Nihao (Hello, how are you?)
Two days of the tour are dedicated to travel to and from the United States. It’s amazing how all 35 of us were able to follow directions, get on the correct flights and end up at the same place and same time. We arrived in Shanghai with a full day ahead to see the city. We were greeted by a flag bearing tour guide after being properly identified with our orange luggage tags and orange badges on our proud chests. During theride to our hotel, Jo, the tour director, gave us a rundown on how we needed to gather in the lobby of the Hotel for distribution of our room assignments. We were free to take some time to take a quick shower and unpack a few things but were on a schedule from that moment on ‘till the end of the tour. A bus would be waiting at the front door for our first rendezvous of Shanghai and “be prompt”. The bus ride from the airport to the hotel was an excellent introduction as to how China is changing. It’s a huge city with huge buildings, miles of condos that look alike disbursed between scenes of old China, side streets that still have street sellers, red Chinese lanterns strung about, curvy slanted tiled roofs over some store fonts, and lots of green; all this is a backdrop to the hustle and bustle that one would expect in a large city. The expensive condos and office buildings are each a creature unto themselves. They are immensely tall and unusual looking. This was pretty much the same in Beijing too. There is construction going on everywhere throughout the city, especially on coastlines and equally in every city that we encountered no matter how remote the area. The national bird is the “construction crane”.
Over the last eight years or so I’ve heard that there’s a cement shortage and that China was the cause. Construction hasn’t stopped for the last ten years. Everybody wants to own a condo. They’re even talking about flipping the properties. That will work for a long time in order to meet the pent up demand. China owns all the land under everyone’s property. When one buys a condo they pay a one-time tax. There are some special accommodations for farmers, many of whom have family owned property that goes back for centuries. Farmers are constantly being displaced either for modernization or for what’s going on with dam building. More about that later. In Shanghai some rich people own villas, large homes away from the city, same in Beijing, none in the city proper except for a pocket of old neighborhoods here and there. The other rich people live in these humongous modern buildings, one either prettier or uglier than the other depending on your perspective. Shanghai is an ancient port where years ago people were promised jobs and better lives only to be sold away as workers, thus the word “shanghaied”. I’m not going to remember all the stories, but another that comes to mind is gunpowder. Gunpowder was invented from the powder they used for fireworks centuries before it was thought to be used for weapons. Powder for guns was not a Chinese intention or invention. The West thought that up.
Shanghai has a waterfront that is similar to Navy Pier in Chicago and other cities in the States. It’s a lively place for tourists and people watching. Since this was one of our first stops after being delivered to our hotel I quickly learned that Western tourists are an attraction to these beautiful tan skinned, black-haired people. While the younger ones are starting to stripe their hair, Chinese have a difficult time making their hair light. So you can imagine that my red and white hair was an uncommon sight to them. On most outings I watched how they giggled, poked each other and turned to look. It was an amusing part of my journey, except in Beijing when I was lost and alone. Then I felt like a spectacle. In any event we arrived in the midst of a five-day holiday, May Day. Chinese tourists clamored to the city. They walked in throngs, everywhere. Traffic was amusing, especially at turn-abouts. Cars, bicycles, motor scooters and pedestrians struggle for the right of way. I saw no accidents but one couldn’t help but wonder how the chaos works, somehow it does. They don’t have as many lights and the roads appear to have easy access and egress. There are highways that run over the city everywhere. I think that is one salvation. We did a lot of driving on raised roads. The longest we ever waited in traffic was once in Shanghai and one cab ride in Hong Kong for a construction tie-up.
The most unusual sights as a first impression were the construction sites. They were everywhere. Every building site, maybe I’m repeating myself, is covered with what at first glance looks like green tarp for as high as the buildings go but it must be some kind of “breathable” material. Christo has nothing on these folks. When the site is at the excavation stage, they cover the ground level with wooden walls that are glued with posters of photos of happy Chinese people. It’s nice to look at. Another impressive thing is how clean it looks. I know I’m repeating but clean and green is China.
There is another thing that I haven't yet mentioned, and this is everywhere in China. It's about the bathrooms. For safety, you're told to carry your own toilet paper. You can purchase it(at Target for sure), a tightly rolled paper that is easy to carry in a purse or pocket. It took us a while to catch on that most toilets have huge rolls of toilet paper as you enter the bathroom, it's not in the stalls, but sometimes it is in the stalls and sometimes there's none at all. It became an adventure to go to the WC as they call it. The toilets themselves are built into the ground, one step below what you might think of for a port-a-pottie. Paper is thrown into a basket. The sophistication of the plumbing determines the cleanliness, they do flush. Most new public bathrooms have some Western style toilets. They're usually marked on the outside of the doors. They are kept clean in most places by an attendant who follows you in as you leave the stall and mops the floor each and every time. It's rather nice. This is a good place to stop the chapter. I have a pottie call from writing about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment