Before I left Australia I asked my Chinese newsagent why she left China and she replied, "Too many people, too much pollution, and no freedom." I thought, fair enough, and decided to see for myself.
Then Qantas flew into Phudong airport and I took a train in to Shanghai and boom! OMG, a city on steroids. Twenty-two million people jostle about this sci-fi city and I am agape at the crowds: the sweet young things in tricked-up wardrobes of denim, bows and lace; the elderly, mainly fit and spry, who have seen it all, including Mao's Cultural Revolution; the toddlers, cute as cute can be. One of my favourite phrases already: "Hoong koo-eye" (not the correct spelling, but how you pronounce it) which means "toooooo cute". I always was a sucker for an adorable kid, and China.... well, the country's full of them. Another phrase: "Hoong how" which means "very good". Yesterday, after a one hour body massage to heal my weary bones (OMG, the walking!!!!) I had to tell the massage "teacher" that he wasn't just good, he was "ding ding how" which means THE BEST. He laughed.
Chinese people think I am very funny, and I think they are very sweet. My father would have been in his element here. Coming from an island where European, Chinese and Indian all lived merrily together, each speaking in one tongue, French, the industrious Chinese folk of his town impressed.
And me? After four days so far in China, I'm impressed. Why? you ask. I'll tell you shortly, but let's stick with my newsagent here and discuss the sheer number of the people first.
Shanghai has a lot of people at the best of times; give it a world-first Expo,
and you are talking a city agog with excitement. This is a city on show, and let me tell you, it does itself proud: the streets are apparently always clean, but now it's hard to believe that locals spit everywhere because everywhere you look there are nothing but freshly polished buildings lining spotless streets with immaculate public transport:aaaah, Sydney would kill for trains like these whirling in regularly and on time!Let's talk about personal space for a second: many Europeans are appalled by the lack of it in China, and I've already one or two Caucasians in queues, semi-frozen in distaste, seemingly appalled by the people pushing and shoving to move a queue forward. One British guy admonished a Chinese fellow for standing on his foot: I felt like telling him to get a life and push a bit more himself! In the entrance queues at Expo, one tall Canadian guy, towering over the sea of people, looked like he was going into a fugue. A pal explained that he was having trouble with the pushing and shoving; again, I just wanted to tell the fellow to pull himself together. Honestly, you're in China, pal, and the population runs to billions. What did you expect?
My cousin and I went to Expo which was a brave move considering the show allows up to 700,000 visitors a day and the daily quota is always met; however, the entrance queue only took 40 minutes and we were pleasantly surprised. We had our umbrellas for the sun, just like everyone else [weather has been amazingly fab, by the way: sunny and clear] and jostled and shoved through the pig pens with the best of them. I was careful not to wear perfume after Jenny informed me that they find Westerners' penchant for CK and Gaultier off-putting. Luckily, I haven't smelled any body odour yet. On the contrary, I wish I was as slim, fit and strong as the majority of the population. I guess years of hard work, low wages, fresh food and plenty of walking has its benefits!
You know what? We could learn a lot from the Chinese. No wonder there's an international best seller at the moment, "When China rules the World". When you see what they achieve.... you realise it's quite possible.
The truth is, we only lasted about 4 hours at Expo. It just got too
much; queues as long as three hours to get into popular pavilions (China, US, Germany, France, Taiwan, Japan) and one to two hours for the rest.... eeek. We popped into the joint Africa pavilion which was full of wood carvings, traditional huts and the beat of the drum, and enjoyed the coolness and vibe, and managed to get into Chile's pavilion without too much of a fuss... which blew me away. A fellow Vietnamese sightseer had told us it was "cool" and he was right - it was poetic, interactive, creative, fascinating. They had recreated four floors of a high-rise where you could see the family life inside and as you watched you couldn't help thinking that we may all look different, but our needs are the same.... babies crying for attention, mouths to feed, a living to make, housework to complete, birthday milestones to celebrate, sick people to tend.... life is pretty straightforward really, so make it magica! if you can!Also in the Chile pavilion was this amazing touch phone map of Chile where you just touch a part and someone in that part of Chile appears and, by touching, you can pull in photos from their photo album and learn about their way of life. It was a fantastic way to learn about a country and made me want to get on the next plane to South America.
But after that one truly exciting experience, as the midday sun broiled, we soon lost the energy for queuing under our umbrellas and ducked into a Japanese restaurant overlooking one of the squares and rested. Later, we jumped on a ferry and left the sprawling Expo site, leaving the Chinese folk to visit the countries of the world the only way most of them ever will.
All seven million of Shanghai's permanent residents got free tickets to Expo; they also got a free train travel pass for the family for a month. This was the administration's way of saying thank you to the people for putting up with construction work for years. Since 2005, for example, the subway system has quadrupled in metreage, going from three railway lines to 10! When all the Expo visitors leave, the citizens of this massive city with its art-deco-meets-sci-fi cityscape, will have many urban upgrades to enjoy.
Bye for now, gotta go, have left Shanghai and currently enjoying the more pastoral beauty of a lakeside city, Hangzhou. Until next time...
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