Jiuming a!
That’s Mandarin for Help! That’s what our brains are screaming these days as we try to adapt as quickly as possible to life on another planet, well, at least in another universe. I’m joking of course, but in many ways we are at the mercy of our natural instincts for comfort and predictability and what we are getting instead is mind-numbing chaos and sheer sensory overload – but the experience itself is thoroughly enjoyable.
We agreed to treat ourselves the first few nights so we picked the JW Marriott at Tomorrow Square. We started in the lap of luxury knowing that we would be downgrading quickly due to costs and budget - and the first few days in the JW Marriott were indeed blissful. One of the few five-star hotels in Shanghai (at a bargain price!), this tower of decadence is not only incredibly beautiful on the outside but on the inside has every little area of space perfectly manicured and pristine. From fresh bamboo reaching up through concrete two stories high in the lobby, or the delicate sand carvings in the ashtrays, to the elevators which move so silent and swift that you constantly wonder if they are truly moving at all - attention to detail here is magnificent. The room itself was indulgent to say the least, with everything we desired at our fingertips. Over 60 channels of tv, a view that took our breath away at every glance, a bed fit for a prince and princess, sunken tub, a shower with a main head and two additional outlets for ‘massage’, plush robes, slippers, 24 hour internet…we were in heaven. There were four restaurants and with the one being voted Best Cantonese in Shanghai last year. Every morning I enjoyed an extensive buffet that included Japanese sushi, Korean foods, German meats and cheeses, western omelet’s, and an introduction to Chinese food that had me salivating all day (I ate some of the most delicious food and some of it I still don’t know what it was), but I knew it was safe and it was all good-to-great-to-unbelievable. The JW Lounge on the 39th floor provided stellar service and again topped off every glance with a view that seemed as if you were viewing the world from space. Although I didn’t get to the top to enjoy the highest library on earth (located on the 59th floor), this hotel is certainly the most impressive and spectacular I’ve ever had the pleasure of snoring in.
After a few days we had to move to another hotel and selected the East Asia Hotel. Although it’s on the wrong side of the creek, this hotel has been a pleasant, if not tiresome, place to stay for a week or so while we hit the job market and secure our teaching positions. It has some history, established in 1934, it’s a three star with 319 recently renovated rooms and compared to the other three stars at this rate (a grin-producing $35 bucks a night!), we are more than somewhat comfortable here. We pushed the double beds together to make our King bed, there is cable tv and Jenn loves the one English station , and they have a electronic control station from the 50’s that runs the lights and even lights up a Do Not Disturb light outside the room. Chinese chic! The bathroom is small but reasonable and once we figured out how to position all of our luggage and how to recharge our electronics from the two outlets, we are enjoying our stay here. The restaurant is mediocre at best but I did have a wonton soup that was huge and delicious and they have an off the street section that offers pastries and boxed lunches for workers, and although I seriously can not figure out what ¾ of the meals are they must be okay (and cheap!) because they are pretty busy all day. We picked this hotel not just for the price but it’s a ten minute walk to the Bund and the Nanjing Road pedestrian mall.
The street life here can be summed up in one word - chaos. Chaos reigns here in Shanghai with so many people ahead, beside, and behind us we can barely see pavement. Cars, buses, taxis, mopeds, bicycles, rickshaws, and even people with skate wheels on their heels, all come together at various speeds at crosswalks with lots of shoving, pushing, and if it’s raining you can lose an eye from the tip of a careless umbrella (we are considerably taller than the general public now so the tips are directly at eye level) faster than the lights change back to red. It is great fun!! There are really no rules at all and unless there is a friendly Traffic Assistant or policeman at the corner making sure you don’t take that careless first step off the curb and get a cracked femur from a car or cab that cannot see all the way around a blind curve (but will not be slowing down regardless), you just have to look both ways and be brave. Have only seen one moped do an end over end so far but it seems that everybody knows the rules so we are the only folks in danger.
When we are out in the streets, there is a constant barrage of people that see we are white (it's easy to tell the foreigners here) and walk right up to our face and try to sell us watches and purses using a sheet with pictures, "Hey lady, buy watches, handbags, come to our mall, come!" Hundreds of these hustlers everywhere we go, and everywhere somebody is selling something and after learning how to say "No" didn’t work very well, learning how to politely say, "No, thank you" seems to leave them with a smile and then they will erupt with all the English words (Cool, Okay, Obama...) they know but they have never, ever been rude. They are assertive but I have not met anybody who could even be called slightly aggressive. They are unsettling though, but not nearly as much as the beggars with their young children.
Jenn was the first to experience them when she went out one night late to grab some air. It's about 33 degrees outside at night now and very few people are out walking around but from out of nowhere a toddler no older than three, runs up and attaches himself to her left leg like an octopus immobilizing a crab. He anchors himself quickly, then shifts his little butt around so he is sitting on her foot. Now, I used to play this game with my daughters, but unless you’re a playful parent your natural instinct is to simply stop walking in fear of hurting the little guy. This is no tender cherub though. As she looks down and talks to him in English (!), the little street urchin tightens his grip and begins mumbling and pleading for something she doesn’t understand. But as he deftly produces a cup, the cut off bottom of a plastic two liter coke bottle, and holds it’s out with tears in his eyes, it is suddenly apparent that she is in a foreign, and difficult situation. She said it took ten minutes before he gave up.
The next day the same thing happened to me, of course there are more people in need around the nicer areas like Tomorrow Square, and it was all I could do to reach down and gently lift the little mobile ATM machine by the shoulders up, as if to greet him face to face, and he let go and plodded off. But the first little guy melted my heart, and Jenn’s too, so now we keep our pockets full of the spare change - pennies, nickels and dimes to us, and if I have a snack in my backpack I’ll give them that too. The way I feel about it is, I went on this adventure to create a catalyst for personal change in myself and the way I see the world, and if a little spare change will help these destitute children and parents even a little bit, that also helps me - good Karma basically. I have yet to see anyone like the homeless drunks and drug addicts from the states; in fact I haven’t seen a loud raving drugged-out person of any shape, color, or sex yet. Seriously, I’ve only heard one loud Chinese person and he was embarrassingly drunk and left the restaurant fairly quickly. Instead, these are old, some very old folks, mostly mothers, one missing both arms (!), with young children, quietly kneeling on the sidewalk in freezing weather, bowing back and forth in front of a small cup - their lifeline. Dropping in some of my spare change is the least I can do and still feel like I’m doing something.
The weather has been cold, the Bund is in fact spectacular in it's beauty and determination, raising high while holding this dirty city in it's bosom, but the people are sincere, polite, and gentle. Shanghai is so much more than I expected - more noise, more traffic, more construction, more sensory overload second by second - it never stops and only really slows down in the late, dark night. But it's also less than I expected too - less rudeness, less shouting, less anger, less danger, less destruction, and I'm feeling less like a foreigner every day.
That’s some of our first impressions – more to come including our New Year’s Eve, visit to the Shanghai Tea Room and the Yuan Gardens and Street Bizarre in Old Town.
Cheers!
