Ron and Amy
Go To China

 

Day 13

More Shanghai
It was Sunday and Marty's day off. He wanted to take it easy and get together around two. Amy was all good with that but I was restless, as usual, so I took another one of my now legendary hikes. This time I went out in search of Suzhou Creek. How novel, how incongruous, I thought to myself, to have a creek running right through a giant city like Shanghai, with over 13 million people - almost twice as many people as New York City! I have never heard of an American city with a creek in it - either it's a full-blown river with a lot of historical significance or they just pave right over it. I must see this magnificent creek for myself.
Suzhou Creek
more photos
I had to make a stop at Mister Donut first. It was the only place in town that they didn't mind me pounding my fists on the counter and screaming, "Gimme some American Coffee, dammit!!!" After a few donuts, I followed the map until I knew I wasn't in Zhongshan Park anymore. The clean modern high rises were gone except for the ones I could over the rooftops of the old crumbling buildings that lined the creek. It was like a mad scientist had transplanted the village of Xingping into the middle of the city of the future. There was a man who was pounding out woks with a hammer on the side of the road. Another was selling half eel half catfish creatures squirming around in a red plastic tub. There were many things there that I did not understand. Of course I was late getting back to the hotel.


Nanjing Donglu

More neon!
We met up with Marty and Lei for lunch. Then we took a bus to an area of town that had many art galleries and open artist's studios. We saw a lot of good work and wandered around till dark. From there, we took a taxi to Nanjing Donglu, which is a gigantic neon extravaganza - look out Las Vegas! I read somewhere that the Yangtze Dam will generate as much power as eleven nuclear plants. What they don't say is that they need it just to keep this one street lit up. It went on so many blocks they had little trains to cart you around if you were tired of walking. Once you've seen all the neon you can walk several more blocks to the riverfront, which is called the Bund. I could tell you why it's called the Bund but it's not very interesting, really.
What is exciting is the Oriental Pearl Tower - proof that aliens have landed on this planet. The first time I saw a photo of it years ago, I knew I wanted to go to Shanghai. Just goes to show you what a science fiction nerd I am at heart. It's even better to see in person because it has tracer lights spinning all around it and it's constantly changing colors. Dude! It will melt your brain! Seriously, dude!
The whole Pudong skyline is pretty darn amazing. Maybe they could have come up with a better name than Pudong, but anyways... even the passing boats have little lights shows. So the buildings on the Bund side of the river are all left over from the European imperalists that used to occupy the city before Mao and his crew kicked them out (actually that may be completely factually incorrect but it sounds good to me right now). The other side - the Pudong side - is where all the Bladerunner sci-fi buildings are.
When we were dazzled enough, we went down underground to the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. The book poo-pooed this tourist attraction, but it sounded just goofy enough to be cool. It's this small all-glass subway car, the perfect size for four people, and you ride through all these flashing lights and special effects. There's one section where you're out in space, another where you're underwater with all these exotic fish, then it's like that tripped-out scene at the end of 2001: A Space Odyessey and then it's like the boat ride scene in the original Willy Wonka movie, where the one girl screams, "What is this, Some kind of a freak out!?!?!"
Then they let you out and you're in Pudong!
We went up some stairs and we we're like practically right under the Oriental Pearl Tower! Awesome!
Then we had some Japanese food and went home.


The Oriental Pearl

The Bund and Pudong
   
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