Thanksgiving Refuge

My employer gives me Thanksgiving Day off - a rarity in China where most Chinese have never heard of the holiday and even most American-owned businesses treat the US holiday as just another work day in the Far East. In all of Shanghai I'm probably one of only a few hundred lucky Americans that had the day off. Given this, I thought I'd get out and about to see some of the normally very crowded attractions. To my chagrin, they were still crowded. The Carrefour supermarket was just as crowded as on the weekends. The Bund was crowded, as was HuaiHai Road - Shanghai's shopping street. Where are all these people coming from?, I thought to myself. Why aren't they at work - and out of my way? Why are they hogging in on my holiday?

The only time of day or week that one can get some relief from the crowds is very early on a weekend day - say 6 am on Saturday or Sunday. Chinese, like Americans, like to sleep in a bit on weekends and these early morning hours are the only time one can walk the streets in relative silence. At 6 am I can even walk across the broad street in front of our housing compond without having to dash to avoid kamikaze taxi drivers and buses. Don't try this at 8 am.

By mid afternoon I retreated to my home and stayed there. It's the only place I could find to have a quiet holiday.