Denise and Harry's Blog: April 2009

One of our tour guides said that the first thing most people notice about Shanghai is the traffic, people and high buildings. At first glance, she was right, but after a couple of days we would add a number of other things to this list including employment, food, political history, religion, gardens and greenery. So, with that list here is our story about our first experience in Shanghai.

Traffic
To get around Shanghai there is a choice of transport modes - a tourist would be unwise to use some of them. The locals get around by cycles (power cycles, bicycles, and tricycles) and scooters (all popular for business men and woman in suits, parents dubbing children, school children, workers carrying their wares), buses, the underground and taxis. Us tourists tended to use the safe vehicles like taxis, maglev train (the fastest train in the world, the Maglev travels at 430 kilometers an hour and takes 8 minutes to get from the airport to the centre compared with 45 minutes in a car - unfortunately we didn't have a ride), the underground, tour buses and our feet. It is arguable whether these types of transport are the safest. Harry tried the underground one day when going to the car show (crowded, clean, no graffiti and also cheap). The taxis are also cheap, and except on rainy days when it is virtually impossible to find an available one, they are generally easily found. On the one wet day taxi's refused to come to the hotel. I walked to the main street where I stood not at a taxi stand, but in between the bike/scooter lane and the first lane for cars and waited for a taxi to stop to let their passengers out (usually somewhere illegal, but outside a shopping mall, restaurants or a hotel). After driving round for a couple of days we worked out the road rules:

if a seat belt is fitted in a taxi, cover it with a white seat cover so that the passenger can not use them
if turning in any direction, you have the right of way - even if pedestrians are on a 'cross' light just honk the horn and expect them to get out of the way
do not stop even if you have a red light unless there is a stream of traffic travelling at right angles which is impossible to navigate around or through
feel free to make another lane at any time, especially if there is a queue
stay in the fast lane at all times and ignore the honking of horns and yelling
if you wish to stop - do so - do not find a legal park.

So, sitting in a taxi (it cost about £3 for a 20 minute ride which we thought was quite reasonable) we made sure we sat in the back. We were armed with our little card that told the taxi driver where our hotel was (I think the print was quite small as one driver got out and read the card by headlight while another used a magnifying glass). Surprisingly, in what felt like a very safe city, the drivers were surrounded by a perspex shield. Congestion is a major problem - there are cars everywhere - possibly a major contribution to the pollution. On sunny days the sky is pale grey (I now know why when I hosted a group of Asians in NZ they commented more on the blue sky than on the activities we had organised for them - I was a bit put out at the time!). There are motorways galore, and many more being built. Once out of the city the roads aren't quite as badly congested, but there are many toll roads and along the roadside endless advertisement boards (even houses have ground to roof advertisements on walls facing the roads). The young man from Birmingham travelling with us on one of the tours aptly described travelling by saying 'the trip had just about done my head in'. Along the roads are many houses - in fact you never quite feel you are in the country despite the market gardens. If you lived there you would be surrounded by roads and/or power pylons. And finally there are the barges that go up and down the river and canal all day and night carrying dirt which is probably to and from construction sights. At night, they have one navigation light and they creep along quite mysteriously against the bright lights of the rest of the city.

Harry was fascinated by the cars - many black and expensive (except for the taxis which were mainly green, red or gold). Many of the cars are replicas. A manufacturer Jin Bai made vans that looked like old Mitsubishi L300 and Toyota Hiace and apart from having a new nose cone quite clearly (but unfortunately not to me) were replicas. The Geely Rolls Royce clone looks similar to a Rolls Royce even down to the details on the grill. We were lucky enough (for Harry anyway) to be in Shanghai at the same time as the international motor show. So, he joined half of Shanghai one day to look at models which were attractively displayed (woman draped over cars, acrobats, opera singers, dancers performing around the cars, loud sound systems). Harry would have preferred the cars with none of the trimmings or entertainment, yeah right! There were 10 halls of cars and 8 halls of parts manufacturers - a Hazzy delight! For lunch, I am sorry to say, Harry resorted to McDonalds - yes in Shanghai!! The show didn't apparently have many food stalls and he thought McDonalds looked the safest - he was probably right. Anyway, enough about lunch and more about the cars at the show. Some of you may be able to tell by the photos below that some of the cars are clearly copies and that the finish is an improvement over some of the earlier Chinese efforts but Harry wondered what they would be like in an accident - he isn't convinced that the Chinese use the best safety techniques or materials (eg high tensile steel) compared to the rest of the world. His theory may have been proved by the article I read about March traffic accidents in Shanghai.
'Traffic police said yesterday that 64 people were killed in road accidents on local streets last month, 20 percent fewer than the 80 people who died in traffic accidents in January. A total 195 people were injured in car accidents last month, which was a slight increase, month on month. Congestion on 79 major downtown roads was slightly improved from a month earlier, with morning rush-hour traffic moving at above 10 kilometers an hour on average. However, police said the roads will be busy again next month due to Tomb-Sweeping Day. Qingming Festival falls on the first Saturday of next month and traditionally sees families visiting the tombs of their relatives to pay tribute to the dead.Rain will worsen road conditions during the upcoming traffic peak, slowing traffic and increasing the possibility of accidents, police said'.
I think that proves you should chose the time you visit Shanghai - not in the wet season and not during festivities.

