Dancing in the Streets
On Saturday I took a river boat down the Huangpu River to where it runs into the Yangtze River near the ocean. When they told me it was a three-hour tour I hesitated, but scanning the few people on the boat I didn't see anyone that even reminded me of the Skipper or Gilligan - so I got onboard. The Huangpu River near Shanghai is so industrialized and busy it is just like being on one of Shanghai's busiest streets. The ship drivers, I think they call them captains, drive just like the drivers on the streets do - with abandon. But when they are weaving back and forth, turning around in the middle of the river, and tailgating in 10,000 ton ships it's even scarier than the streets. And they were honking at each other just like the cars do - constantly. I saw several ships that had cargo stacked so high that there was no way the captain could see where he was going.
When we got to the Yangtze it was so wide I couldn't see the other side. There was a huge parking lot of ships waiting their turn to enter the Huangpu to go to Shanghai.
The Huangpu is so dirty and polluted it stinks. For three hours it smelled like I was stuck in a rancid latrine. I was feeling a little sick by the time we got back to Shanghai. The air wasn't any better. It was so smoggy you could only see the outlines of the skyscrapers on the opposite bank. The factories had been closed for several days for the holidays so on Saturday I guess they really cranked them up because what had been blue sky during the holidays turned gray, grimy and foul smelling on the weekend.
To top off the mood on the way from the dock to the bus station I had a nasty surprise. I was walking along in a daze looking at the sidewalk in front of me when I spotted a movement a couple of feet in front of me. It was a rat! Before I consciously even knew what it was my primal brain had me doing a jig on the streets of downtown Shanghai. It was weird - I was dancing before I knew what was going on. If you've read "Blink" you know what caused this auto response even before my conscious brain had time to compute. It was apparently impressive to the rat too because he watched me with some admiration I believe - judging by the look on his very large face. When the show was over he did his own jig up a hole in the building.
On Saturday I took a river boat down the Huangpu River to where it runs into the Yangtze River near the ocean. When they told me it was a three-hour tour I hesitated, but scanning the few people on the boat I didn't see anyone that even reminded me of the Skipper or Gilligan - so I got onboard. The Huangpu River near Shanghai is so industrialized and busy it is just like being on one of Shanghai's busiest streets. The ship drivers, I think they call them captains, drive just like the drivers on the streets do - with abandon. But when they are weaving back and forth, turning around in the middle of the river, and tailgating in 10,000 ton ships it's even scarier than the streets. And they were honking at each other just like the cars do - constantly. I saw several ships that had cargo stacked so high that there was no way the captain could see where he was going.
When we got to the Yangtze it was so wide I couldn't see the other side. There was a huge parking lot of ships waiting their turn to enter the Huangpu to go to Shanghai.
The Huangpu is so dirty and polluted it stinks. For three hours it smelled like I was stuck in a rancid latrine. I was feeling a little sick by the time we got back to Shanghai. The air wasn't any better. It was so smoggy you could only see the outlines of the skyscrapers on the opposite bank. The factories had been closed for several days for the holidays so on Saturday I guess they really cranked them up because what had been blue sky during the holidays turned gray, grimy and foul smelling on the weekend.
To top off the mood on the way from the dock to the bus station I had a nasty surprise. I was walking along in a daze looking at the sidewalk in front of me when I spotted a movement a couple of feet in front of me. It was a rat! Before I consciously even knew what it was my primal brain had me doing a jig on the streets of downtown Shanghai. It was weird - I was dancing before I knew what was going on. If you've read "Blink" you know what caused this auto response even before my conscious brain had time to compute. It was apparently impressive to the rat too because he watched me with some admiration I believe - judging by the look on his very large face. When the show was over he did his own jig up a hole in the building.
posted by Kevcham at 6:54 AM
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