A Day out in Shanghai

We decided to go downtown Saturday to have lunch at a vegetarian restaurant on the Nanjing Street pedestrian street. As the cab climbed onto the gaojia, or overhead expressway, we were shocked by the view of the city before us. The skyscrapers were like trees in a foggy swamp. The pollution was as bad as I've ever seen it. One could barely make out the outline of 30-story buildings just half-mile away. We sat in stunned silence for the 30-minute trip to People's Park.

The government here tries to pass this heavy smog off as fog and mist. That may be true at times but not mid-day on a cold and dry day in December. This was nothing other than overwhelming air pollution. When I lived in LA I thought I knew what smog was but there's no comparison. And it's no coincidence that the members of the family are all suffering from respiratory problems. It looks like another trip to the doctor on Monday.

Once we arrived at the pedestrian street we made our way to its other end, much like pinballs crash their way through the obstacles on the pinball machine. Bouncing off of a mass of pedestrians going every which way, trying to avoid miniature trains that ram their way through the dense crowd, and counterfeit watch and bag salesmen and women. By the time we reached the 8th floor restaurant our nerves were frayed.

The staff at the restaurant looked oddly sullen. The waitresses were sleeping at a table and the owner seemed unusually despondent. We asked what was wrong and she told us this was their last day of business. When asked why, she was reluctant to explain and seemed on the verge of tears. Something about the government wanting the building for something else she mumbled.

We stopped at Coldstone Creamery for a pick-me-up and G-man pointed out hair in the buckets of ice cream to the clerk - whereupon the clerk plucked the hair out without removing any of the surrounding ice cream. On the way back home we enjoyed the company of the third rude taxi driver of the day. All three of them refused to speak to us and mumbled what didn't sound like compliments in Shanghainese. Maybe they were just complaining about the smog.

Meanwhile, for an unknown reason, China has decided to block the online New York Times. As James Fallows points out here this accomplishes little other than to annoy expats and signal that the country is not yet ready to join the big leagues.

We are taking a break to Australia next week and sorely looking forward to it.