frauke at large

Left Ningbo on Wednesday morning, via Hangzhou Bay Bridge, to head up to Shanghai for a 48 hour indulgence.

Caught the Maglev (German engineering), which goes at frightening speeds of 430 km/h, from Pudong airport to meet a friend in town for lunch. Spent the rest of the day exploring the area around the Bund which I had previously only briefly visited. Utterly loved the atmosphere of the big container ships going up and down the river Pu, carrying heavy loads of coal, and the smaller ferry type boats going up and down the banks with great big advertising panels on them … pure marketing heaven.

12 hours later I walked the streets of Shanghai some more – I believe I have voiced my love for this city on numerous occasions and will therefore not gratify it any further, however I must document that walking the streets of Shanghai is incredibly satisfying and rewarding. The varying architecture, particularly in the French quarter always amazes me. I especially like the art deco houses and the many little side-streets which lead to small residential areas. I also found a superb little bookstore which sells English books and has a quaint little reading area, which is so inviting that I lost track of time whilst reading a book entirely made up of a list of expats living in Shanghai in the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s. It documents their name, their origin, their address in SH and their occupation – I just let my mind wander and construct little stories about why they might have been in SH, what they were doing, etc. In hindsight I wish I had bought it … but it’s a great excuse to go back and nose around some more.

Took a slightly zig-zaggy route from there down to Taikang Lu to the artist quarter – the small, maze like streets of which are always fun to explore. Took the time to spend a relaxed hour or so people watching and drinking green tea. On my way there I saw a man transporting what must have been a wedding flower display on the back of his bike. I’m always struck at how goods are still transported in China – in other parts of the world you get Interflora to deliver flowers in great big air conditioned vans,. It might look like he was effortlessly pedaling along in the photo, but in reality he was pedaling quite hard to get any momentum going.

I then headed over to Xintiandi for dumplings and lemon tart, after which I found my way back to the bird and cricket market, which I had previously explored with friends. Then stumbled across ‘Shanghai old street’ – a lovely picturesque relict of the remains of the old part of Shanghai. The juxtaposition between the old and the new, the bijoux and flair vs. the modern, sky high and often somewhat brutish architecture is nowhere clearer than in this part of the town. I can only hope that this area will be spared the re-development and that it will be preserved for the future. I personally find it more fascinating to explore than newer areas such as the ones around Nanjing Lu.

 

Feed on comments to this Post