When in Zhongguo, do as the Zhongguoren

I accidentally haggled for my sim card, but screwed up (I was repeating the number he quoted slowly and in the pause he said "Hao" but in my focus, I kept going and added another 50%). I know I overpaid b/c afterwards I read the section in my guide book about how much it should have cost (70-50% lower than I paid). BUT I did buy some food from a street vendor, saying first I'm vegetarian (in Mandarin, thank you), and asking about the food. He very excitedly told me yes and went on to (I think) list the ingredients. Deep friend potato and cabbage mixed with some peas and carrots. Think Chinese samosa. It was good. I ate it on the Bund. Yeah, I just dropped the B word. Us high-strung, over-thinking jet-setters like to do that. And I swear one of these days I'll get photogenic.

The Bund. I was approached...er, singled out...and offered many fine fake watches. They would offer in English, and at first I tried "No thanks" but got blank looks. Apparently only the offer was memorized. Bu yao or Bu yong le was an effective deterent. And just because the world needs one more picture of Pudong...


I decided to go to Jinmao Tower's observation deck rather than the Cloud 9 Bar. The bar didn't open until 6 and the sun looked like it might set before then. It did, but into the murk. The air quality is like LA on a very, very bad day (it could have been a bad day in Shanghai as well). The sunset was almost apopalytic, the buildings thrusting indistinctly up into the haze, casting falling shadows and stretching away in every direction as the sun turned a weak red and faded away. Blade Runner on steroids. I left before full dark to try to get a vegetarian restaurant - Chinese, but the menus have English - and then to see the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe. In leaving, one guy asked to have a picture with me (something I had been told would happen) and one thing led to another and we got this. As the group in uniform joined us, there were a lot of thank you's and so I joked "Da4 jia1, da4 jia1" (everyone, everyone) and waved for everyone in the atrium to join us. At least the woman got it and laughed, repeating what I said. Also, looking down into the 37-floor atrium of the Grand Hyatt. Like Cloud City in Star Wars.


Leaving Jinmao, at first to save time, I tried to hail a cab, but then thought the subway would be quicker at rush hour than the jammed streets before of me. In finding the Metro entrance, I walked through a large plaza where the wall of skyscrapers was all the more impressive for being only on one side. Ever had vertigo on the ground? The buildings -sorry - towered above, regal, inhuman. The wind was blowing and the night just on the cool side of warm. The air was electric. My pic of Jinmao and Financial Center was blurred, but this one of Pearl Tower through a tree came out nice.

But - rush hour on the main metro line through the business district of Shanghai - the following words will NOT capture the experience. I would have taken a picture but I couldn't move my arms. To wit, the train pulls up and it's already full of people to the point they're pressed up against the door, the very door that me and 20 of my friends are about to enter. And enter we did, as a physical force. The person next to me crossed her arms in front, lowered her head, and just charged (think quarterback sneak). Our surge looked promising but we faded (she made it), so I dodged left to the neighboring door and their surge created just enough room for me to fit on as the door rubbed my bottom in closing. The surge at the next stop pushed me in farther. We were all pressed against one another to the point I couldn't lift my arms if I wanted to. Thankfully, as the train accelerated and decelerated, the pressure of my neighbors was enough to keep me from falling. Unthankfully, I was surrounded by males.

Then exiting at one of the main transfer points! Man, a thousand or so people trying to get into a 2 person wide escalator. This was the scrum I had been warned of. Well, imitate your neighbors. I joined the mass, which at first just seemed like a huge mob. People had to push back to keep from getting pinned against the escalator side, everyone just pushing, pushing forward, again, no room to lift your arms...but in imitating my neighbors I unconciously noticed something that would NOT be present if this was happening in America. No one was angry or impatient. Yes, everyone was pushing, but that was just to keep your place and the overall mass moving forward. Thinking about it later that night, it was an effective system. It was a thousand people trying to simultaneously exit the metro, and while the airport and architecture are huge, the metro is "regular" sized. Frankly, there wouldn't have been enough room for a line.

The restaurant was nice, lots of the faux veggie meats. Of course, the chopsticks were plastic, the fake meat slippery. I swear I will get better with those - none of the nice friction the wood ones have. Also, even though the peppers in the picture on the menu may look like regular, bland green peppers, they are not. I managed three. It was a really nice place, a good vibe, straight wood lines, calligraphy on glass casting shadows on the wall, young, pretty couples, families, business associates. I had trouble finding the place because I confused the map ID with the address. So I had to summon my courage and at ask at two or three places "Ni3men shi4 Zuo3zi Shu1?" A few blank looks, I repeat, and then it gets repeated back to me, presumably properly, and then a thumb pointing down the road.

It was after 7:30 when I finished, and so I caught a cab home, down Huaihai Lu, the Shanghai Times Square. It was a warm night, and a good ride with the window down. Hell of a first (half-) day in China.

Wan an,

Dan

PS I forgot my memory card and memory card-to-usb reader in the computer last night. I remembered this morning. It wasn't in the computer and the attendant wasn't around. I was looking over the attendant's desk when she came out. I had no idea the how to say "camera memory card to USB" so my brain pulled out "Zuo2tian1 wan3shang" (last night) and made motions inserting into the computer. She understood and pulled it out of a locked drawer : ) I have always relied on the kindness of strangers. And the cab driver, just to be nice, I gave him 12 kuai instead of 11. He said "no, no, no" and went to hand the 1 yuan coin back to me. I said "Kuai4 de" (fast driving) and motioned back. He gave me such a happy smile.

PPS It was pretty cool to call my parents on my cellphone this morning. "Hi, it's Dan" like I'm not a world away. Hmm. Maybe I'm not.