Goodbye
Yesterday was just one of those days. Despite being past the middle of September, the temperature is still around 34 degrees, although yesterday there was the slightest hint of a cool breeze, which made the weather perfect.
Early in the morning we went for a bike ride. We rode towards the edge of the suburbs, to where the villa compounds end and the ‘proper China’ begins. We sat by the edge of fields, each tiny area of land divided by trenches, and each with a ramshackle hut in the middle of it, home to the people working in the fields. We watched those people working, digging and hoeing and picking, continuing as they have been doing presumably for generations. It can’t be long before they are moved on so that their fields can be used for another ‘Peaceful Garden’ compound. One small field also had a chicken run, as ramshackle and makeshift as the homes. We stopped on a bridge over one of the many rivers that run around Shanghai, and watched the two boats moored below. One was a rusting heap, with no use that we could discern, but on it was the usual neat washing line, the only colours to be seen on the orange-brown wreck. As we looked, a woman came out and waved excitedly to us. “Hello!’ she shouted. After 6 months of being stared at, I finally feel brave enough to stand and stare back. Chinese people don’t seem to mind. The other boat had brought sacks of cement; 4 or 5 men were unloading the bags, carrying them on sticks over their shoulders, leaving the boat via a precariously balanced plank and taking the cement 20 yards away, to where it appeared that a house was being built.
As we made our way back home, a butterfly that was the size of a small bird flew right past us. Large butterflies of amazing colours are not unusual here, but this one was particularly big, and the most beautiful bright blue.
We went home and sat in the garden for an hour. Sitting by the pond, listening to the crickets and frogs, so pleasant, so peaceful.
It being Sunday, the best place to go for Sunday lunch is the Brazilian Barbecue in Xiantandi. For 58RMB (a little under £4) they do an all-you-can-eat buffet, a never-ending parade of beef, pork, chicken, even lamb, all brought fresh and sizzling on skewers to be carved at your table. The side tables groan under the weight of bowls of salads, rice, vegetables, spaghetti, pots of soup, spare ribs, pork in different creamy sauces, and then for dessert there are hot barbecued bananas, crème caramel, ice cream, fresh fruit salad, caramelised bananas….
We left Xiantandi and went to the Bund. The Bund is impressive at night, when it is all lit up, but on a glorious day like yesterday, the sun does a different job of lighting everywhere up – even the grimy waters of the Huang Po River danced and sparkled. We went on a boat cruise, past the incredible sky scrapers, past the Oriental Pearl Tower, glittering in the sunlight, past the Jinmao Tower, 88 floors high and so representative of Shanghai in my mind, and down the river, where we watched the coal being unloaded from the huge barges, onto smaller boats and onto the shore, huge clouds of black coal dust being dampened by constants jets of water.
Back along the elevated roads we went, away from the city, bypassing one two-mile traffic jam by using a newly-discovered short cut, saving around 20 minutes. We arrived home, and by now it was 32 degrees, just about bearable for a game of tennis. We played for nearly an hour, not bad going for that heat. I can’t actually remember who won though.
And so this is Shanghai, so this is how life is. I feel like this blog has come to a natural end, it was intended to document a new life in Shanghai and I think it has done that. I wanted to finish it neatly, not least to save people the trouble of looking to see if it has been updated.
I’ve been Shanghaied, as they say.
Early in the morning we went for a bike ride. We rode towards the edge of the suburbs, to where the villa compounds end and the ‘proper China’ begins. We sat by the edge of fields, each tiny area of land divided by trenches, and each with a ramshackle hut in the middle of it, home to the people working in the fields. We watched those people working, digging and hoeing and picking, continuing as they have been doing presumably for generations. It can’t be long before they are moved on so that their fields can be used for another ‘Peaceful Garden’ compound. One small field also had a chicken run, as ramshackle and makeshift as the homes. We stopped on a bridge over one of the many rivers that run around Shanghai, and watched the two boats moored below. One was a rusting heap, with no use that we could discern, but on it was the usual neat washing line, the only colours to be seen on the orange-brown wreck. As we looked, a woman came out and waved excitedly to us. “Hello!’ she shouted. After 6 months of being stared at, I finally feel brave enough to stand and stare back. Chinese people don’t seem to mind. The other boat had brought sacks of cement; 4 or 5 men were unloading the bags, carrying them on sticks over their shoulders, leaving the boat via a precariously balanced plank and taking the cement 20 yards away, to where it appeared that a house was being built.
As we made our way back home, a butterfly that was the size of a small bird flew right past us. Large butterflies of amazing colours are not unusual here, but this one was particularly big, and the most beautiful bright blue.
We went home and sat in the garden for an hour. Sitting by the pond, listening to the crickets and frogs, so pleasant, so peaceful.
It being Sunday, the best place to go for Sunday lunch is the Brazilian Barbecue in Xiantandi. For 58RMB (a little under £4) they do an all-you-can-eat buffet, a never-ending parade of beef, pork, chicken, even lamb, all brought fresh and sizzling on skewers to be carved at your table. The side tables groan under the weight of bowls of salads, rice, vegetables, spaghetti, pots of soup, spare ribs, pork in different creamy sauces, and then for dessert there are hot barbecued bananas, crème caramel, ice cream, fresh fruit salad, caramelised bananas….
We left Xiantandi and went to the Bund. The Bund is impressive at night, when it is all lit up, but on a glorious day like yesterday, the sun does a different job of lighting everywhere up – even the grimy waters of the Huang Po River danced and sparkled. We went on a boat cruise, past the incredible sky scrapers, past the Oriental Pearl Tower, glittering in the sunlight, past the Jinmao Tower, 88 floors high and so representative of Shanghai in my mind, and down the river, where we watched the coal being unloaded from the huge barges, onto smaller boats and onto the shore, huge clouds of black coal dust being dampened by constants jets of water.
Back along the elevated roads we went, away from the city, bypassing one two-mile traffic jam by using a newly-discovered short cut, saving around 20 minutes. We arrived home, and by now it was 32 degrees, just about bearable for a game of tennis. We played for nearly an hour, not bad going for that heat. I can’t actually remember who won though.
And so this is Shanghai, so this is how life is. I feel like this blog has come to a natural end, it was intended to document a new life in Shanghai and I think it has done that. I wanted to finish it neatly, not least to save people the trouble of looking to see if it has been updated.
I’ve been Shanghaied, as they say.
posted by Linda at 5:23 PM
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