Scraping both the sky and the bottom of the barrel

As promised, here are the rest of the highlights of my recent Shanghai trip. For lack of a better plan, I’m going with straight chronological order, which puts this one first:
That’s looking from a pedestrian bridge near my hotel towards the Huangpu River. The building in the distance with the “keyhole” near the top is the Shanghai World Financial Center, which when complete will be 101 stories tall. There’s an interesting story about its design, which you can read about if you’re interested.

After taking that picture, I turned 90 degrees for a view of the bridge where I stood.
Unfortunately, this captures the essence of Shanghai (and, to be fair, every other city). You’ve got the aging infrastructure with the peeling paint on the elevated expressway. You’ve got the prosperous young people with their shopping bags and new clothes. And there is the one who does not benefit from the prosperity.

Speaking of prosperity...
I know I’ve posted pictures of this area before. It’s the Nanjing Lu retail area, and a perfect illustration of ren shan ren hai (see previous entry for explanation). This was a little after noon on Sunday.

After I tired of the crowd (and the constant harassment from guys trying to sell me watches and bags) I picked a random side street and went to see what I could see.
I ended up in the Hardware Zone. There were at least four blocks worth of stores like this, every single one of them selling some kind of hardware, from pipes, lumber, paint, and flooring to electrical items, tools, bathroom fixtures and appliances. If you figure about a dozen shops per block times two sides to each block times at least six streets, you end up with a ridiculous number of retailers. Once again, I am amazed that so many businesses can sell the same thing in such close proximity to each other and stay in the black. Especially when you consider that there are also big multi-department stores (along the lines of major American hardware chains). I think it has something to do with the way commerce works here. A building contractor will buy supplies from someone he has a connection with – a relative, a school friend, or the like – and negotiate a price rather than just go to a big impersonal box of a store.

Most deliveries are done by motor scooter. I saw a man zipping down the street on a scooter with a length of plastic pipe about 12 feet long over his shoulder.

Just beyond that I came to Suzhou Creek where a steel bridge crosses it. Like many places in China, this stream has been known by many names. When Shanghai first came into being it was called Songjiang, but it was renamed Wusong in the Thirteenth Century, and (if I understand right) it’s still called that further upstream. It’s just another example of how inconsistent the naming of places is here.
Not many tourists would come here, so I assume the merchants are selling to locals.

After that, I got on the Metro to check out the part of town where the Björk concert would be. I got off at the Zhongshan Park station, which was in the middle of a booming area. There was a fancy multistory shopping center pretty much like all the rest of the fancy multistory shopping centers I’ve seen in China.
I walked in the direction of the International Gymnastics Center, and saw police cars stacked in a parking area underneath the elevated Metro tracks.
This is a massive vacant lot surrounded by massive apartment complexes on two sides, a smaller, older neighborhood on one, and the train tracks on the other.
In my post about the concert I mentioned that there is a Baby Mall underneath the venue. This is one of the shops in there. I didn’t know that Beatles, Inc. had a line of children’s items.

I saw another scooter scene that was pretty amazing. It was too dark to get a picture, but this is what I saw:

A man and a woman came out of the store with four shopping carts filled up with two-liter jugs of cooking oil. The woman waited while the man went over to the parking area. He returned on a beat-up old scooter, and they proceeded to load the jugs onto the scooter. I counted a total of 44 jugs. Apparently this was unusual enough that a small crowd gathered around them to see how they were going to accomplish this seemingly impossible task. They stacked seven or eight of the bottles on the platform where you normally put your feet, then took out some long straps and threaded them through the jugs’ handles. Figure 18 jugs each on two lines. With considerable effort, the man slung the jugs over the seat of the scooter. Of course this rendered the machine unrideable, so they pushed it away. I guess you use the tools you have available.

If you want to be chronological, go back and read my concert post now, then read about Nanshi and Yuyuan, and you’ve covered this little trip.

New Old Shanghai

I’ve written about Shanghai a number of times. You can click on the “Shanghai” tag at the end of this entry to see the others. On this trip, I managed to see a part of the town I hadn’t visited before.

Not too far from the historic Bund and the frenzy of Nanjing Lu’ s modern shopping orgy is an older part of town. In English it’s called Old Town, and in Chinese Nanshi, which means South Town.
There are lots of buildings in an older style, though I’m pretty sure most of them are reconstructions if not simply modern buildings made copying the old style. I don’t know if any of it is actually old.