Buildings and Housing

Shanghai does have a large number of tall buildings and they aren't just apartment blocks that look as they were built in the 1960's or 70's. There is construction everywhere. Our first visit to People's Square showed green parks surrounded by high office blocks - modern architecture - with an occasional old historic place. Most, if not all of the buildings were built in the 1990's (each a different design, and meaning something about the future of Shanghai). It seems that the political regime of earlier years had little regard for the history of Shanghai but now realise their mistake. The only piece of the town wall still standing is heralded as historic - although it doesn't look well maintained. It surrounds a very old group of lane houses (longtangs). There's no graffiti anywhere and I felt safe wandering around in most places - there is safety in numbers and security guards (every 50 or so metres they stood, either singly or in pairs, under brightly coloured beach umbrellas -sheltered from the rain or the sun). We went on an evening boat trip along the Bund - a pretty area where 'on a small oblong plot of land are jammed all the foreign and Chinese banks, hotels (except ours), department stores and clubs' - it is described as Shanghai's Wall Street. It is very pretty by night and probably just as lovely by day (but we didn't go back as a lot of the pedestrian area is under construction - probably improvements before the World Expo in 2010). Xintiandi in architecture speak is the first 're-use' project. I think that means that buildings are meant to be restored and renovated, but this area really is a copy of the once longtang houses with narrow alleys. It was here in the houses, that the locals lived in such little houses that they washed their clothes and even cleaned their chamber pots in full view of the public. Today the renovation is home to classy restaurants, cafes and a few homes. The museum is a refurbished long tang - but not that small - obviously lived in by the gentry and a little bit disappointing in not seeing the 'mini' houses.

People

It depends on who you talk to but the population of Shanghai is around 17 million to 22 million and it is either the 3rd or 5th largest city in the world. Whatever the accurate figure - there is no doubt there are lots of people. Apparently, the Government was concerned a while back at a declining population (I can guess it might have something to do with the number of tax payers supporting an elderly population) due to the 1 child policy and so the rules changed - couples who are both only children are legally allowed 2 children now - that must be great for the grandparents as well. I did read somewhere that because many children have no siblings they are very spoilt and this is causing problems as the generation turns into adults - you can imagine a business meeting with everyone expecting to get everything their way. Apparently, if you prefer dogs to children you not only have to register the animal but also pay 5 neighbours for permission to have the dog. Many of the people are employed in menial tasks. Besides the security work, road cleaning, rubbish collection, retail markets and shops, concreting mixing by hand, gardeners using weed eaters and hedge clippers to cut extensive lawns. No health and safety rules here - bamboo scaffolding, no ear muffs for noisy situations, no cones to protect workers on roads and motorways. They appear to work hard and are a gentle, busy people, unaggressive (unless on scooters, bikes or driving cars). Retirement for woman is 50 and for men 60 - but this might soon rise due to the slightly empty pension fund bucket - if it does there will still be 10 years difference between the retiring ages. If you aren't clearly a banker or office worker the fashion appears to be jeans and a nice top - but on rainy days another fashion comes to the fore. The colour and pattern on your umbrella is very important even for guys (you can choose from a range of colours, patterns, designs, frills, tartans, sizes), and the colour of the cape that cyclists and scootists use is also important. On all days, some people wear pyjamas - it has something to do with proving you are wealthy enough to buy pyjamas - but if I was poor I would just buy the nightwear (dig the photo below of the Mickey Mouse pyjamas) - the government are trying to discourage this cool trend. Clothes seem to be purchased in huge shopping malls - 7 or so storeys and full of young girl's clothing - oh and jewellery and watches and little Chinese memorabilia. Harry's eyes lit up when he thought he spied a computer shop 'Megabite' - but it was another food hall (I told him so!!). I did read that you needed to be a bit careful of prangsters who invited you to have chinese tea with them and then went to the loo (still can't get the hang of squat loos where you have to pick up the paper before you go in) just as the bill was about to arrive never to return. On our first day at People's Square we met 3 young people who asked us to take a photo and then asked us to come with them for a chinese tea.

