Xujiahui - From Jesuits to Jewelry Stores

On Saturday I explored the Xujiahui area of Shanghai. A hundred and more years ago this was the largest site of Western influence in China. This is where the Jesuits set up operations in China in 1848 when the land was given to them by one of their early converts, the scientist and scholar Xu Guangqi. Xu was buried in what is now Xujiahui in 1641 and his tomb is there today, surrounded by skyscrapers. In the 1800s and early 1900s a church, seminaries an observatory, library, schools and orphanages were constructed in this area. Much of it is gone – but the church and a few other buildings can still be found hidden among other, more modern buildings.

The church is still being restored from the ravages of the Cultural Revolution of the early 1970s when it was turned into a food warehouse and all the stained glass broken and ruined. Many of the windows now have new stained glass windows. The church now operates under the Catholic Church of China – which does not recognize the Vatican.

Today, Xujiahui is the shopping mecca of Shanghai. Huge shopping complexes command the main intersection and more and more of the historical buildings are being replaced by monuments of commercialism. After a vegetarian buffet nearby I ended my walk at Jiaotong University – founded in 1896.

On Sunday I explored the lilongs of the old French Concession near Shaoxing Road and Shanxi South Road in Shanghai. The lilongs were apartments and villas built from 1915 to the 1930s and are quiet neighborhoods that are easily missed if you don’t wander through the gates and take the shortcuts from one street or malu (literally horse road) to another. Most of these neighborhoods are built on a fishbone pattern, with a main thoroughfare with lanes leading off the main spine. These areas are fast disappearing in Shanghai but they are some of the best places to see what life in Shanghai is all about.

Also no Shuffling About

Meeting on Zhapu Bridge

My Yahoo Weather Widget said it was going to rain today so I went for a five-hour walk in the sunshine. I guess I also forgot that sunshine causes sunburn so I didn't wear a hat or use sunblock. I wonder how many years I have to live before I remember to do that. I can almost be forgiven because we don't have many sunny days in Shanghai - the sky usually has that rubbed-out grey hue caused by diffused sunshine bouncing off chemicals suspended in the atmosphere.

On my walk north of downtown today I ran into a friendly 50ish fellow that asked me where I was from as he dismounted his bike on the Zhapu Bridge. "America," I said. "Oh, America very good!", he responded. "Japan very bad." Then he proceeded to whip out a pair of scissors and a piece of paper and cut out my silhouette. I've been here, done this, I thought to myself. "Please", I said. "I don't want to buy anything." He looked at me then smiled and said there was no charge. I had met this same fellow three years ago on a business trip to Shanghai - before I moved here. We had had the exact same conversation then. America good, Japan bad. But back then I was naive enough to feel obligated to pay him for the cut-out. One thing Shanghai has taught me is to push back.

The funny thing is, the silhouette he did of me was exactly like it was in 2005. I wonder if he puts huge noses on all the foreigners?

Former British Consulate on the Bund

Behind the Bund

My Yahoo Widget said it wasn't going to rain today so we went downtown for lunch and a walkabout. And it rained. But before it rained we had lunch at a very good Chinese vegetarian restaurant on Nanjing Street pedestrian mall. It's on the 8th floor of a hotel that's easy to overlook. Why is it that hidden restaurants always seem to be the best?

After stuffing ourselves with roasted peppers, kongpao "chicken", and fried vegetable rice we looked for a Lawsons convenience store where G-man reports finding some melonbread that he likes. I had recently gone into a Lawsons and, having gotten the name wrong, asked for "mango bread". The clerk said he'd never heard of mango bread.

We didn't find the Lawsons so S and G took off for home. I was going to take a self-guided walking tour from a book on Shanghai Walks but soon after I set out from the esplanade on the Bund it started sprinkling. To further complicate my walk the historical bridge I was supposed to take over Suzhou Creek was in the process of being dismantled. I took a detour that led me beside the old British Consulate that has been closed for many years. The British had located their consulate at the confluence of Suzhou Creek and the Huangpu River in the mid-1800s. Now a huge Peninsula Hotel is being built next to the consulate's remains.

