The vicissitudes of V-Dann's daily life (Uncensored): Shanghai

I enjoyed beautiful sunny weather throughout my stay until the day I left Shanghai. It was CROWDED! In fact, it is over-the-top overcrowded with more than 20 million residents in it AND still expanding. I have yet to witness a large gap between people out on the streets nor indoors. It is probably already a known fact, however, to be among the crowd is just phenomenal! It was then I fully realized that traffic congestion situation such as bottle-necking, not only happens on motor/causeways for vehicles but also on pedestrian ways especially evident at the metro's escalator and entrance points AND ALSO in hypermarkets (Carrefour -- shopping cart congestion. Can you believe it?). Not that I was ignorant of this fact but, as mentioned, it was truly a phenomena to be there among the millions of people squeezing just to get on the escalator's steps. The stairways up would already be flooded with people by now. Even a street as broad as Nanjing Road (南京路), one has to zigzagged through to a destination. TWL was right, it is a good place for people-watching. I think it is the best place!

HDR Photo: The Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower, Pudong.
Cover photo for this posting.

My lonely shadow stretches down at Lujiazhui Station (Line No#2)

Nanjing Road by day with lots of things to see and do. Lots of activities! It's Shanghai's landmark shopping street.

Nanjing Road by night still as crowded but ever so colorful with not just neon lightings, but also flooded with people from all over the world! It's Shanghai's landmark shopping street.

On the surface top and among the sea of people, there are countless and a variety of bikes ranging from pedaled-bicycles (trillions of them) to motor-powered bicycles (in thousands), scooters (billions of them) to motorbikes (in hundreds of thousands). None, and I meant NOBODY, ever wears safety helmets while riding. Not even the motorbikers. NOBODY seems to be abiding traffic rules. AND, the magical part of this phenomena is NOBODY ever gets run-over or even knocked down by anything!! Every vehicles that can honk will never hesitate to honk! The streets and roads could be an unsynchronized music lane; in fact, it is rightfully one for it'd be a dead metropolis otherwise -- like that Tuesday's early morning (a day after HF left).

The number of bikes parked could reach horizon's end and only two people are watching over this parkade! Yet many still dutifully parks here.

I began to think it'd be an abnormal sight if there exists a building with less than 5 floors in Shanghai unless it's a preserved building maybe for historic or cultural reasons, or a museum. Singapore is a concrete jungle but Shanghai is probably one that is a planetary-sized by comparison. They say it's like New York city, LA city, and Tokyo city. I have not been to any so I wouldn't know. Mexico city has a 20 million population but the number of skyscrapers in Shanghai would probably have easily outnumbered Mexico city. It was, for me, mind-boggling. More buildings are being built towering the skies as if a couple more is just not enough. It all almost seemed as though each is competing for the-tallest-building title. The Oriental Pearl (Shanghai's Radio and TV) tower has been belittled by Jinmao tower (金茂大厦) in 1998. It will soon be over-towered by the Shanghai World Financial Center, adjacent to it, upon completion in 2008. In fact, since September 14 2007, the Shanghai's super skyscraper WFC is officially the tallest structure in all of China. What's next?

Every square inch of the city's land is developed. If it is not buildings, there must be a park. If neither high-rise apartments/offices, then it must be transportation infrastructures. I thought elevated highways is the best logistics solution to most cities but I was wrong when I saw multi-tiered elevated causeways! Not single, double is a common sight, but three-to-five tiers above ground! I didn't think people over there needed umbrellas to stay in the shades just to avoid getting a tan. With buildings towering the skies and multi-leveled causeways all around the city, I was getting concerned not receiving my vitamin D from sun exposure and getting a tan! We were all in the shadows most of the time. By the way, being fair-skinned in East Asia is the ideal concept of beauty. The fairer you are (females), the more beautiful you are. Simple. Getting a tan is a no-no! I was out there looking to get a teeny-weeny-bit tan.

Look, a burried hydrant! Need I say more?

Even pedestrian bridges have multi-levels version!

HF and I at The Bund

Chenghuang Shopping district

Man lugging giant bags of recyclables -- wearing a shirt! Nice white-collar job!

HF and her parents with me

HF and I at Chenghuang Business district

I don't know why but I just like this place

The Chenghuang Business district is not a small area. This has been a handy reference!

classic Chinese wine flasks which has been around for more than a thousand years.

Don't know what it says. Just thought it'd make a great photo

Chenghuang SD's building styles.

The live ones at Shanghai's zoo, which we've been. We didn't take any of these pandabears home either.

The Old Street of Yu Garden grand entrance

In and around Yu Garden's Old Street

One of my favorite photo of the Old Street of Yu Garden

Fire department

Lanterns for Mid-autumn Festival

HF at her sanctuary meditating...

... and this was the result of her meditation. I had but to share everything.

