As I flew into Shanghai Saturday afternoon I looked out the airplane window and below me was just mud brown. I spent maybe five minutes straining my eyes trying desperately to discern what I was looking at. I finally located what appeared to be a boat and I realized that the brown much below me was the ocean! So needless to say, my first impression of China was a bit... muddy.
At first the sheer amount of people in Shanghai was amazing to me, no matter where it was that I turned I was constantly being touched, pushed, shoved, talked to, talked over, or someone was trying to sell me something; but I can assure you that quickly got old! Some other dangers of the sidewalk besides the volume of people were the motorcycles, the are driven on the sidewalk so you constantly have to be aware and wary of speeding cyclists, yikes! Going back to the antiquities of China, occasionally they still toss their dirty water and garbage out their apartment windows, so you are constantly on the lookout for a trash bath, the air conditioners and buildings themselves drip dirty water on top of your head (or in your mouth if you are as unlucky as I was). The children don't wear diapers and have slits in their clothes so whenever they have to use the restroom them just squat in the gutters, or are hoisted over the nearest flower bed by their parents. So the gutter is pretty much out of the question for walking in. The busses (as with Korea) are the largest vehicles in the road so they take the continual liberty of turning any time they want, which causes the cars to respond and you frequently end up with cars driving the wrong way on the road which causes untold car jams and the honking is a incessant. So in recap, there is nowhere safe to walk, you must constantly be on the lookout for pickpockets, questionable market deals, trash baths, motorcyclists, poop, and motorized vehicles. YIKES!
Alex and I searched in futile for a bar where we could meet some locals and try some Chinese liquor but there wasn't really anything that we found so we opted to be satisfied with eating. Food in China is a bit of an adventure as they eat EVERY part of the animal not to mention a myriad of bizarre things like chicken feet and toads. Ew. Thankfully we met some really really nice people, who we didn't understand but who were understanding as we did our foreigner charades act.
The World Expo was a bit of a let down, it was like going back to my 6th grade World Fair at Helen M. Knight Elementary were we all made 3 fold board posters detailing a different country and wandered about the school trying some food and exploring out classmates hard work, except that this expo was with buidlings instead of 3 fold posterboard (Thank you Alex for that excellent depiction). We waited in line for Egypt for roughly 30 minutes to get inside and realize that there was not a whole lot inside, less than a handful of statues from early Egyptian history and a really cool white ribbon. Totally NOT worth my 30 minute wait. Ah well, you don't know this unless you embark on the journey first do you??
Anyway, I felt as though China would have been better if I had gone with some friends who speak Chinese or are Chinese because then I would have been exposed to more of the cultural and lifestyle aspects of the Chinese as opposed to the tourist. One thing is certain, I will NOT be going back to China without a Chinese person, and something that is less sure is whether I will actually ever make it back to China. There are so many exciting places out in the world to return somewhere that was not very fulfilling just seems silly; but perhaps that was a first time world travelers traveling blunder and China is where i'll settle. Whatever the case may be, i'm pretty dang pleased to be back in Korea.
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