For the most part, it’s filled with tourist stuff and restaurants, though the side streets not far away are much more like “real” Shanghai, with bicycle repair shops, cheap non-name-brand clothes, and so on.
It’s also been invaded by Gumby.
That’s the mascot for the 2010 Shanghai World’s Fair. I have mentioned the Gumby similarity to Chinese people, and some of them have even heard to the character. I’ve not met anyone who actually liked this mascot.
In the middle of the area is a pond with this picturesque tea house.

For a ¥30 entrance fee, you can wander around in Yuyuan, a lovely garden dating originally from 1559. It has been ransacked and rebuilt numerous times since then, most recently (if I remember right) in 1853. It was private property rather than imperial.
Spring comes to Shanghai a little earlier than Beijing, and many of the trees were in bloom.
Lovely scent in the air.
It is home to numerous cats, including this little pregnant female with very uncommon (here at least) markings.
While smaller than such immense parks as the Summer Palace in Beijing, it’s still pretty extensive. Somehow it seems bigger on the inside that it did on the outside.
As usual, the roofs are decorated elaborately.
I guess it’s off-season still, since a guy came around at 5:00 to tell everyone it was closing time.

I have a few other miscellaneous pictures of other parts of the city, but since Nanshi and Yuyuan make a nice package, I’ll save them for another post.

Make your own flag

Björk at the Shanghai International Gymnastics Center, 2 March 2008

For once my timing seems to have been right on. It appears that I saw the first and last Björk concert ever to happen in mainland China. I’ll get to why I say “last” in a while.

The Gymnastics Center is in the Western part of Shanghai, but not too terribly far from the Zhongshan Metro station. One thing that seems a little odd is that there’s a Tesco discount market underneath the auditorium.
So you can save money on your shopping and catch a show in one convenient location.
And if you need to shop for any kids’ things, there’s a Baby Mall below the Tesco. This is one entrance, right next to the box office.

In spite of the sign outside that said “No Cameras,” neither I nor any others in the majority of the crowd had any problems taking pictures.
Björk is known for experimenting with different kinds of instrumentation from typical pop and rock lineups. This time she had a nine-piece brass section (three each of trumpets and French horns, two trombones, and a tuba), a keyboard player (clavichord, organ, piano and so on, all artificial of course), a drummer/percussionist, and two guys with laptops and keyboards. No guitar, no bass.
Anyone who’s heard her current album (Volta) knows that brass figures prominently in the arrangements, so those tunes came off much like the studio versions. The surprise was how well the arrangements worked on some of the older tunes which did not originally have brass, such as “Jóga” and “Army of Me.” I found it quite refreshing that the brass parts were not simple chordal accompaniment, but very nicely arranged polyphonic lines, with many touches of modern classical music. Kudos to whoever took care of that.

The show opened with an abrupt lights-out, then the brass section trooped in playing a catchy tune and wearing colorful costumes with flags attached. They took their places on the stage, and Björk came out to launch into “Earth Intruders,” the lead track of Volta. Her voice, the brass, and the electronics were all crystal clear in sound, loud enough to be impressive, but not so loud as to be uncomfortable.
The crowd was reservedly enthusiastic for the first four tunes or so, cheering loudly but stuck in seats, until she asked, “Can you dance?” The result was an instantaneous eruption of bodies from chairs; the center aisle on the floor filled up, and people approached the stage barrier. Half a dozen extra security guys rushed out to keep people back from the fence, but from then on there was no sitting that I saw.

Things really kicked into overdrive when her hit “Army of Me” started. A green laser beam flicked around the room, hitting strategically placed mirrors, and the energy level hit a new high, both on stage and in the audience.
There were some quiet, reflective moments as well.

For me, as a fan of the new album, I didn’t mind the concentration on new material. There were enough old favorites to keep me happy: “Hunter,” “Pluto,” “Possibly Maybe,” “I Miss You” and so on. Sure, I could have wished for “Human Behaviour” but there is nothing she played that I regretted hearing.
All through the show, I was amazed at the strength, accuracy and expression of her voice. I’m well aware that the excitement of seeing a good show can make things sound better than they really are, but I didn’t hear a single note off-key, and I noticed no fatigue as the evening wore on.

