Shanghai, China
September 10, 2007
Ni hao
The trip is nearing an end and I've found myself in what is probably
the city of the future - Shanghai. 
The best way to describe it is take New York City, add a few cups of chopped up Las Vegas, throw in a pinch of Vancouver and a dusting of San Francisco and wok fry the whole concoction with a heavy dose of spicy Chinese peppers. The architecture is fantastic here. They've taken the skyscraper and created a whole new urban art form, breaking free of conventional straight lines and corners. And they've taken the traditional skyline one step further and have learned to make it work as visual entertainment at night by covering buildings with the most spectacular lights. 
Fifty story buildings appear to pulsate and move to the city beat and in the end, creates a city that literally feels like it never sleeps. For a city that has 22 million inhabitants (and growing), it does fairly well, with cleaner than average streets and orderly foot traffic. There are signs of a very different culture however; people sneeze openly without covering their mouths, spitting on sidewalks is very common and personal space and orderly line formation do not exist. But that's their culture so you learn to live with it!
The trip reached its zenith yesterday with a marathon 12 hour tour that left even me exhausted. Note that the picture below says it all. I needed a break so I gave in and had a good old cup of Seattle's best brew!
Somewhere in there, we had a free day, and we visited the site of the tallest building in the world and had lunch in the tallest hotel in the world next door. The lobby of the hotel began at the 56th floor and it soared up to the 85th floor! When you looked up, you actually got dizzy. It looked like the scene out of The Empire Strikes Back where Darth Vader intoned: "Luke, I am your father! NOOOOOOOOOO!"
Later, as we drove around town, I caught a glimpse of this sign that was advertising a new kind of nightclub. I wonder if this was something that would fly here in the US? Not a place if you're waiting for a hot cup of coffee from a waiter or waitress, eh?Our last day we visited a small river town that was described as the Venice of China.
It was China of decades ago. The town begged to be photographed in sepia tones so I flipped a switch on the camera and this is what I got. By the way, the town had it's own gondoliers, just like the ones in Venice but instead of men, the gondoliers here were women. And each one had their own song which they serenaded boat guests with!Except for lunch
where we were served spicy shrimp, heads, legs and all (they were so small that to eat them you had to pop the whole shrimps in your mouth, heads and all, and use your teeth to bite off the heads and remove the shells), it was a great way to end the trip. By the way, I passed on the shrimp. Surprised?China is a great place to visit; we'll all certainly get a look next year when images will be beamed into our households as we watch the Summer Olympics. But try and visit in person. If you can overlook the spitting, sneezing and crazy crowds, you'll see some of the most spectacular sights in your life and experience a trip unlike any other.
Xie xie,
Jackie Chan
and The Jasons
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