While the never-ending astronomical heights concrete towers dominate the skylines with over 50 floors up, at ground level, there are comparatively phenomenal depths! Metros and subways are, of course, underground. But I'm referring to underground shops and stores that the collective size and depths of them all made me feel as though I was in an underground city or an underground shopping center! To top it off, they're complete with elevators and escalators! Tell me about scarcity of land! The Chinese would probably come out with the world's deepest tower on land. And if this caught on, we'll probably all dig to earth's core and live comfortably. Mind you, a nuclear winter is not too distant of a possibility. Great Wall is an amazing feat. Shouldn't be a problem create a habitable underground city.

Food and Culture
While The Schindler's List (240 items) is not a base of comparison for a list of food varieties, it'd probably give one an idea of the endless varieties of food one can get in China. Probably at least 10x longer. Perhaps one is familiar with a popular saying that the Chinese would cook/eat anything that walks/swims the earth and/or has its back facing the sky. Well, that and also anything from the sea. There's always a special Chinese sauce it and it's always the correct tasting one. You can never go wrong with Chinese! Maybe for the same reasons how the Chinese figured out acupunctural points. Or Chinese herbal medicines. Right now, I'm like how-the-frack do they do that?!

Many a times when I was brought to try out a new delight and I guess it was my mistake to instinctively find out what I was going to eat. It's only natural to do that especially in the land of Eat-anything. I'd dread to imagine that black-pepper she's shaking onto my hotdog are made from black spicy ants (probably a substitute to cut cost!). Of course, there is no such thing! But there's no stopping anybody from doing something close to this. It may have happened to me: HF mother bought me two lamb skewers (羊肉串) at a canopied hawkers lineup. I had wanted to have it again since HF and I had it in Wujiang Rd. I took my first bite on the lamb meat. It was hot. As I was masticating the meat, I began to realize it doesn't taste like lamb's meat! If you're a meat-eater, you can tell if it was beef, chicken meat, mutton, or lamb meat apart easily. I took another bite in. Not even close to lamb taste, nor beef, nor chicken. HF's mother tried a piece. She agreed with me. The meat do not taste like lamb meat. I threw the binned away. She pulled me away and said: "There have been a lot of people from other provinces came to Shanghai and do little businesses such as these. Not all have enough money. And it has been rumored that cat's meat has been used before in food joints like these." I was stunned to hear that! I stared at her with a blank face as i couldn't believe what I just heard -- I could have just had cat's meat!! Funnily, Nigel the black cat popped into my head but it didn't last long to be consumed.

Among other things, I noticed that Chinese people are extremely nice and friendly... perhaps only towards foreigners or non-Chinese. Bear in mind that this is only one point of view. However, I have seen some Caucasians that have been 'spoiled' by this norm that their needs and demands must be met first. I experienced a rather comedic situation. It was at Longyang SMT Station (龙阳路磁浮站). Nobody is allowed to the station's end for photo. I was already there, alone, when a security guard approached me saying,

"... this area is prohibited. If you want to take pictures, please go to the centre of the station", in his Shanghainese accented Mandarin.

I understood everything that was said but I pretended not to as I really wanted to get a couple of shots. I stammered in extremely broken Mandarin and resorted to using hand gestures to communicate my intentions of being here for only 5 minutes just for photos and will leave when the maglev train leaves. He scratched his head puzzled and confused struggling as he doesn't know how to respond in a language I'd understand. Soon, he nodded his head and hesitantly said "okay...!". I was in a restricted area and it was okay!! I know I was taking advantage but he could have insisted.

I did a lot of walking. I walked the length of the Century Avenue (世纪大道), which was like the Champs-Elysees of the East, about 3.2 kilometers, to the Jinmao tower. Back and forth the stretch of The Bund, about 2 kilometers, twice. I got to know the lights at The Bund shuts off at 10:45pm and there's nothing left to see by 11pm -- all lights will be out. The city needs to conserve energy. As usual, The Bund is always crowded. This was also the place I realized Shanghai's metro closes at 10:25pm! I was already too late to catch the last train back to Zhongshan Park. I walked about 4 kilometers on Nanjing Rd towards Zhongshan Park (westward) and by midnight, I flagged down a cab. It would have cost me 40元 from The Bund, but because I walked it cost me 28元.

Shanghai Science and Technology Centre

Century Avenue, Shanghai.

People's Square (人民广场)

It was overall a good trip. I had only wished HF did not have to go back to Leeds so soon. I could have been to more places rather than sticking in Pudong all the time.

When I returned to Kuala Lumpur, everything else here seemed dwarfed. Streets and sidewalks are empty -- where are all the pedestrians?! Felt as though I am in the ruins of my city -- where are all the super skyscrapers? I was getting too much sun tan now that I just wanna stay indoor. Shanghai is truly an international city. I like Shanghai.