All too soon (around 9:30) Björk and crew left the stage. The crowd kept up a racket for a long time before the brass came out again, forming a half circle at center stage. Björk sang in the center, and when they segued into “Declare Independence” all the stops were pulled out. The lasers flashed around, the lights went crazy, everyone on stage was jumping around chaotically, and finally a snowstorm of confetti came over the arena.
Later, I heard many reports that she mentioned Tibet in the song, but I honestly did not hear it. Everyone was jumping up and down around me, and I was trying to get a photo around the 6’6” guy in front of me, and we were all chanting “Declare independence! – Don’t let them do that to you!” so loud that I missed the little interjections between the lines. Of course, when you’re in China, mentioning that an Autonomous Region should maybe have some other status (such as the one mentioned in the song title) is not looked upon kindly. It is not a subject of public debate. Once the story started spreading about what she shouted, people came to the likely conclusion that should she ever apply for a visa to perform (or even visit) China again, it was unlikely to be approved. There have also been stories that those at the Ministry of Culture who gave approval for her performance (given her track record on such issues) would be looking for new jobs.

Anyway, this is a show that goes right up there in the list of all-time best shows for me, which puts it in pretty good company.

Update: One thing I forgot to mention...

As far as I could tell, there were no concessions inside the building at all, nor any room for them - the concourse on the floor level was very small, and I think it was similar upstairs. The promoter, Emma, set up folding tables outside on the deck selling water, soft drinks, beer, and posters. For the drinks, they had 2-liter bottles, and for 10rmb they would fill a paper cup out of it. You had to get a wristband going out in order to re-enter, and luckily you were allowed to bring the cups in. I also saw people in the auditorium with Tesco bags of snacks and water bottles.

A teaser

Here is a little Ghost of Posts to Come...

I was taken by a UFO

Wherein I try to remember what happened in Shanghai on 30 September. Once again, some photos by D and some by me.

You might remember that on Saturday evening, D discovered that her Zen MP3 player had been stolen. Thinking that our insurance just might cover it, and that insurance companies tend to like documentation for claims, we stopped by the hotel’s front desk and spoke to the manager about reporting the theft to the police. Although it took a while for her to understand what we wanted, she eventually assigned a purser to walk with us the two blocks to the local police station.

It was down a little side alley off Nanjing Road. It’s amazing how quickly the upscale glitz turns to piles of cardboard and lines of scrappy bikes. Lots of scooters too. Instead of going in the main entrance of the police station, our guide took us down a grubby stairway to the basement. He said he knew the officer in charge, so we didn’t have to wait in line with the general public. We went into a little cement office where there were two rickety desks, some folding chairs, and a bare light bulb for illumination. OK, maybe I’m exaggerating, but not by much – and perhaps my mind is filling in some details I don’t remember clearly.

Again, it took a little while to get our wishes across – the officer spoke almost no English – but he seemed to accept that an American insurance company might like something in writing. And it took a little while longer to figure out what form was appropriate and how it should be filled out. I ended up taking the standard Chinese form and just writing in my own words in English what happened, being careful to include such things as the estimated value and the time and place of the incident as near as I could guess.

Then we went upstairs and waited in the lobby while the officer got the document registered and stamped and whatever they do. Official paper in hand, we returned to the hotel and thanked the purser for all his assistance. Hope he wasn’t too disappointed that we didn’t tip him – but I’ve gotten so used to not tipping here, that I didn’t want to set a precedent.

After that little adventure, we had a good portion of the day to kill before it was time to head to the stadium for the final of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. We consulted a map and saw a temple near a subway station, so off we went.

The Shanghai Metro is mostly nicer than the subways in Beijing, in part because it’s simply newer. The tracks are above ground in many places.
The temple we visited is called Jing’an, and one thing sets it completely apart from the other temples I’ve visited in China. It’s new.
In fact, it’s still under construction, being built by a local religious organization. The piles of building materials don’t discourage worshippers, however. We saw many people of all ages paying their respects.
We wandered around for a while, fascinated by the setting. In China, you just get used to such things being old, not alive.
There’s also the setting. Seeing this in the middle of a bustling commercial dynamo like Shanghai makes for some pretty stark contrasts.
And also, given how shoddy most current Chinese construction is, it’s nice to see workers taking real care about their craft.
Though I suppose it’s possible some pieces, like the wood carvings, could have been salvaged from older structures.

Anyway, there you go. A temple in Shanghai that doesn’t show up in the tourist guides.

When we left the temple, we decided to wander around the neighborhood a bit to see a part of town other than Nanjing Road and the Bund.
As part of their financing for the construction, the temple rents out the ground floor of their outer walls for shops.
We saw this restaurant. Its name is translated as Fishiness Infinitude. Um, OK.
This is a typical scene.
Eventually we made a circle and came around the opposite side of the temple, where there was a shopping center having a sidewalk sale.
This was a nifty bit of public art along the same sidewalk. It was originally part of a set of statues.
But his companion has been overwhelmed by the economic boom.

