Sensing China

---

Sitting on a crowded Thai plane right now I realize how much the last week flooded our senses with new experiences.

First, sight. Shanghai’s architecture is extraordinarily modern, causing every look out the window of our dirt cheap taxis to be filled with buildings you just can’t take your eyes off of. A good example would be yesterday’s journey to the Jin Mao building. We exited the subway into a lush green park a few blocks wide and surrounded by a ring of futuristic looking buildings (we finally saw the towers where Tom Cruise does his crazy stunts in Mission Impossible 3). Then, we turned around and were greeted by two isolated monstrosities. The Jin Mao and the new Shanghai financial center building whose very top was a skeleton - a few months from completion. We were looking at two of the tallest buildings in the world - the financial center will be the tallest when it’s top is finished being windowed, but only for a few days because of the absurdity that Dubai is currently working on (google Burj Dubai). Speaking the Burj Dubai, the building is absolutely amazing. I did some reading on it this summer and, it will be crushing every tallest-building record. And when I say crushing, I mean it. I’ve always wondered why no cities had ever decided to just go all out and build something out-of-this-world tall to make a statement (recently, that is, I guess you could say the Empire State Building would fall under that category). Then, along came Dubai. The final height is a closely guarded secret, but it is rumored to be nearly 3,000 feet high (note, more realistic estimates are in the mid 2,000’s). But, the bottom line is, it’s pretty cool. Anyway, I digress. After an express elevator ride to the top of the Jin Mao we were greeted by an unbelievable sight: buildings as far as the eye could see - in every direction. It finally hit home what a city of 27 million people looks like, and I guess I now have an accurate idea of what the phrase ‘urban sprawl’ now means. The coolest part was that it was sunset… well, it wasn’t actually sunset, or even close to it for that matter - it was just the usual phenomenon that sunset is 2 hours earlier because of the absurd amount of pollution. Anyway, this sunset caused everything to have a yellow glow (yes, yellow from the pollution, but it was still beautiful). This caused the buildings to fade into the smog from the cloud of pollution being pierced by the crepuscular rays. It was also amazing to watch the workers on the top of the financial center just next door. You really get an appreciation for how much work has to go into building a tower that high. Then, just when we’d thought we’d seen it all, we came across another amazing sight: the inner lobby of the Hyatt on top of the Jin Mao. We walked up to a ring of slanted glass in the middle of the observation deck and looked down it. We were greeted by a dizzyingly high hollow lobby with curling balconies spiraling down the golden walls. To give you a very good idea, it looked like that Senate room from the new Star Wars movies. Standing on the top of this 35 floor lobby was truly mind blowing. We got some terrific pictures with Raf’s handy G-pod (gorilla pod).

Next, we have sound. Our audible experience in Shanghai can be best described as chaotically rhythmic. Not being able to understand or even intuit even a word coming out of hundreds of mouths around us was really quite frightening. We quickly got used to the hourly explosions of firecrackers. Our trips (well, my trips, everyone else’s trip) to Banana, the local dance club, were filled with vibrate-your-chest loud techno/trance beats. Perhaps the most pleasing sound (well, second to the club, for me, but I’d guess first for everyone else) was the non-sop Christmas music playing throughout Tyler and Sam’s apartment. Christmas music really does put you in the best of moods.

Taste. Yes, we tried new foods - octopus from a street vendor, chicken hearts, and MSG to name a few. Raf and Kevin were braver than me, however, their insisting helped me try some things I wouldn’t have otherwise - thanks guys. Chinese food is, of course, scrumptious. My best Chinese meal was the Sichuan dinner we had with sizzling beef, chicken, and vegetables all in a deliciously spicy sauce. Looking back at our meals, they were all very different: a more old fashioned sit-on-the-floor meal, a local bowl-of-rice joint, an egg pancake, an all-you-can-eat Japanese extravaganza, a melting-pot style restaurant, a Pollo Campero, and of course, the daily street vendor snacks of Bao Zi and fried chicken. But, undoubtedly the best meal of the week (and easily one of my top 10 favorite meals of all time) was the Brazilian steakhouse we ate lunch at today. Skewer after skewer of sizzling meat was brought to our table - the best being file mignon tips covered in a garlic cheese sauce. The primal instinct to fill ourselves with as much meat as possible kicked in; and because we met this desire, our bodies returned the favor in the form of opening the serotonin valves. Bottom line: it was blissfully delicious. The best part about this whole paragraph is that all of it was accomplished on about $5 a day on average.

Smell. Pollution, MSG, more pollution, river sludge, construction, sweat, and poop just about do it.

Touch. Nothing beats out the hour-long massage we had at a local parlor. Trust China to think up putting your feet in tea to make them feel good. Raf said it best when he said he felt like he was walking on clouds afterwards. Unfortunately, my left leg has some poison ivy on it from our hiking in Australia, which made for quite a strange sensation (not from being massaged, because I made sure it was not, but rather from what I’m about to explain to you). You know that feeling when something happens to one part of something and if you do it to the other part you feel somehow satisfied? If you don’t, try it. Pinch the tip of your right pointer finger. Now, wait half a second and note how you feel. Then, with the sensation still in your right finger, pinch your left pointer finger. It feels good because it is as if things are now in balance. I actually think this is one of the reasons acupuncture feels good to some people. Anyway, take that effect and multiply it by a hundred. My right foot and leg received an absolutely wonderful sensation that my left leg (because it was out of commission) couldn’t have. Anyway, my body felt very out of balance. I’m wondering how long it will take someone to tell me what I’m saying is ridiculous - but, trust me, it felt very weird. Anyway, touch also includes the mob of beggars and hawkers whose nonstop pinches, pats, and tugs quickly ceased to be a laughable novelty… and, nearly just as quickly, became a laughable entertainment outlet. Barring the beggars who I felt extraordinarily bad for, we came up with some interesting ways to say no to the hawkers and scam artists. Sometimes we’d speak Spanish, sometimes we’d just stare them down, and sometimes we’d start burping or growling uncontrollably.

I seemed to have timed this article very well, because we are just beginning our decent into Bangkok. Who knows what this country will surprise us with? Who knows what new sensations we will experience? All we know is that it will be amazing… as long as we don’t end up spending the night at the airport because we can’t catch a taxi this late to Pattaya per our delayed flight…

- Dan

The Jin Mao and Shanghai World Financial Center:

---

Comments

[TMoney]

You would!
This entry screams Dan Piech in so many ways it's absurd! haha, anyway, innovative approach, I think you captured a good bit of what it's like to live here. Have fun in Thailand kidz!

[deleted_44999]

your pictures are AMAZING!