First Full Day in Shanghai

Shanghai's an awesome city. I liked it right from the taxi ride in last night. In every way, it feels like Hong Kong, with its tall creative buildings, its fancy skyline from both sides of a waterway (a river in Shanghai, a bay in HK), its copious amounts of shopping, its bargaining, its pushy sales people, its prostitutes, and its cars.

My hotel sits right on Nanjing Road, the large shopping road that leads to the Bund (a promenade that faces the river). Out the steps of the hotel is the pedestrian section of Nanjing Road, which I think is great -- with its obvious conveniences as well.

This morning, Gord, Jan, and I started out just after 9:30am, had breakfast, and went to the Renmin Square area to see some things around there. We first paid 2 RMB to see Renmin Garden, which wasn't too interesting; and then we walked around, saw the Shanghai Grand Theatre, the Shanghai Art Museum, and finally went into the Shanghai Museum.

The Shanghai Museum holds a collection of old sculptures, paintings, calligraphy, coins, ceramics, furniture, and more. We probably spent 3 hours in there, walking around at a slow pace. Then we walked through Renmin Square and found a late lunch at a Japanese restaurant (what are we doing? I know, I know.).

A quick stop at the hotel and we were back out heading towards The Bund. Progress was slowed when we saw some markets through the small streets off Nanjing Road, and some things were bought (I didn't buy, but I will soon enough). I saw a white guy and a white girl there, probably early to mid 20's, and the guy was bargaining the heck out of the sales people IN CHINESE! I was most impressed. I kept my eyes on them for a short while, because of my intrigue. It was crazy to see how he was working these sales people, making them all squirm. Although I don't think I saw him buy anything.

By the time we got to The Bund, a dark sky was upon us. The great thing about Shanghai, as we discovered last night, is that we're at an lattitude such that the mooon goes RIGHT OVER the city (rather than a moon that goes over the Vancouver horizon). It's an incredible sight. We first walked along the Huangpu side of the river, then took the Bund Tourist Tunnel (a short ride in a tram the size of a small gondola, but on tracks) over to the Pudong side and walked around there. With the amazing skyscapes, it's impossible to not take tons of pictures. So I did. I have 488 pictures on my 1GB compact flash card, and another filled up 256 MB card. I'll consider emptying those out soon.

Not much else today. Pretty simple day.

I forgot to mention a funny story from a couple of days ago in Suzhou around the shopping area. Gord and Jan wanted to buy some stuff for their tea. So we were in a tea store, and while they were looking at the clay pots and cups, one of the older women working there asked me, "Are they your parents?" I exclaimed, "They're white! I'm Chinese!" A younger lady working there adds "She (the older one) said it, I don't think they're your parents." The older one said that I look like them. Totally weird. I told Jan and Gord afterwards, and Jan says "But we're white!!". Silly Chinese people.

Today, at the little market off Nanjing Road, a seller asked me where I was from. I said Canada. And he asked me if my mom is Chinese, and so I said yes (I don't mention Taiwan to people I don't know to avoid any confrontation). Then he says, "You are what we call _________, which means your mom is Chinese and your dad is white". ???? I said, "My dad is also Chinese." so he asks "Is your mom from Guangdong? (well, he actually asked if my mom is a "Cantonese")... I said, for no particular reason, "No, my dad is". And he's like "yes, because your forehead is and your eyebrows are Cantonese. You can tell immediately." Bullshit.

Kevin