Eventually it got to be time to head for the stadium. Sunday afternoon turned out to be a hideously busy time on the trains. We were crammed up against each other along with a lot of people obviously going the same place plus a lot just going wherever Shanghai people go on Sunday afternoons.
Luckily, the Metro station is right there, attached to the stadium by a raised walkway. But the trip had been so crowded and uncomfortable that D said, “We’re taking a taxi when we leave.” I didn’t argue.

A few days earlier, back in Beijing, we had watched in stunned amazement as Brazil embarrassed the American women in a big way. National pride aside, it was a wonderful performance by an underdog team of charismatic players, and the stodgy Americans didn’t stand a chance, even aside from some questionable personnel choices. Sure, Briana Scurry was less than stellar in goal, but honestly I don’t think Hope Solo’s presence would have changed the outcome. The South Americans had the North Americans beat at every single position.

That defeat set up the matches we saw in Shanghai, with the US playing Norway for third place, and Brazil taking on reigning champs Germany for the trophy.

You might remember in my description of the previous game we saw, that they had a lot of security, with at least three guys per section. Check this out:
Every single seat in the first row of the lower level was occupied by a security guard. It was a ring of white polo shirts all the way around with the exception of the VIP section behind the benches. I guess they didn’t want any trouble.
Of course, the US didn’t have much trouble with Norway. Here’s one of our goals about to go into the net. By the end of it, we felt sorry for the Scandinavians, and were kind of happy they managed to score at least once.
After it was over, we even saw Briana and Hope hug each other. Aw, ain’t that sweet?

As for the first place match, we were definitely caught up in the wave of enthusiasm for the Brazilian team. It had been really something to watch them on TV, and we would have dearly loved to see them give Germany the same treatment they had given us.
But alas, the Germany vs. Brazil match was basically a story of missed opportunities for Brazil. This is perhaps the worst of them.

Our section was populated mostly with Germans, who were quite obnoxiously enjoying their team’s success. In the second half my BlueBerry buzzed with an incoming email. It was from JW:

From: JW (China)
To: JD (China)
Sent: Sun Sep 30 06:46:05 2007
Subject: We just saw you

We just saw you on tv behind the happy Germans.

Hope you are having fun.

I replied:

From: JD (China)
To: JW (China)
Sent: Sun Sep 30 06:47:04 2007
Subject: Re: We just saw you

We'd be having more fun if brasil was ahead!
--------------------------
Sent from my BlueBerry Wireless Handheld

As soon as the game was over, they started building a stage out on the field for the trophy ceremony. We had no desire to see the Germans get all smug and even more unbearable, so we snuck out, hoping to have an easier time finding a taxi.

After a pretty wild ride where the driver tried to avoid the traffic jams on the main streets, we ended up back at the hotel. It was getting late, but we didn’t feel like retiring yet – and we hadn’t had a proper dinner (like all Chinese venues, there was no food to speak of at the stadium). I had been wanting to see what it was like up in the UFO on top of the hotel, so we went up to the 45th floor, got off the elevator and went to the little elevator that takes you up to 47. There was a little combo (piano, upright bass, drums, and a singer) playing music on the circular stage in the middle. We took a table on the second level so we could see out the windows better. We got there just before they closed the kitchen, so we picked a selection of expensive appetizers to go with our drinks.

I seem to remember as we were sitting there listening to the music that it would make a humorous blog entry to describe what they played and how they sounded, but right now I’m drawing a blank. I’ll have to consult my offboard memory (aka D) for some hints to jog something loose and post later about that.

Rewriting history

This is just a quick post to let readers know that I've gone back and added photos (plus a few changes in text) to some of the past entries. Check out “All aboard the Shanghai Express” and “Of acquisition and loss” for some pretty pictures of Shanghai. And fireworks.
Here’s a very popular snack shop on Nanjing Road in Shanghai.

Of acquisition and loss

Now on to the events of Saturday, 29 September. Pictures (some by D some by me) and more events added 10 November. How could I have forgotten the fireworks?

For the first time, I ended up taking a taxi to the Beijing Airport. All my previous trips the company driver was available to provide transportation. Not much to report here. The ride cost about $10, which included the toll for the expressway. Unlike my previous Shanghai trip, we got to board through a jetway directly onto the plane instead of having to take a shuttle out to the plane. And instead of going to Shanghai’s new Pudong Airport, we flew to the old one, which is called Hongqiao and is situated right in the midst of the city. It was very strange flying below the tops of buildings on the approach.