I followed South Suzhou Street around the bend to where the former British Rowing Club had been located. Now the space is occupied by a police station and the only remnant of the old building is one arched doorway. Across the street are the dilapidated remains of Shanghai's first Protestant church - the British Church. Turning left I went south on Yuanmingyuan Street and took some photos of the old Chinese Baptist Book building, the YMCA and the back of the old British consulate. It was a little difficult to see the buildings for all the tour buses parked all over the street and sidewalks. Chinese tour groups park their buses here and walk around to the Bund.



It started to rain at this point so I hopped in a taxi and will continue the walkabout another day.

Today's China Daily

Hello Kitty Car on Streets of Shanghai

Cartoon Police are Cute Reminders of Gov't Surveillance

Yesterday I noticed a webpage on Sina.com where Chinese were being asked to sign an online petition protesting the West's "inaccurate" portrayal of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese government control of their homeland. The petition also linked to a comment site where people could express their opinions on what China is calling the "Tibet event" and Western media coverage of it. The comments were universally critical of the Western media and the Tibetans, especially the Dalai Lama and his "splittist clique". Many of the comments were extreme, even racist. Germans were frequently referred to in posts as Nazis.

While I know that Han Chinese in China are overwhelmingly in support of the continued occupation of Tibet and Xinjiang (the former East Turkistan) I thought it was possible that a few Chinese would have differing opinions. When I saw no such opinions expressed on the website I entered my own comments in Chinese that suggested that China's state-controlled media wasn't giving the whole story to residents of China. Within a few minutes my comment had been erased from the website. I tried it again, and again my comment was removed within minutes by the Internet police. Also, each time I entered a comment two cute little cartoon police marched onto my computer screen and warned me to obey their Internet laws and refrain from posting or reading comments harmful to social unity. Sometimes the cartoon police (the characters are called Jingjing and Chacha because jingcha is the Chinese word for police) walked onto my screen, other times they drove out in police cars or motorcycles.

Thus it is, in todays China the state controls everything that is said or posted on the Internet. Opinions contrary to the government's policies are not allowed to appear or are quickly removed. Websites purporting to represent the voice of the people are shams. The question is, do Chinese citizens know this? Do they realize that their government doesn't trust them to think for themselves? Do they care that their choices of information are limited?

It's hard to know because people here have to be very careful in what they say - if it isn't in agreement with state policy. Last week a dissident named Hu Jia who had posted commentary online that was critical of the Communist Party was sentenced to several years in jail. If I were Chinese I would be very hesitant to risk jail-time for expressing my thoughts. I doubt if the police that came to Hu Jia's apartment were quite as cute as Jingjing or Chacha.

Nanjing's Zhonghua South Gate

Zhejiang and Jiangsu Compared

I travelled to Hangzhou and Nanjing on business this week, going by train all the way. The new express trains are very nice but it can be difficult for foreigners to tell the difference between a regular slow train and the express trains when buying tickets. The express trains are called "D" trains. The regular trains are known as "T" trains. On the first leg of the trip to Hangzhou I inadvertently bought a ticket on the old, slower train. No matter which one you get on you can count on fights over seats. It seems impossible for passengers to actually sit in the seats that are assigned to them so people invariably get into arguments with those they find sitting in their assigned seats. The arguments usually consist of a few insults and then a rapid cool down as one party backs down. During one such confrontation on the train to Hangzhou I thought how such verbal insults would lead to blows in West Peavine. But verbal insults are so common in China people don't react as strongly as I would expect.

As I travel more often between Zhejiang (Hangzhou) and Jiangsu (Nanjing) Provinces I've begun to notice a difference between the neighboring provinces. The people of Jiangsu tend to be more cultured and hospitable than their neighbors to the south. Zhejiang is prosperous but the culture is more commercial and aggressive. While Hangzhou's West Lake lends the city a scenic beauty, the history of Nanjing, it's preserved city walls, ancient houses and museums make it a more interesting city. Other differences between Zhejiang and Jiangsu are revealed in statistics: Zhejiang people smoke more, spend more time on the Internet, and invest in real estate more than Jiangsu people do.