Day One in Shanghai

We got a Taxi from the airport (always say no to the people that ask you if you need a taxi, look for an official taxi with a meter and signage) and started the drive from the Pudong airport to East Nanjing Rd. As Katie chatted with the driver I looked through the windows. Skyscrapers towered through the haze like the trees of a steel jungle. Cars, most of them taxis, pulsed down the highway like schools of piranha, weaving around each other and jockeying to get ahead even the slightest bit. After about an hour we made it to our hotel where we checked in, dropped off our stuff, and hit the streets of Shanghai.

I remember people, scooters, and more people. I remember laundry hung over the sidewalks dripping water on my head. I remember lights, LCD signs, and the smell of street vendors steaming dumplings and frying eggs. I was in China. I had read books, seen documentaries, and talked with friends, but nothing can give you a complete picture until you have seen the grandmas gossip in front of shops filled with bike parts or two lovers walk close with entwined arms. Chairman Mao referred to the vast populace as “The Paper Dragon of China” and in Shanghai I saw the dragon's bowels.

That night we walked to the Bund. Once a great row of international ports its now a walkway where young people smoke and hawkers sell toys and tiny carvings. We looked across the river and saw the giant Oriental Pearl TV building lit up like a bulbous Eiffel Tower. We got noodles and an Ice drink, then walked back to the East Asia hotel where I fell into a windowless coma.