Posts from the Road…
April 13, 2001 – Shanghai, China
Our ability to obtain internet access in a given city seems inversely proportional to the reported ease of obtaining this access according to guidebooks and local residents.
Sunny and warm in Shanghai. Much more pleasant than the cold and rain that greeted us a couple days ago. Plans are to have a farewell drink in the colonial portion of the Bund this evening atop the Peace Hotel watching the ships go down the Huangpu river with the lights of New Shanghai and the Pearl Tower in the background.
Had a bit of a rough start with our current guide, Bill, but he has more than made up for it yesterday. He sated my need for trivia as we raced around Shanghai to the various sites on our itinerary. Highlight was the carefully sculpted Yuyuan gardens. Many small pavilions, pools and streams, with dragons resting along the spine of the walls. Could have spent hours there.
Went to the acrobatic show last night. Considering I can’t touch my toes, I was very impressed with their feats, especially the way they made it look so effortless. I left wondering what it must be like to be married to one of those performers. Do you wake up in the middle of the night and hear your wife in the kitchen spinning saucers on the end of a stick? Do you come home from work early one afternoon to find your husband in the middle of your living room balancing a ceramic vase on his head while standing atop a hastily built pyramid of furniture?
Have obtained our ferry tickets to Japan. Only a few major challenges remain.
Yesterday we heard that the American military people are being permitted to leave China. We had the opportunity to ask our guide what his perspective and understanding of the situation was, reminding us that there is more than one way to view the same situation.
April 13, 2001 (Day 37): Shang Chuan Hotel, Shanghai – 11.30pm
Health: good.
Morale: OK. Communications problems are again exacerbated or caused by being tired, hungry or other things.
Anna is not comfortable in Shanghai and it is beginning to show. She still comments about being stared at. Not surprisingly, we draw the attention of people in Shanghai. They also tend to stare longer if we make eye contact so it is perhaps a self-perpetuating issue. She admits that she does not like the crowds. The evident poverty is also draining, in great contrast with upscale shops next to shanties. And there is the language problem. Neither of us is even close to fluent in Chinese so it is a hard situation to be in. This is perhaps the slippery slope to our becoming Ugly Americans. It is easy to identify in others; harder to admit to yourself.
Since breakfast is not a meal Anna wants to experiment with, we began our last full day in China at the Deli France. At long last, we got the Internet sorted. We went to Book City, a large book store with an Internet Café tucked away on one of the floors. We grabbed a computer, had a couple instant coffees and got in touch with home. As expected, we discovered a plethora of Internet Cafés in our subsequent wanderings throughout Shanghai.
Business sorted, we made our way to the Shanghai Museum in People’s Park. The design of the building is well done: the top floor is circular with a square atrium in the center – the same symbol that represented the Chinese view of the universe. We rented the headsets and went off to see what we could see. They had an excellent collection of seals. My favorite was intricately carved orange soapstone displaying seven eternal beings on a mural that spanned three of its sides. It was more a bas relief than anything. The best part was the little head of a dragon peeking out from below. Wonderful detail, especially on such a small piece.
We took time to explore sections on our own for about half an hour. I visited the painting exhibits, which were hit and miss. I liked a lot of the Ming stuff but cannot say that the Qing stuff did much for me. The painting that had the greatest impression on me was a rather simple one of an envoy leaving for a foreign assignment. The focus is on the six figures on the right. Five friends gathered together to wish the sixth farewell. The scenery to the left is less distinct, evoking an early morning departure to places unknown.
Anna went to see the Minority Group display – in particular to see the costumes. She found it impressive, especially the incredible embroidery work as well as detailed weaving. The range of costumes, most pretty brightly colored and the range of fabrics demonstrated to her how big a country China is. One costume of the Moai, when fully adorned including the silver headdress, could be several kilograms. A costume can take many years to make, but demonstrates the wearer’s abilities to suitors when she wears it. One of the cultures believed they descended from butterflies and so butterflies are a major factor in their needlework designs.
I have to admit to feeling a bit under-dressed in this city. Looking around, I must be the only person not prominently displaying a designer label.
We took a dinner break at a German brewpub near the Bund. The menus continue to contain interesting dishes. After seeing something described as ‘xxx with five delicacies’, Anna decided her definition of a delicacy may not match the chef’s so she ordered fried rice and vegetables. The beer was nothing special.
Fortified, we embarked on a moderately successful shopping expedition to obtain shoes. Shopping is not all fun and games. There is a shop on Nanjing Lu across from the Metro station where the Madonna song Holiday blares incessantly in a constant loop. Over and over again. In dreams, I hear the maddening wails of the sad employees who work there and imagine the convulsive fits that will overtake them later in life when they happen to hear the song again.
Shopping taxed our limited Chinese language skills. It was a challenge to try to describe the fit we needed in a shoe. Between the phrase book and the occasional employee that spoke some English we found a pair of shoes for Anna – curiously, the shoelaces were sold separately. I landed a simple pair of black slip-ons with a distinct tar-like aroma. At $2 a pair, they may not turn out to be such a bargain.
Tonight we bade farewell to Shanghai with drinks atop the Peace Hotel. Sitting in the Art Deco bar with the band performing a piano and violin duet in the background. Below us, ships glided by on the Huangpu silhouetted against the backdrop of the new modern Shanghai. A nice final image.
Tomorrow, we leave the Eurasian landmass for Japan. It will be a short night and a busy morning, but we should have a couple days to rest a bit. I am looking very forward to being on a ship again. Will I be as excited to be back on dry land in a month after so much time at sea?
Note: Noel Coward wrote the play Private Lives while staying at the hotel in 1930.
Excerpts from Anna’s journal included
Life’s like a road that you travel on
Tom Cochrane, ‘Life is a Highway’
When there’s one day here and the next day gone
Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand
Sometimes you turn your back to the wind
There’s a world outside every darkened door
Where blues won’t haunt you anymore
Where the brave are free and lovers soar
Come ride with me to the distant shore
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