My First Full Day In Shanghai
Trip Start
Unknown
1
9
Trip End
Ongoing
Shanghai,
Shanghai,
China
Saturday, June 27, 2009
About 7-8 blocks away was the neighborhood market, which was unlike any that I had ever experienced. Everything was fresh (& organic?) from the unknown vegetables to the pig's legs to the crabs, and live eels. It was a little gruesome to watch the grocer butcher an eel, kill it by cutting off it's head, and then skin and degut it. Pretty messy, but I'm sure that I will soon see worse. No one spoke English, so I just smiled and said, "Ni Hao (nee how)," (hello) to everyone. Some smiled back and others just got that stonefaced look..
After lunch, we all went to the museum, which was large and confusing in its maze-like structure, but informative. My grandson, aged 4, said after awhile that he was "Tired, hungy, and bored." To tell the truth, his Daddy and I both felt a little the same way. When we started home, the sun was starting to break out, so we took a taxi home. Along the way, we passed modern department stores and darkened, somewhat forbidding narrow streets. Those were the ones that I was eager to see, as they are a part of "real" China.
It occurred to me that all of the sights that have fascinated me would have seemed commonplace and rundown in America. The slummiest of all places back home couldn't compare to what I've seen here in Shanghai. That's part of the charm.
Comments
This is interesting
Thanks so much for telling me about this site. It's a wonderful find. I'm going to tell all my relatives.
Sounds like you're having a wonderful trip. I particularly liked what you said in the last paragraph, that some of the places that interested you the most would have just been just seemed common place and run down in the US but has charm there.