Shanghai

Holly and I met back up a few hours later to walk around Shanghai.  The skyline was beautiful, and someone told me that most of the buildings that make up the skyline have been built since the mid/late 90s.  It’s a relatively new skyline, even though the city is many, many years old.  Holly and I walked around the Bund (the riverbend) and saw many of the beautifications remaining from the Expo, which had closed weeks earlier.  I felt a little homesick walking down the bund – it was chilly and overcast, and on the side of the street were all the old hotels and banks.  It looked just like Michigan Avenue near the bean up to the river, and I really wanted to be walking down the street in Chicago.  I pulled myself together though and we continued on our walking tour of Shanghai. 

After several hours we headed back to the ship.  I was heading off to have dinner with my friend Ryan from college who moved to Shanghai in July to be a Foreign Service Officer for the State Department.  He had agreed to meet me at a nearby hotel lobby (knowing I speak zero Chinese and many cab drivers speak zero English).  As I walked in the lobby, I noticed an SAS student passed out on the couch in the lobby and Ryan walked up to me and said “one of yours?  I can spot them anywhere.”  It’s true.  You can.

We got in a cab to his part of town, and it was so nice to be in a neighborhood, away from the ship, and with someone who has no connection to the ship.  I haven’t done that since I left Chicago.  We had dinner at a restaurant that serves food from Northeastern China and it was delicious.  We had some spicy salad, dumplings, potato/eggplant, garlic shoots, and tofu and vegetables.  The best part of dinner was seeing Ryan interact with the waiter and other people in the restaurant.  The waiter asked Ryan who I was and where I was from, and Ryan told him that I live on a boat.  I guess the word for “boat” and “bed” are similar, because the waiter thought he told him that I live on a bed.  Which is sort of true I guess. 

Anyway, after dinner we walked around the neighborhood and he took me to get some fruit at his favorite fruit market.  After awhile he helped me get a cab back to the ship.  It was a very relaxing and fun night. 

I ran into Tony and Cicero leaving the ship when I got back, and decided to join them for a drink.  That was the plan, but it never happened because everything was closed everywhere we went.  It was only about 1030 or 11, but there wasn’t a bar or restaurant to be found.  So we just enjoyed walking around at night and then went back to the ship. 

The next day I met up with Jodi and Chris to do a little more exploring.  We headed toward Old Town in Shanghai, which is more of a tourist draw, but it was beautiful and had some street food and shops and a big pond with hundreds and hundreds of koi.  We walked around and stopped in one of the many stamp shops in the area.  Not postage stamps, but pieces of stone that you can have personalized with your name carved in them to stamp in ink and then on paper, etc.   I was talking with the woman who owned the shop and she said “Are you American?” and I said “yes, I am” and she said “do you know The Amazing Race?” and I said “yes, I do!” and she pointed to a large picture hanging in her shop of her, her husband, and Phil (the host of the Amazing Race).  Her stamp shop had been featured in a challenge last season where the contestants had to check the bottom of thousands of Chinese stamps to find a specific one before they got the clue to their next stop.  I had totally seen that episode and when we were in Beijing, someone mentioned that they thought it had happened in the Silk Market.  I had said “cool, I wish we could’ve seen the actual shop” but that was it.  And then we happened to walk in there the next day!  It was impressive, her husband had been carving for 20 years and she showed me some of his other work.  It was gorgeous.  I wish I could’ve bought some very fancy stamps, but waaaay too expensive.  She was not a bargainer, but she didn’t really need to be since she had great prices. 

We had some lunch and headed back toward the ship after awhile.  I was (and still am) exhausted from China.  Most of my friends stayed on the ship between HK and Shanghai.  They called those 2 days “Cruise Days” because they have fancy dinner at night and have no meetings or anything.  I absolutely wouldn’t trade Beijing for cruise days, but I am exhausted from the last weeks, that’s for sure.  I’ve been sick since India (except for 2 days before Singapore, Singapore, and the first day in Cambodia).  But I’m still here ☺

Final thoughts on China:

-  We’ve had squat toilets since Africa, but it was at the Great Wall that I learned I’d been taking the wrong approach.  We were in line for the bathroom and I said to Holly “man, I really don’t want to take my shoes off.”  She looked at me like I was crazy: “why would you take your shoes off?” and I said “because these are all squat toilets” and she said “again, WHY would you take your shoes off?”  Well, as I said, it turns out I had the wrong approach to this and Holly and the British girls made fun of me for the next 36 hours, pretty much nonstop.   Totally deserved though.  Totally deserved.  I've got it all figured out now though.

-  It’s dangerous to come from Vietnam to China in terms of “how to cross the street.”  In Vietnam, you’re SUPPOSED to walk into oncoming traffic in order to cross and they avoid you.  In China, don’t you DARE walk into oncoming traffic or you will get hit.  Also, cars don’t stop for pedestrians when turning.  We had a few close calls.

-  I was telling Ryan about some of the weird things that had happened and he said “6 more months of those kinds of things and you’ll have just a taste of China.”  It’s a weird place, but weird in a really good way.

-  Bicycles are everywhere, especially in Beijing.  Old bicycles. 

-  People took a lot of pictures of us and with us.  They love it.  My friend, who is black, got a LOT of attention.  People really wanted to take pictures with him.  A lot of people would take sneaky pictures of us and then giggle.  They’re all little paparazzi in training.

-  While we were in Shanghai, there was a major fire at a nearby highrise that killed 53 people.  The city is devastated.

- In Beijing, Holly and I were looking for an ATM and our hostel gave us directions to one nearby.  We walked up to the bank and noticed there were people inside and what looked like laundry hanging on clotheslines.  This didn't stop us and we still walked into the building looking for an ATM.  At this point, I turned around to see the cop nearby literally doubled over laughing.  The bank had been closed down awhile back and there were people in there, squatting.  I walked up to him, made a "punching in numbers" charade, and then rubbed my fingers together indicating money.  He pointed across the street to the actual ATM. 

-  I've mentioned several times throughout the last blogs that nobody spoke English in China.  Well they didn't, but I want to be clear that I wasn't expecting this and I don't feel put out that they didn't.  Because I don't speak Chinese and I was the one who came to China.  What's interesting, though, is that just 2 years ago the government was running country-wide English speaking seminars to prepare for the Olympics.  My friend told me that people have completely forgotten about all of this.  As the country becomes a growing player in the global economy, it needs to decide what route it's going to take: secluded and somewhat xenophobic, or one that is welcoming to foreigners and tourists.  Shanghai, being the site of the recent Expo, is certainly a global commercial destination.  I'm genuinely interested to see what China does from this point on.  

I'm sure I've got more, but I've had 2 days in transit to Japan, 2 days in Japan, and 1 day in transit before we land in Yokohama tomorrow.  I'm trying to catch up!