Shanghai, or My Little Corner of the World

8/31/08

Shanghai

A city caught between the traditions of yesterday and the technology, progress and smog of tomorrow. When walking the streets, one must certainly watch their step. Keep your ears perked up as well, because the multitude of vehicles on the street—which frequently and unexpectedly spill over onto the sidewalks—will announce their presence and intentions with a cadence of honks. Different patterns of honks denote different things, such as: passing, turning, overtaking, and a friendly reminder that yes, there is a car bearing down on your puny bike so you’d best be advised to move it! But there is also an encoded system of communication in these honks. Entire dialogues can be played out in a series of honks. For example: One long honk followed by a series of staccato horn taps means, “Hey, haven’t seen you in a while, how are you doing?” The appropriate response is usually three brief horn taps followed by a quick rev of the throttle, otherwise denoting that, “I’m fine but business has been slow and I’m also feeling a bit under the weather…” The dialogue usually concludes by each party peeling out in opposite directions as they wave goodbye to one another. This type of dialogue gets played out pretty often on the street, and there are numerous variations.

If you survive long enough to browse the sidewalk vendors, you feel as if you’re walking through a shopping mall that has been turned outwards. All space is precious, so oftentimes a tiny shop (these are usually no larger than a single room) will overtake a good portion of the sidewalk to display its goods. Along a single stretch of road, you can discover bootleg DVDs, shoes and sandals, knock-off jewelry and watches, grills charring fresh skewers of mysterious meat, fruit stands, massage parlors, beauty salons, and restaurants with outdoor dining. I began to see why the Chinese people might instantly feel at ease in any town in America that has a mall. Despite the language barrier, the Chinese are consumers at heart. This materialistic side of the Chinese is prominently displayed on the streets.

But the city is not all about consumption. Throughout the city of Shanghai, there are neat little parks that are designated as green recreational zones. Citizens can peruse the grounds or kick about the soccer ball on the finely manicured lawns. These green havens are sequestered from the traffic, noise and confusion of the streets by stately stone gates.