The View from the Radisson

A couple of the pictures that I took this morning from the window of my hotel room. (And you thought road construction was chaotic in the U.S....)



...And a word about the signs of affluence in Shanghai. In Beijing, this street corner would be nothing but old bicycles. Here, though, scooters are really common. The rows of second-hand bikes have virtually disappeared from the city.




It's raining right now in Shanghai. [One of the consequences of studying a foreign language is that now I'm critical of everything in English, too: what, exactly, is the "it" that is raining?] I'm on the nineteenth floor of the Radisson SAS in Shanghai, and it really is a beautiful view, if a little smoggy. I spent the better part of the day wandering the streets trying to find a power adapter for my laptop (unsuccessfully), and I just got back in. I feel a little strange, because in a lot of ways I feel like I never really left China. Everything feels so familiar to me, like I've been here thousands of times. I'll admit, though, that Shanghai seems a little tamer than Beijing did. Beijing seemed like it was constantly in a state of flux and didn't know what to do about it. Shanghai is more like it's in a flux, it knows it, and now it's time to settle back with a beer and put its feet up and enjoy the ride. Taxi drivers are friendly and cooperative, the streets are (relatively) clean, and nobody really gawks when I walk by. They stare, sure, but at least they have the common courtesy to pretend that they aren't staring. I'm not nearly the rarity here that I was in Beijing.

Which on the one hand is a great thing, because I'm finding it a little more comfortable of a city for a long-term stay than I think Beijing would have been. On the other hand, though, I'm finding it was the little things that annoyed me most that burned Beijing into my memory the way it did. It was kind of amusing to feel like a walking tourist attraction, and the availability of western conveniences here makes it feel just a little less like China and a little more like everywhere else.

Of course, ask me after I've moved into the (a/c-free) dorms tomorrow, and I may have a very different opinion....