We visited the silk mill established first in 1926. The caterpillars eat Mulberry bushes, spin a cocoon and the cocoon is unravelled and woven into a silk thread and then a garment, duvet, pillow cases, table clothes etc (looks great, feels great, costs great). We were welcomed to the mill with a little brochure that stated 'Respectable Guests welcome to our mill' and watched woman sorting cocoons, working looms, spreading silk matting for duvets. We also went to the government owned tea farm - this is where the real green tea is made. Did you know there are six stages to the making of Green Tea:

pick the fresh leaves - 72,000 of the tender shoots to make one kilogram of tea (woman)
dry leaves in the air (nature)
first dry in a huge wok (man)
absorb moisture (man)
second dry again in that huge wok (man)
make tea (woman)
drink tea (woman, man and us)

The tea smelt great, tasted great it also cost great. £30 for 125 grams (went to the supermarket and bought some for under £2 when we got back to England - ok I know the quality isn't quite comparable). There is a real ceremony with tea drinking:

put a pinch of leaves in your glass
pour small amount of hot water on it (80-85 degrees)
swirl and smell
add more water in 3 small pours and leave for 5 minutes.
tap with 2 fingers 3 times on table to say thanks
drink.

I ventured into, but did not partake of tea at a traditional tea house, but we did enjoy drinking at a number of restaurants before eating. Always, careful about where we ate we were surprised that there didn't seem to much chop suey, chow mein, black bean sauce, sweet and sour on the menus but there were choices galore (if you aren't a vegetarian and not fussy). We could have chosen, but didn't, shredded jellyfish, pigs trotters, beef intestines - but stuck with the more unadventurous choices such as curries, beef, bok choy and noodles (not much rice - apparently in the cities they don't each much rice - what a surprise!). At one restaurant we were given soup which had these green things at the bottom they turned out to be tea leaves (this is before we went to the tea farm so we only recognised tea leaves cut up in tea bags till then). In the soup they curled up like little slugs, looking miserable at the bottom of a dish of luke warm fluid, and when we tried one they sort of wiggled and squiggled in our mouths - a bit like eating a slug - not that I would know.

Gardens and the Green Environment

The gardens were enjoyable to wander around, and not quite as stylised as other Chinese gardens we have been to outside China (or am I thinking of Japanese Gardens?). Besides the plants in many of them were little quotes particularly in Suzhou gardens:

clean environment and civilised behaviour co-create the beautiful scenery
your health rests with your civilised behaviour
civilised tour environment is created by all of us
kindly treat the viriscence around in the way life is treated (had trouble with this one and so googled 'viriscence' - the state or process of becoming green, especially the abnormal development of green coloration in plant parts normally not green... well that didn't help)

I wonder whose book the quotes were taken from, but rest assured we were on our best behaviour. Suzhou was founded around 600 BC and flourished after the completion of the grand canal (originally you could take a boat from Shanghai to Beijing - but now as the motorways have criss crossed the canal and filled it in). We also went to Zhouzhuang a water village about
900 years old and floated through the village in a traditional fishing boat converted to a rowing boat for tourists. An elderly woman sang us traditional songs as she worked the oar. A young Norwegian we travelled with said he ' would have loved to have been there 100 years ago as the only tourist' and I tended to agree. We watched as locals sold their wares, showed us their creativity (painting on the inside of glass balls was impressive) and went about their daily chores. At other places the authorities provided bikes free of charge so locals and tourists alike could cycle along the roads under the shade of maples and weeping willows. There were ponds of red carp, white and mongrel peacocks, pigeons. We travelled through Hangzhou, the capital city of the Zhejiang Province (and one of China's seven ancient capitals), one of the prettiest cities we've seen as it lies by the Qiantang River and on the West Lake.

