Strangers in a Strange Land, Day 4

Monday was our big day to really see Shanghai. It was the traditional holiday of "Tomb Sweeping Day," when Chinese are supposed to go back to their families' home towns to honor their ancestors. Because so much of the population of Shanghai consists of lower class workers from other parts of China, we figured that even though it was a holiday, the city itself might not be overrun with holiday-ing locals. The added benefit to us is that Greg, a US State Department employee, gets the day off for Chinese as well as American holidays, so he would be able to show us around.

We loaded the eight of us into a couple of taxis for the ten minute trip to the nearest subway station. To get to the trains, we had to walk about 400 yards through an underground mall with the usual mix of clothing and nic-nac stores. The subway is as modern as any in the world, with touch screen ticket machine that feature an English language conversion. Oddly, to get on the trains, we had to go through a simple, loosely supervised security check, requiring us to put our bags (not us) through an x-ray machine. The security checks have apparently been installed in advance of the World Expo, to suggest to the world that China takes safety as seriously as the rest of the world. The presumption is that the x-ray machines will be gone as soon as the Expo is done.

The trains themselves are impeccably clean, with video screens showing the news of the day.


The only oddity is that the names of the stations are written in very small print, making it a little tough to figure out which station you have arrived in. They are all identified in both Chinese and English, however.

We got off the subway at Nanjing Road, a pedestrian-only road that is effectively a massive shopping mall.


Modern glass-and-metal skyscrapers stand next to dull Great Leap Forward-era blocks, next to elegant colonial-era buildings.


Most buildings had shopping malls in the first eight floors or so, an astonishing array of consumer bounty. The crowds were heavy but not overwhelming. Our little band of red- and blonde-haired kids, one of whom was in a stroller, attracted a lot of attention from much of the crowd. It was amusing to lag behind our group to watch people coming toward us react at the sight of us.

One end of Nanjing Road feeds into the People's Square, a large park set in the middle of the city, which also neighbors museums and the Municipal Government Building. People's Square is an attractive park with a lake, winding trails, a small carnival that we were advised to avoid for safety reasons, mah-jong players and, beneath it all, a massive subway station.




In the distance, through the haze, we could just make out the iconic Pearl Tower, across the Huangpu River from us:


After enjoying Nanjing Road and People's Park, Kate took the three youngest kids home while Greg, Cheryl, Kelly and I went on to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall. One floor of the Hall was given over to the Expo, extolling the virtues of China's work to put on the Expo, due to open less than a month later. On another floor, there is a massive model of the city of Shanghai itself, or at least as much of it as they could fit in:


We then took a taxi across town to another small but tasty restaurant with the unlike name of Bellagio, where we sampled more traditional Shanghai dumplings, along with some sweet and sour pork I ordered for the purpose of comparing it with American fare. It was surprisingly similar to what you can get here, although even tastier. The bone also stays in the pork, which makes it a bit more work to eat.

After the late lunch, we went across the street to Carrefour, a massive, multi-story grocery/sundries store. I imagine WalMart is the closest approximately to this French store, which covered several storeys and sold all sorts of domestic and imported food items, books, motor scooters, towels, and just about anything else you could imagine.

While we recuperated at home from our adventures, Cheryl went with Kate to a tea emporium, where they sampled teas from a seemingly endless variety.


Cheryl came home with some very attractive tea servers, thanks to the expertise of Kate, our master local shopper.

Our day in Shanghai gave us the foundation for everything we would do for the rest of the week. We learned about the general geography of the city, learned how to use the subway, and figured out a few more things we wanted to do during our trip. It was a perfect day of exploration.