2/11/09, Shanghai Art Museum/50 Moganshan Art Complex/Lu Xun Monument/Night on The Bund

Wow oh wow, this is it, the last day of my grand tour. Here's my route for the day:
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Before I forget again, two things I forgot to write about yesterday. 1, regarding the CCTV fire, don't say I didn't tell you so. When this blog eventually gets written up in the NY Times, I want "prophetic" to be the key descriptive word. The great thing is that they even have terrifying Cartoon PSAs about fireworks here, as if the problem is not just that people are lighting up fireworks in densely populated areas without the slightest hint of caution.

2, yesterday, at the Hangzhou train station, just as the train was about to arrive at the station, a little kid next to me gestured to his mom that he had to go to the bathroom. The anxious mom looked all around, and finally fixed on a potted plant in the corner. She brought the kid over to the plant, pulled his pants down, and let him do his things. Me and the other people in the waiting room laughed and exchanged "that's China" glances. Pretty awesome.

I woke up in the double digits today (so sue me, it's the last day of my vacation), had a few crab meat meatballs for breakfast (a famous shanghai snack)and headed over to the Shanghai Art Museum, which was right by my hotel. The building is beautiful, but the art was not so hot. One exhibit was by a painter named Wu Guanzhong. His oils are pretty disposable (knockoff cezannes), but his inks were not bad, combining the Zen ink tradition with abstract expressionism in a way that reveals a certain age to what we think of as recent, and illuminating how we construct an image. There was also an exhibit by a former culture minister who's retired to cut Chinese seals, and despite my new found interest in Chinese seals, it got to a point where I just wasn't up to checking out another seal commemorating the "reform and opening" policy.

Pretty bummed (and surprisingly, feeling decaffeinated - I think that tea yesterday, weak as I might have thought it was, gave me a big buzz), I went to Starbucks to plan the rest of my day. I figured out that it wouldn't be as much of a schlep to go to one of the contemporary art districts as I thought, so I headed over. 50 Moganshan is a huge place, just a big concentration of contemporary art, dozens of galleries filling an old factory and lining the streets around it. The art, as it does anywhere good, varied. Some of it was great, a lot of it was just ok, and some of it was just plain awful. A lot of Chinese artists fall into an old Chinese artist trap, producing political kitsch and art they think Westerners want to see or will buy, "Chinese art". One gallery was even titled after a quote from Confucius, "what a joy it is to welcome strangers from afar!" Indeed, I actually kept running into a couple from DUMBO - small world. It was nice, however, to see some good contemporary art. Being here has helped me to figure out things I enjoy and things I don't enjoy, and seeing new art is something I definitely enjoy.

After that, I headed over to Lu Xun Park, to see Lu Xun's tomb. Lu Xun is widely considered the founder of modern Chinese literature. The park was really nice. For once, I didn't feel like I was entering a national monument; I was just walking in a nice park where people went to relax. Unlike most of Shanghai, this park felt more Chinese, and lacked foreigners. It was nice to see the Chinese doing their thing. One thing I've noticed: I rarely see a solitary Chinese person. They always seem to be doing things with other people, whether arguing or playing Chinese chess or Badminton. Lu Xun's tomb was very simple, very nice. If I become a good enough writer that people care about me, I want to be buried in a nice-smelling park where people are playing games and talking and sitting. Incidentally, a story idea came to me today, or the beginnings of one, and that's always a good, hopeful feeling.

I then dragged myself, half-starved, over to what was billed by the guide book as a food road. It wasn't particularly, and I decided at random to sit in a restaurant where I saw a lot of people. Dinner today was a real wild card: I just had the waitress pick my dishes. I got two dishes, which was way more than I needed, but swallowed them down anyway. One was a pretty mediocre glass noodle, beef and mushroom broth, but the other one, beef with snow peas and potatoes in some sort of sauce, was killer. I really bolted them down. After that, on a whim, I went into a convenience store and indulged in the simple freedom of buying a half liter of Qingdao and drinking it as I walked to the Bund to take some night time pictures. Because, after all, here in Shanghai, not only am I of age, but there apparently (according to the shop keeper) is no brown bag law. Nice.

Incidentally, while the Chinese don't really give a damn about alcohol, what they do care about is pornography. A sign in my hotel (along with vaguely warning me to use the internet respectfully - eek) warns strongly against bringing pornography in, and on a street where you can clearly see prostitutes plying their trade, you won't ever see even a scrap of a nudie mag. Odd country, where you can get crunk on the street but can't enjoy a gentleman's magazine in the comfort of your own hotel room.

The Pudong and Bund are lovely at night, and I only realized today I didn't walk the whole length of the Bund. A photo vendor in Huangpu Park inexplicably played a Conway Twitty song - strange. The Chinese, also, hustle like crazy. I am constantly mobbed in Shanghai by people selling trinkets, photos, rolexes, girls, drugs, whatever. Today, as I was walking, a particularly aggressive hawker followed me down the street for a block, asking, "Boy want DVD? Boy want watch? Boy want T-shirt?" After I said no to each offer, exasperated, she asked, "What does boy want?", as if there was something wrong with me for not wanting anything. I had a laugh at that one.

So this is it, the end of my travelling for now. Tomorrow I fly into Kunming. It's been quite an experience, to say the least. Overall, top sights:
1. Taishan
2. Great Wall
3. Summer Palace
4. Suzhou
5. Beihai Park
Cities visited, from fave to least fave:
1. Shanghai
2. Suzhou
3. Hangzhou
4. Tai'an
5. Beijing
6. Chengde

Overall, it's cost me (excluding air fare, which I didn't pay for) around a thousand bucks. China is not a dream cheap world, though you can certainly do it for cheaper than I did. If I had a lot of money, I probably would live the same as I do now, but I'd travel a hell of a lot more. For me, it's worth it. I love to travel more than anything.

It's been a heck of an experience. Although during the middle of the trip, I had sort of a freak out about the stupidity and foolishness of the trip, I have to say, although I keep saying I'd do it differently if I had to do it again, the way I did it went pretty well. Actually, only one thing didn't work out according to plan: I didn't get to visit Qufu, which is regrettable. I saw some stuff and had some experiences that I probably wouldn't have if I had done things differently, and I feel like I really did get to know myself better. I'm generally kind of a solitary guy, but that's one thing and this is another. I've gotten to really analyze who I am and what I want and what makes me happy, and what I need to get along.

Damn, I'm talking about this trip as if it's already done. It still hasn't sunk in that I'm due to spend another four months here. Already, I miss my family (go figure) and my friends and America in general. Eh, I'll be back soon enough. I'll try to post tomorrow when I get in with my initial impressions of Kunming. In general, expect the postings to slow, since I'll be actually studying. I'll probably post once a week or so, general wrapups, or when something significant happens. Once I get my laptop, I'll post all the pictures I've been taking.

While climbing Taishan, I realized that, in a way, the Taoist quest for immortality represented by climbing Taishan is somewhat similar to this trip. Tao immortals do not find some secret potion to become immortal; they simply realize that life has no limits, and therefore they cannot die. This trip, also, has served to show me that my life has fewer limits than I thought, that I'm more capable than I thought. And while I'm not immortal (not by far), I'm certainly a lot more durable now than when I started.

Till tomorrow.