were tons of tourists on the promenade
once it got dark, mostly young and Chinese, and the vast majority of the
digital cameras were pointed toward Pudong.
I imagine in five years people all over China will be looking at those
pictures and saying “Wow, that’s what it looked like in 2012? It’s so much bigger now…”
After walking the length of the Bund, I
turned and started walking back toward People’s Square. On the way there, I stopped and got something
to eat at a hole-in-the-wall noodle place where no one spoke a word of English. Pointing at things will get you a long ways. I got soup that appeared to have the
vertebrae of some large mammal (pig or cow, I’m guessing) with some meat and
gristle stuck to them. Judging from how
confused everyone looked when I said I was done, I was probably supposed to eat
some part of it that I didn’t. There was
a kitten wandering around in there, too.
I also passed a seafood market that had not only live fish swimming
around in plastic containers for purchase, but also a bin full of live frogs with
a net over them to keep them in. I was
still a little hungry and found a stand that was selling spicy Uighur lamb
kebabs. People’s Square was much more
relaxed at night than it had been in the afternoon; mostly just lots of young
people hanging around enjoying the warmish weather.
I got back to the hotel by walking down
East Nanjing Rd., which was much livelier.
It’s apparently a big shopping area, and there were huge crowds of people
walking around, even though it was well after 10pm. I really don’t know when it starts to quiet
down. Every block or so, I was accosted
by lots of men in cheap suits saying “You need lady massage? I get you beautiful girl” and lots of young
women who just started off with “Hello!” and seemed very interested in going to
get coffee. If I’d met them in the
elevator I’d think they were just being friendly, but given the environment I
suspected that something else might be going on. Of course, maybe I’m just being cynical and
Shanghai really is full of very friendly girls who can’t wait to try out their
English. I guess I’ll never know.
There were also street performances – the staple
seemed to be groups of middle-aged women doing a choreographed dance, usually
to old-fashioned-sounding Chinese music.
I also passed some practicing in the park on my way from the Bund, but
they were working on a country/western line dancing routine. There was also something that looked like an
impromptu choir with a very enthusiastic conductor. The oddest one of all was a huge crowd of
people with techno dance music emanating from the middle of it. After climbing on top of something to see
over the crowd and figure out what was going on, I saw a group of 10 or so
people dancing in a not-particularly-organized fashion. They weren’t uniformly young, good-looking,
skilled, or even enthusiastic; I couldn’t even really tell if they were people
who knew each other before or just the ones brave enough to step out of the
crowd and dance (or with a girlfriend/spouse who dragged them out). It really wasn’t that interesting; it was the
crowd that was the fascinating part. I’m
not sure what the big deal was – maybe the crowd was a bunch of tourists from
the countryside who had never seen that kind of thing before. Or maybe the dancers were Chinese
celebrities. Or maybe no one cared about
the dancers and everyone was trying to figure out what everyone else was so
interested in.
I got a little turned around between the subway stop and my hotel, but met some very nice people who gave me directions that I sort of understood. Good thing I remembered how to say the street name. Lots of hand motions. Anyway, while I was on the way there I rounded a corner on a back street and came across an area where people had set up lights and chairs and big grills and were just having a big neighborhood party. It was probably 11:30pm by this point and I, unfortunately, wasn't hungry. It seemed awfully late for that sort of thing on a Sunday night, but apparently lots of people were taking a four-day weekend for International Workers' Day.
I eventually found my way back to the hotel
and got some sleep in preparation for the flight to Hong Kong the next day. Stay tuned for day 2!