Politics

On my day alone I ventured into Fu Xing Park - an old park in the middle of the city. I wandered down tree lined paths in the rain to the statue of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and wondered what it would have been like during the French concession and as a Japanese parade ground. The word concession came up a lot in the history books and tourist guides but everyone assumed that I knew what it meant - I didn't but do now. 'A Concession (territory): an area within one country that is administered by another, usually conceded by a weaker country to a stronger one'. Some of the history of the city is:

It started as a small fishing village on the edge of the muddy Huang Pu River
The British establish a concession by forced treaty with the Qing Dynasty after China loses the first Opium War. Concessions were governed by the occupying country and were untouchable by Chinese law.
The French, Americans and Japanese soon followed the British in establishing territories in Shanghai.
1930s: Shanghai became world's largest trading and banking firms have set up house along the Bund.
Tea, silk and porcelain sail to Europe and America and opium comes in to pay for it.
No visas or passports are required at the port and Shanghai soon becomes infamous as an exotic port of call.
1931-1941: Shanghai becomes a haven for Jews fleeing Nazi terror. As other countries closed their doors to immigrants in the lead up to the Second World War, over 20,000 Jewish refugees found asylum in Shanghai.
1937: Japanese bombs hit Shanghai and the foreigners evacuate en masse. Japanese control Shanghai and much of China's eastern coast until their defeat at the hands of the Allied Powers in 1945.
1943: The Allied governments abandon Shanghai during the War and sign their territories over to Chiang Kai-Shek and the Kuomintang government. The foreign concession era officially ends.
1949: Most foreigners have left Shanghai and the Chinese Communist state takes control of the city and the formerly privately-held businesses.
Industry suffers until 1976 under the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) as hundreds of thousands of Shanghainese locals are sent to work in rural areas throughout China. The advent of Deng Xiaopeng's open door policy allowed a commercial revival to take place in Shanghai.

I was lucky enough to see the building where the first National Congress of the Communist party was held in 1921. Tight security checks led to the security guard asking me (using sign language) to open my bag. He took out my water bottle and said 'drink' ('surely not all of it', I thought as I looked at the near full bottle) but a few sips seemed to satisfy him that I wasn't about to sabotage this historic place. The congress didn't finish their meeting here though, police in the French concession suspended it and the 13 or so delegates reconvened in a Pleasure Boat on the South Lake. The building apparently was built around 1920 with a courtyard and gate encased in a stone frame called 'shikumne'.
My wanderings took me to Sun Yat-Sens former residence and museum (I had to turn my mind way back to 4th form history to remember his part in political history). He and his wife Soong Ching Ling (friend of Rewi Ally) lived here and it was here they wrote most of the ariticles about socialism and democracy - his focus at first was on food, clothing, housing, cars and printing (similar priorities today but you might change the types of industry). He established the Kuomintang party in 1905, to replace the ailing Qing dynasty with democratic leadership, and finally succeeded in 1911 (not sure if telling all Chinese to cut off pigtails was democratic though).

Religion
The Ling Yin Temple was an adventure as we walked the stairs carved into rocks that led to the Temple. There are over 400 carvings in the rock which were originally designed to lead the worshipper to the temple. Inside the temple were rather large wooden statues - some welcoming good, and others designed to frighten away the bad. Lots of people praying, burning incense (ashes symbolise the prayers and helps the Buddha to hear and understand). The monastery was founded in 328 AD and at its peak the the temple boasted nine multi-storey buildings, 18 pavilions, 72 halls, more than 1300 dormitory rooms, inhabited by more than 3000 monks. In the centre of Shanghai also stands the Jade buddha temple - known particularly for its two statues each made from one piece of green jade. Although buddhas are not meant to be gender specific these ones definitely had feminine features. The statues were bought (stolen?) in 1882 by a monk (Hui glen) on his pilgrimage from Burma. He had 5 buddha statues but left 2 in Shanghai and took the other 3 to his local island.