Shanghai Streets

 This week I have been wandering the streets around where my sister lives. There is honestly never a dull moment and one's head needs to be on a pivot, not just to see everything, but to avoid pitfalls.

On Monday I found the Shanghai National Museum but it was closed. En route I accidentally walked through a municipal rubbish collection depot due to the fact that there was a very large highway across my route which was not marked on my map. Going underneath it seemed a logical thing to do (at the time) and behold! rubbish depot! Scenic route?

As the museum was closed I detoured through a park; the parks around here are very attractive and laid out for maximum use and volumes of people. Not a bit like western parks, but you can understand why there are so many huge paved areas when you see the number of people using the facilities. There are also public toilets everywhere which makes staying out for hours much easier.

After the park I decided to walk along Fuzhou Road to the Bund; I could see the direction I needed to go, I could see the start of Fuzhou Rd, but there was an enormous 3/4/5 lane highway crossroads with cars, busses, scooters, bicycles whizzing past between me and there with NO zebra crossings. What to do?

I spotted a Metro station and decided to see whether I could use it as an underpass, going in one exit and out another entrance, luckily I memorised the Chinese character for 'exit'. Well, I managed! And managed to dodge the Metro queue too! Hey presto Fuzhou Road!

It was a good 20 min walk and very interesting as the road changed character as I went along, high end shops, businesses, offices, kiosks, bicycle and scooter stands, narrow pavements, then swish hotels, wide pavements, older grander buildings, and suddenly there was the Huangpu River and the iconic shoreline buildings:

It was amazing to be there, on the Bund. One of those timeless moments when past and present drift together. I know nothing is exactly as it would have been in the 1920s but just to think that members of our family would have known those old buildings too. 

The breeze off the river was bitterly cold and there were local tourists everywhere gleefully taking photos and family groups, obviously I was not the only one enjoying being there.

Afterwards I decided to take a more direct route home and ended up at the Yu Bazaar, streets full of food and souvenir kiosks and hundreds of people. It was so interesting.

There are old gardens and temples around the back but I actually did not realise where I was until my sister looked at the photos, and anyway I was having far too much fun watching people and sticking my head into kiosks and looking at the food on offer. 

Eventually I came to the end of the bazaar and took a side road across to my goal, through a building site, round the back of some old houses, past a temple and some Buddhist nuns, out onto a main road and so home.

Today I went to call at Dr Sun Yat-Sen's former residence. Visiting such places is always rather a time and mind warping experience I find; such historic movers and shakers of the modern world resided and went about their daily lives, Dr Sun Yat-Se, Zhou En-lai, the First National Congress Meeting Place, the First Union of Machinery Workers; these people had a profound effect on history.

Afterwards I walked through streets broad and narrow loopity looping through old parts of the area, and new.

There was one intersection where I was hard put not to laugh out loud:

There was a double decker road and intersection with a gathering crowd of pedestrians waiting for the little green man. By the time he turned green, besides the pedestrians, I counted 11 scooters and a few bicycles who had hoiked themselves onto the pavement behind us to all cross the intersection via the zebra crossing... but before we could all cross I counted 22 sooters who came roaring out from the left to take advantage of the other red lights and pass in front of us!

As I said, head on a pivot.

I'm not entirely sure who has right of way at any point but I do know that bicycles and scooters use the pavements, and cars can turn right (i think) at red lights. I reckon the safest place at any given point is in the middle of a group of Chinese people- copy them exactly!

And then home watching the city light up;

Interesting times!