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Published: June 21st 2005
11:00 am, Xintiandi
Today, I plan to walk around Beautiful Dirty Shanghai aimlessly by myself with no plans whatsoever. What i did was, i bought myself a tourist map of shanghai, a few city magazines and headed my way for Huai Hai Road. On the way there, after passing a DVD shops (damn murah man, 4 ringgit only!!), i saw a bunch of old chinaman who sat around this tree. They looked funny so i took a picture.
11:30 Huai Hai Road
As usual, Huai Hai Road was filled with western brand name shops with workers that did not speak two words of english. I climbed down the steps into the subway station and stared aimlessly at the ticket dispensing machine trying to understand how much it would cost me to go to the Shanghai Stadium. I pressed on a button that had the number '4' and some chinese characters on it, paid 4 Yuan and went into the subway. Next thing i knew, i was headed towards the wrong direction. When the speakers beeped four stops later, the screen read "Shanghai Railway Station' and thats where i got off.
1:00pm Shanghai Railway Station
It was packed as
hell. Quai Lo's (Mat sallehs) with suitcases and backpacks, beggers, muslims, jews, some people selling crickets (apparently there are cricket fighting competitions around town) all walks of life was BERSEPAH (scattered) around the 1/2 kilometer Shanghai Railway Square. They were like worker ants. So what could i do? I walked around that area and got myself lost in some streets with more beggers and more bycicles. I noticed that the people here were more diverse. There were muslims selling roti nan, kebab and tandoori, there were Mickey D's (not suprising) and there were little school children that looked like they had been playing in mud. Avoiding spit was primal so i opted to take the more scenic route through a park. There i saw a statue of a Frenchman whom i have no idea who he is. The plaque read: Johann Sebastian Bach. Whoever the fuck that is la. There was no information on who or what he contributed to this town.
2:00pm Lost
I passed another park and saw a bunch of chinese kids strangling each other. They were playing but it sure as hell looked like strangling to me. A few minutes later, there were a bunch
of chinese women shouting something in mandarin. At first i thought they were selling something but they weren't. They were just chanting god knows what. I walked on further and got rushed by a couple of kids who was dispensing some cards to anyone who would take it. I wonder what thats about. The cards had chinese characters on them. If it was for advetising, they have a bad but very interesting way of showing it.
3:00pm Still lost.
I was walking pass an old building when this woman opens a door about 20cm wide and beckons me to her. I turned around and said to her 'wo puyau, wo puyau'. I knew she was a prostitute. I dont know how i know but you just KNOW. So i walked away and she came out of the door after me. I picked up the pace and raised my voice, 'WO PUYAU PUYAU PUYAU'. She stopped pursuit and i ducked into a Kedi. Not a Kedai but a Kedi. Well, it is a kedai la but the kedai is called 'kedi'. Kedi is like 7-eleven in shanghai.
3:30pm Shanghai Railway Station
Better get to familiar ground. I was getting
scared when i saw a sign in english 'Shanghai Railway Station'. I made my way there and went back to Xintiandi and arrived at around 4:30pm. I shall never NOT have a destination.
7:00pm Xintiandi and Huai Hai Road
Dinner with sisters and sisters in laws, bought some dvd's, digital camera, and went back home after getting some groceries.
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mak
non-member comment
Johann Sebastian Back was a very famous musician. How can u not know.