We had read about the taxi queue, so we followed the signs (no checked bags) and got into a big long line. There were about four lanes of taxis, with a uniformed person directing people to the next available one. There was also a guy who had a big car (not a standard taxi) who was trying to entice people to ride with him instead. I managed to tell our driver where we were going – it was pretty easy since our hotel was on a well-known street right across the street from a major park, and I knew the names of both in Chinese.
We stayed at the Radisson Hotel, a five-star tower that showed up in my pictures from Shanghai in August. It’s the one that looks like a UFO is landing on its roof.
There was some sort of confusion upon check-in. They seemed to think I work for Google. My reservation, which I made online a few days in advance, had got jumbled up with someone else’s. We ended getting upgraded from a standard king room to a deluxe king.
It was really nice, actually a small suite. We were on floor 18 facing towards the river, though other buildings mostly blocked the view. We could see a bit of the Pearl Tower and several other noteworthy buildings.
After getting settled, we went out to explore Nanjing Road, a famous shopping district I visited last time. We mostly just browsed, though we did see a few interesting things.
We were pestered almost constantly by people trying to sell us watches, bags, and whatnot, some of whom were very persistent. Like a store called Baleno that specialized in jeans and other casual wear for young people, but had a big display of items related to Doraemon and Astro Boy in the window, so like moths to a flame, we entered.
By the time we left, we had a sweatshirt and a T-shirt, and only a supreme exercise of will power kept the damage down to that.

Around the time it was starting to get dark, we met a friend for dinner. She took us to a nice Shanghai-style restaurant. It was on the way to dinner that D realized something was missing. She had been carrying her Zen MP3 player in her backpack, and someone had unzipped it and got away with the player. This put quite a damper on the enjoyment of the food.

Upon reflection, we have our own stupidity (or naiveté) to blame. First, there was no reason to have the Zen with us – we should have left it back at the hotel. Second, a backpack is like an invitation to a thief – easy to get into without being noticed, especially in a crowded place where there are jostling people. We’ve noticed many people who use backpacks actually sling them around the front. These are smart people. We can take some small comfort in the fact that Zen players are pretty uncommon here, so the lucky acquirer might have trouble finding accessories like a charger and USB adapter for it. They’re sure to find an odd selection of music on it.

Anyway, back to dinner. Our friend wanted to give us a good sample of Shanghai cuisine, and took us to a place called Shun Feng. It was huge, with well over a hundred tables, taking up what seemed to be an entire floor of a downtown building near the Marriott tower. Our waitress was a tiny little woman who was shorter than us even when we were sitting down, but she seemed to be in charge of that part of the place, ordering others around. Shanghai food is known for being sweet and rich, and we certainly found that to be true. We had a wide sampling of foods, meat, veggies and fish. The fish was a little spicy, and was our favorite. For dessert we had an amazing concoction of sweet black beans, glutinous rice and coconut milk which was ridiculously rich. It was either will power or sheer overstuffing that kept us from finishing it all.

Originally we had sort of planned on going to a pub or something after dinner for drinks, but after the theft, we weren’t in the mood for it, and wanted to call it an evening. But it was Saturday night in Shanghai, and it would be a shame to miss the lights along the Bund and across the Huangpu, so we made a quick little trip to the river.
Several things set this visit apart from my previous one. First, there was this:
It’s a big tourist boat with a water dragon theme, full of people cruising the river. Note the water gushing from the dragons’ mouths. Then we started hearing the sounds of explosions.
The Saturday night before a major holiday – fireworks! We hung around for the whole show, which lasted 20 minutes or so. Combined with the lights of the buildings, it was quite something.

After that, we said goodnight to our friend and took a quick taxi ride back to the hotel.
It was here that we discovered the addictive attraction of the National Geographic Channel. For China Day, they were doing a marathon of documentaries about this country. I watched one which I think must have been made at about the time when Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon came out. It was about one of the prominent wushu (martial arts) schools in China, and profiled several students from the ages of 8-18 or so. As far as I could tell from the credits, it was not an actual NG production, and while the subject matter was fascinating, I was constantly annoyed by the narrator’s consistent mispronunciation of virtually every Chinese name and word. It seems like a matter of simple respect to say people’s names right.

That was a pretty full day.