Most of what you’ll read here was originally written on my iPhone during the trip. Since coming back to the states, I have spent some time correcting the misspellings caused by my chubby fingers on the touch screen keyboard, trimming the run-on, confusing sentences caused by the exhaustion (China is big and we walked a ton in the summer heat), and writing this “intro.” By the end of my two weeks in China, I was craving a vacation from my vacation (which, due to some weather-related rerouting, I would get on my way home. You’ll read more about that part of the trip a little later.)
After 16 hours in the air watching romantic comedies, drinking red wine and taking numerous naps, I landed in Shanghai. I was expecting to be able to take a deep breath to reintroduce my lungs to fresh air, but I quickly learned that if fresh air is what you’re searching for, China is not the place to go. Soon enough I was joining the herd of other travelers onto a bus that would take us from the tarmac to the airport. I think it was on that bus ride when I first realized just how packed this country really is, and I would be reminded of it every day on the city streets.
China is huge. Huge and filled with tons of people. Walking down the streets in Beijing, I found myself longing for the crowded Belmont bus for the personal space. Shanghai is the world’s larger city with something like 23 million people. In comparison, New York City has about 8 million. Beijing has 19.6 million people, which is nearly ten times the population of Chicago, which has 2.7 million. In cities this large, people are not accustomed to the pleasantries exchanged among strangers when they accidently knock into someone in front of them. No “excuse me,” no “sorry.” You might be thinking, “how do you know? You don’t speak Chinese.” But, silence is the same in any language. I never got used to being pushed and shoved, and am pretty sure I never really could. It gave me the impression that people there are rude, which probably isn’t the case when people are among friends and family or at the office, but it rubbed me the wrong way. I spent a lot of the trip trying to get over the pushiness. But, blocking that part, and a few others, China wasn’t all that bad. Some of it was even fun, and all of it was interesting, different and new (all things I love to surround myself with, honestly).
I arrived in Shanghai on a Sunday, and began my two week adventure in a country that would continuously shock, awe, and amaze me (in both positive and negative ways).
Day 1 (Sunday) - Shanghai
I opted for the easy way out and took a taxi from the airport to the hotel to meet Anna and lei Ti. From inside the taxi, Shanghai could have been any other non-descript city. The only clue that I was in China was the language. At the hotel I tried to explain that I was meeting my friends who already checked into our room, but I was failing miserably. I am not used to not being able to communicate the simplest things. I thought I was pretty decent at using gestures to help get my point across, but some things just don’t work. I took a seat in the lobby and waited for Anna and Lei Ti. I put my things in the room, snacked on a peach (apparently China is known for its peaches, and as well it should be. It was yummy.)
My first night in Shanghai we walked to the Bund, a river walk along the Huangpu River. On the way I saw one of the most disturbing things I’ve seen in a long time - A man was wiping his daughter's butt on the street corner because she just pooped in the street. She was probably four years old, and, later, we saw another kid peeing in the street. I'm all for embracing different ways of living, but letting your kids use the street as a bathroom might be a bit too much for me. The Pudong skyline across the river was impressive. I think it is what most people think of when they think of Shanghai, but until I came back home and looked up some photos I can’t say I would have been able to pick it out of a city skyline line up. The colorfully lit oriental pearl building stands out among the other financial district buildings like the giant bottle opener. There were lit boats cruising the water that looked kind of like pirate ships. We sat, relaxed, caught up all while I tried to remind myself, oh yeah, this is China. For some reason, it hadn’t really sunk in yet.
Lucky for us, Lei Ti speaks Chinese so we were able to know what we were ordering at a small restaurant near the bund. It’s was the kind of place I probably wouldn’t have ventured into on my own. I had ordered noodles, not realizing they would be in a soup. I am a little weird when it comes to eating hot food when it’s hot outside. Soup to me screams chilly November, and it’s hard for me to really enjoy soup when I’m sweating from the summer heat. The noodles were ok and the veggies were so-so. Anna raved about the dumplings, well, the sauce mainly, and the pigeon. I took her word that it was good.
On the way home we got giant beers after Lei Ti and Anna got street barbecue (seriously, one of these days I’m going to crack after smelling street meat). Next to the stand were kids probably no more than 14 years old drinking and smoking while they ate with their shirts off. Shirts really seem to be optional here for men, I've seen more than my share of men with their shirts lifted up to display their bellies. So, a beer or so and a shower later (the shower is worth a quick mention since there was a curtain on the outside that anyone in the room could pull back and see through the glass wall into the shower and bathroom. A trust test for sure.) I was ready to crash.
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