Shanghai Noon

OK, in reality, it's just after 10am as I get ready to post this, but Shanghai Ten doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

I'm in my hotel room on my last morning in Shanghai, after a few days here for work. Before I arrived, several of my colleagues who'd been here before gave me advice and warnings from their own time in China. It was all over the spectrum, including one guy who loves Shanghai so much that he's trying to move here, and one at the opposite end who said I'd definitely get sick from the food and probably also get scammed. Most of the stories were somewhere in between, though, from lost luggage and no Chinese clothes fitting, to being afraid to wear sandals in the dirty streets, to getting fat from all the great meals. Seems everyone has a different time here, including me.

After all the fun advice, I was much more apprehensive than I usually am while travelling, but when I arrived, it was... fine. I landed Monday afternoon to a beautiful day. Hot, sunny, few clouds, but low humidity and decent air quality. I checked into the hotel, looked at the gorgeous view, and decided this place was going to be just like any other travel of mine. I showered off the residue of the long flight, sat down to look at my guide book, and... became incredibly tired. Given that I had to train people all week for work, I needed a good night's sleep, and put off the sightseeing.


Unfortunately, for the next 3 days it rained and rained... evidently this is the rainy season. Add that to this being a very busy work trip, and my sightseeing wasn't so much delayed as cancelled. With long days of work and crosstown commutes between flying in and out of town, my view of Shanghai has mostly been from the windows of the office, the hotel, and taxis. But I did see a fair bit that way.

The day before I came here, I finished the book How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed by Slavenka Drakulic. In one of her essays she talks about laundry, how in every Eastern European country she'd visited in the Communist days and shortly after, people still washed things by hand and hung them out to dry. But in all these places, when people moved into the flats in tall buildings of cities, they had no balconies for hanging the clothes. So the solution was to mount bars outside the windows and have their clothes dangling many stories above the sidewalk, dripping on the heads of passers by. As we zig-zagged through Shanghai in various taxis, I saw the same here, in so many buildings, all across town. A true Communist universal!

Speaking of the taxis... the traffic here is crazy, and every cab ride ranged from a bit jerky to mildly terrifying. Cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, mopeds, bikes, and pedestrians are everywhere in the streets, going every which way, all of the time. The traffic lights and standards of driving seem to be general guidelines, more than hard and fast rules. But I was here working with a guy from India who said compared to his hometown, the Shanghai roads are well organised. I guess that means if I ever take a taxi in India, I should spend my time covering my eyes and praying to Elvis.

Anyway. So mostly I've spent my time here working, or being tired and going to bed early before another work day. But the local team here was very hospitable, and fed me well on Chinese food. The first day we went to a Shanghainese restaurant for a big family style lunch, and they asked if I was okay with chopsticks. When I said could manage, but wished I was better at using them, the team all cheered me on for managing to eat 99% of my food without dropping anything, and said I was a chopstick master. So they were clearly liars, but very nice people. They also took me out last night, to feed me coffee, pizza, and cocktails after a tour of the big Starbucks Roastery.

That was the extent of my tourism until this morning, when I was determined to do some exploring before heading to the airport. I got up early, had my breakfast, and headed out  for a wander. People's Park, People's Square, and a couple of museums are right near my hotel, so they were all on my agenda. But even leaving at 7:45am, it was already 28 degrees C and 77% humidity, with smog visible in the sky. As one of the locals told me yesterday, "Shanghai in summer is like a big steaming pot." So I got as far as strolling in the park for about 45 minutes -- amidst the groups doing Tai Chi or taking photos of the lotus flowers -- before I was sweaty, getting a sore throat, and wanting AC back. So I went to one of the museums, which didn't open for another half an hour. I gave up and came back, and am waiting for my ride to the airport indoors.
 
My biggest worry was that my generally cranky respiratory system would act up here, but until this morning it's been okay. My sinuses have been slightly problematic, but that's just typical travel allergies. I can't say I'm sad to be leaving before the air gets to me, but I do wish I'd seen more while I was here. Maybe another time...