Shanghaied ... and loving it!(2)
Yet, I saw another type of transportation. A man had a bicycle with the back part made into a three-foot square cart. Into this he placed a small stool on which his wife sat holding their baby. He then unchained his bicycle/cart from a lamppost and peddled away.
Another futuristic method of transportation was the Maglev train, which runs very smoothly at 267 mph elevated above the tracks on magnetic and electric current. The train runs from outside the city to the airport.
I saw another type of transportation while our bus was taking us to the train. There was a fruit and vegetable vendor on a bicycle. He had a large box of fruit on his front wheel and very large boxes of vegetables on each side of the back wheel and a five-foot tree sticking up between the boxes in the back.
As we approached the train station, we saw very small old homes newly painted white, scattered in mud flats on either side of the road. Yes, this area definitely was a rice paddy not so long ago.
We took a wonderful tour to the Yuyang Gardens, the restored 15th century home of a wealthy family. The old Chinese architecture and thoughtfully laid out gardens symbolizing mountains, rivers and lakes was very impressive, especially when you could look up and see skyscrapers looming above you.
Before we arrived in Shanghai, the city had 20 consecutive days of rain. Today was clear and sunny. People had to dry their laundry and they did that wherever they could to achieve this. Some of the new high rises had blankets hanging from their balconies.
The old section of Shanghai was more inventive. Long, slender flag pole-like staffs protruded from under window ledges for at least 10 feet. Ropes were tied between trees and lamp posts to serve as clothes lines. Clothing was even hung on the electric wires spanning some alleys. These people were certainly resourceful.
The inventiveness of the Shanghai people was also evident in a 60-foot barge that traveled the river near our ship. It had a 40-foot electric billboard advertising products in both English and Chinese. The slogan in English on the front of the barge was, Clean City, Better City.
There was no need to Shanghai us to come to Shanghai. We had to see this city that reinvented itself 20 years ago with a 21st century collection of Oriental and Western architecture.
Our next stop is Vietnam. We can't wait to see the changes there.
