China Trip: Day 7 - Shanghai

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Candy told me the people in Shanghai were different. She was right. Read on.

When we rolled into Shanghai, I couldn't believe what it looked like. There were an incredible number of lit up buildings, cars, traffic, and people everywhere. What an incredibly big city. The tour guide said there were 20 million people in Shanghai. If that's true, then that's equal to the total population of the entire states of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia combined. Of course, Beijing and Hong Kong were big crowded cities, too, and I have also been to Tokyo, but Shanghai was more of a madhouse. In China, there are 1.3 billion people, that's over 4 times the population of the US, and I believe it now. Wow.

We checked into the hotel and had the evening free. On one side of the hotel was Nanjing road, which was pedestrian only for about a mile or so near the hotel. The street is lined with retail stores, restaurants, etc, and filled with a countless incredible number of people. As soon as I stepped out of the hotel and onto the street, I was asked by somebody if I wanted to buy a watch. No, thanks. Five seconds later, someone wanted to know if I wanted a "lady massage". This kept going on and on, beggars and people selling something. It started getting old quick because it was interfering with me walking down the street trying to check out what was there. I was trying to be polite and say no thanks, and all that, but they wouldn't leave me alone. One girl wouldn't take no for an answer, and literally grabbed my arm and pulled me up these stairs. I persistently and politely refused, and she finally stormed off angry. I sat down at this nice outdoor place next to the hotel and had a couple of beers, Tsingtao. Cheers to you, wackos.

The breakfast at the hotel was really nice. We went down to an area a few blocks away, known as the Bund, to look across the Huangpu river to the modern Pudong skyline. China is growing so fast. They said that as recently as 1994, this area across the river called Pudong was nothing but rice paddies. We took some pictures. We then went a short distance away to walk through the Yu Yuan Garden, and into a shopping area. People, people, people, everywhere. Hordes.

The sales pitch for today was a silk factory. They gave us a lesson on the process of extracting silk from the cocoon of silkworms into thread that is then meticulously weaved to produce things like rugs and garments. There are ladies who spend 6 days a week for almost a year making a rug! Naturally, items were for sale.

That night, I walked back down to the Bund area to take some nighttime photos. Again, when walking down Nanjing road, I was hassled. Eventually, I had to throw politeness out the window. If you ignore them, and don't even look at them, they go away quicker.

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Photos

Shanghai
Looking across the Huangpu at the Pudong skyline, by day.