上海，第一天

Well I made it to Shanghai. China's New York, Paris, London, Istanbul, and Tokyo all rolled into one, smog-filled package, complete with history (both modern and ancient), food (Chicken McNuggets and live chickens in the street), buildings (Shanty's and the Pearl Orient - that giant, tacky, weird alien looking thing you see on all the pictures of Shanghai), transportation (bicycles and Ferraris), and people (Chinese and Foreigners). If there is any place that I think captures the confusion and contradictions that Modern China seems to possess, it's Shanghai, in all it's gold-and-soot-encrusted glory.

Chessin and I arrived yesterday afternoon, and are staying in a hostel near the People's Square (which, ironically, is neither square-shaped, or catered specifically to normal people - unless normal is incredibly beautiful and wealthy). Our parents are arriving on Sunday afternoon (tomorrow), and we'll then take them to Suzhou, Nanjing, and back to Shanghai. Yesterday and today we've just been exploring the city - it's my first time but Chessin's been here before; he's the "expert."

The "expert," as I think he would appreciate me calling him, took us today on a walk to the Bund, the area on the river near the Pearl Orient and where all the Europeans used to live and work - a very historic district.

"Shouldn't we go left?" I said.

"You're an idiot." He smartly retorted.

And so, seven hours later, we arrived at the bund. And you think I'm kidding. We actually walked around for seven hours. The Bund was cool, but actually the most fun was where we walked - through a bunch of markets, residential areas, and, basically, the Sarah Palin "real" Shanghai. It was sweet. Chickens, ducks, eels, frogs, turtles, all live, of course - It's funny, I saw a dead duck and was like "what the hell?" Only to realize you've been in china for far too long when you're surprised by the sight of already slaughtered poultry. We had an amazing lunch at this little hole-in-the-wall where we could choose the veggies and meats we wanted from a plethora of laid out choices, and they wok fried it right there and served it on rice. People were selling everything a modern, real Chinese person might need - shoelaces, grains, counterfeit (illegal) porn, DVDs, pajamas, and everything in between. Also, it's funny that Shanghai, so full to the brim with foreigners in the ritzy, Starbucks-laden sections, has areas where when foreigners like Chessin and myself walk down the street we're still met with calls of "hallo!" and gawking stares. Another thing about Shanghai (and China in general) I've noticed is that construction sites aren't really separated from people. Chessin and I ended up sort of in the boonies on our long walk, and they were doing massive construction, but there was no temporary sidewalk constructed, so we had to simply walk through open ditches, and on newly laid asphalt.

Anyways, I just blew my nose and found black soot in the tissue when I was done. Needless to say, the air here is not great. We're about to go to dinner; hopefully it'll top last night's Vietnamese food, which was great. As we walked in, they asked us if we wanted smoking or non-smoking, and Chessin said he almost cried. This is the first time there has been a non-smoking section in a restaurant since I've been here. A downside to this westernization was that Shanghai is also on "real money" - meaning dinner at a nice restaurant didn't cost the normal $10 for two people, it cost $30. All right, I should go out and get some food, although my legs are tired from walking. I'll leave you with this thought, which I will clarify later - I'm not sure whether Shanghai is a diamond-encrusted mud pie, or a mud encrusted diamond. (deep right? I'm not sure how original it is...) - there are arguments in both directions, and after I spend time here I shall expound philosophically which I think it is...

再见

zai jian!