2/8/09, French Concession/Pudong

Today's post should be relatively short because it wasn't the busiest day. My uncle's father-in-law, who does some business in China, happened to be in Shanghai today, so I joined him for lunch and dinner, which was very pleasant and relaxing. Here's my route for today:
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I've been waking up later since I've gotten to Shanghai, mostly because my days here are less packed, and also just because I'm more at ease in this city. I only managed to get out of my hotel room today at 10 AM, and I walked over and hopped a quick train to get to the French Concession. The French Concession is simply a lovely area, half New Orleans old world charm, half 5th Avenue capitalist clout. It is in this neighborhood, ironically, that the Chinese Communist Party held their first national congress. The shock of going from the jewelry stores and bistros of the French Concession to the cradle of the largest communist party left in the world is quite palatable. The museum is small, rather new, and patrolled by an aggressive cadre (perhaps a literal cadre) of security guards who wouldn't even let me photograph Marxist, Cultural Revolution sounding declarations that "The Communist Party of China is the ultimate culmination of historical progress in China". It's quite a contrast between the capitalism and cosmopolitanism of the new Shanghai and the communist jargon of the museum, and between a corpratist party that controls a billion people, and seeing the start of the party, thirteen delegates in a room that's smaller than my bedroom. The historical distortions are interesting, notably, a diorama represents Mao as being central to the first congress, when he only became a predominant leader of the movement after the Long March.

After that, I walked a few blocks over to the chief residence of Sun Yatsen. It struck me what another time he lived in, how completely different China was eighty years ago compared to now. I wonder how things would have turned out had Sun Yatsen lived longer, whether he would have lost the relatively sainted status he has now, or whether his pragmatism would have made him another Gandhi. In any case, I got a good history buff rush looking at the old documents and memorbilia, and then returned to modernity with a cappuchino that cost more than my meal did last night.

I then joined my uncle's father-in-law for lunch and then dinner at his hotelm the St. Regis, in the Pudong business district. I took a few hours in between to walk around the Pudong, walking to the Huangpu river and then along it for a few yards. The St. Regis is a lovely hotel, and it was quite a contrast considering that just a week ago, I was riding hard seat to Chengde. It's amazing to me that such disparities in wealth and luxury can exist in the same country. The Pudong is quite an interesting place. It was nothing but marshy farmland until about fifteen years ago, and now it is packed with some of the tallest buildings in the world. My uncle's father-in-law started doing business here in 1981; I can't even begin to imagine what it was like. It's also a question whether China, a country that has pegged its future on continued growth that is now faced with a global recession, can keep it up. My uncle's father-in-law and his colleagues couldn't help but notice the decline in business at their hotel. It's going to be interesting to see how things develop.

Talking over my experiences with my uncle's father-in-law and his colleagues, I realized what an adventure I've been having. I've experienced some remarkable stuff, and while I might do it differently next time, I'm glad I did do it the way I did it, because I certainly got to see and experience things I wouldn't have otherwise. Of course, it's easy to say that now, in comfort, in Shanghai; on the bus back from Chengde, all I wanted was to go home.

This internet cafe, btw, is quite an interesting place. China's youth spend hours at smoky, shady places like these, with hundreds of computers, playing games and watching movies. It's really something. Also, the walk here is fun. It's on East Nanjing Road, which by day is a pretty nice pedestrian mall, but by night is the shadiest piece of real estate I've ever been on. I've been solicited by pimps and prostitutes and offered drugs more times in ten minutes here than I ever have in New York. Pretty wild.

Shoot, I'm talking about this trip as if it's over, but I've still got four days left, and then I go to Kunming for three months. I've got a ticket tomorrow for Suzhou, sold to me by the most rapid ticket clerk I've ever seen. I'll tell you how it goes. Till tomorrow.