At the beginning of December, I flew to India for a few weeks of work and travels. My trip kicked off with an extended layover in Shanghai, during which I had enough time to leave the airport and explore the city for an evening. The entire city felt like a set from Bladerunner, crowded and lit up futuristic city scenes…or maybe I was just delirious from riding the 430km-per-hour Maglev train from the airport into the city center.
(And yes, it did actually reach 430km. Woooohooooo, why can’t all public transit be so efficient?!)
The famous Bund, a waterfront area in the middle of Shanghai. There’s a lot history tied up in this area. It was mostly all wasted on me, who was — again — delirious from bright lights and flashing signs.
Outlined boats cruising the river.
Directly across from the futuristic skyscrapers of the Bund are these gorgeous giant buildings with a very different architectural feel. They were especially beautiful lit up for the night.
In the morning, my internal clock was still confused by several time zones worth of travel…so I was wide awake at 5am. Plenty of time to walk back down towards the Bund and encounter unexpected groups of very active seniors choreographing sword fights.
Also playing “hit the tasseled ball in sequence.”
Sunrise over the Bund was beautiful.
Note the kites visible in the sky. Old men on the Bund were happily flying these kites, somehow without running into each other or tangling their lines.
Also spotted — many sweets shops featuring what appeared to be an endless variety of sweets. Absolutely none of the packaging was in English, so the contents of these sweets remains a mystery to me…
My favorite part of Shanghai was this umbrella situation. At first, I just noticed these lines of umbrellas on the ground. As I got closer, I saw that there were posters attached to the umbrellas, which were each attended by at least one person. I thought it might be a memorial, since I could read some of the details — the numbers mainly. “In loving memory of our son, 170cm, born 9/12/1985” etc. On reflection, I thought it might actually be too weird to have the height on a memorial piece.
And it turns out this is the Shanghai version of SPEED DATING…not just parent-approve, but actively parent-driven. Moms and dads lined up with these umbrellas, where they posted details about their unmarried children — things like height, birthdate, profession, etc.
And after a one day excursion to Shanghai, I set my sights on the main destination…Delhi. To be continued!
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