frauke at large

More news about my time in Shanghai

My whole trip started off on wednesday at Frankfurt Airport. A new and exciting adventure into the, for me, unknown. I had no idea of what to expect other than what I had seen and heard about China but, as always, you never really know it until you have been there and done it yourself.

7th Feb. Chinese New Year – the year of the rat

After very little sleep on the plane and in a bid to overcome yet lag we headed to the hotel, checked in and took to wandering the streets of Shanghai. The images of ‘Lost in translation’ spring to mind. Plenty of smiling, friendly faces, yet unfortunately no way of communicating with them other than smiling back. See, and here’s the funny thing: you would very rarely take to smiling at anybody back in Europe – here, you see another westerner and all of a sudden they take a great interest in smiling back at you – I reckon it’s a secret code for: ‘yes, I am thinking what you are thinking’.

Walked west along Nanjing Road towards the Huangpu river. My first taste of China – and it was great. Not at all what I had expected, but then, as Darryn rightfully pointed out: Shanghai is not China – I guess in the same way that New York is not really the US. There was an air of calm about the whole place. People were celebrating Chinese New Year, carrying fruit baskets to their friends and families …. saw this saxophone player on the balcony of a shopping centre entertaining the crowds.

Also saw some dragon dancing on the second day – outside the restaurant where we were having lunch.

Sorry for the blurry picture, but you get the gist. It was really quite cool.

8th Feb. 2008

Walked through Shanghai some more, this time to see the old part of the city. Saw some great little bars and restaurants to which I would love to come back to in the summer. The place must be buzzing then.

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