One random Sunday afternoon, Mariana and I decided go to the Bund (the riverside with famous view of Pudong, Shanghai’s financial centre). If you google images of Shanghai on the internet this is the photograph that will pop out hundred times too many. I was curious to see it with my own eyes but as it is with most of things we were urged to be impressed by, they end up failing our unearthly expectations. Don’t take me wrong. It was impressive in its own way. However, the insignificant little streets of this sparkling concrete jungle seemed to lure me by their lucid secrets more successfully.
One of the first things that startled me was the amount of people who decided to enjoy this afternoon in the same manner as us.... and curious lack of tourists. Of course there were tourists mingling here and there finding their way through the crowd but in terms of math the number was negligible.
The second thing... taking into account this was one of the most visited tourist attractions in the city, one would expect the staring wouldn’t be such an issue. I don’t even think I have ever made such utterly wrong assumption in my entire life. It does not matter where in China you are... if you are not Chinese you will receive fair amount of inappropriate staring ( I was said that in Shanghai it is not bad at all... that puts going out to other less known places in rather harsh perspective).
That little attention I received was uncomfortable, though it was nothing comparing to what Mariana had to face... Chinese people were incredibly tactless in regard to black people. I understand that in many cases that was the first black person they have ever seen... but it was the lack of consideration or tact that shocked me. Some people did not even try to be inconspicuous... not even a little!
That was the first time (at least for me) we were asked to take a picture with someone... To me it was quite incomprehensible... to take a picture with a random stranger... what do they do with them? Show them to their friends? Put them in a photo album? The worst thing was that most of the time people were nice about it, they asked politely and many times it was difficult to say no. Do not assume it were only young people who did so... actually, it could have been anyone... any age or gender or style... It was difficult... especially when it was family with little children... Chinese children are the cutest things in the world! Simply adorable! (Not that all the other children of all the other nationalities would not be cute... but there is something about Chinese kids that makes them even more so... or maybe I am just not used to seeing them so often, oh well.. whatever)
Completely another matter was people who were trying to get a clear snap shot of us without asking... that simply pissed me off every single time! That was very rude!
In any case, there were days I would not mind at all and I took it as a little personal tax for my life in China... something that was there whenever I left my apartment... but many times I would cease to notice... some days I could walk through streets in a cloud of liberating negligence. I created my personal map of life within this city... with places and faces I crossed and saw each and every day... and familiarity gave my space to breath, an opportunity of not being an outsider ALL the time.
Well, then there were days it would drive me nuts! Days, when I just could not bear it, not for a moment... On those days, Mariana would have to listen to me criticising everything from the shape of the sidewalk, through insane driving, the way people talked, walked, drove... lived... and I would go on and on because I needed to let it all out... all that harsh feelings that were not even true (They were a bucket of collected raindrops which, at some point, was bind to spill and flaw right through me...) It was better to let it go in harmless unnoticed wave of irrational overstated criticism than have a random stranger suffer a blow from my bad day frustration... so, Mariana would listen to me, I would listen to her... thus, together, we were saving Chinese strangers from possible traumatic experiences followed by phobia of foreigners.
Though, I must say we met some really nice time to time even peculiar people who unintentionally created stories for us... stories we once might tell when a random event reminds us of that summer in Shanghai...
I suggested that one of these days we should just come up to random Chinese person and ask them to take a picture with us :D ... I would like to see the expression on their faces....
***
At the beginning, I mentioned that the view of Pudong was not all that impressive as I formerly expected... well, we returned at night, when all the lights were sparkling away their magic over the city... it was beautiful, however, still not as breathtaking as I hoped for... Until...
Forget about the view of Pudong from the bund! If you ever have a chance to visit Shanghai, choose a night and get carried away... lose yourself in space... cross the river and see Pudong not from the distance but from the ground. When I got off the taxi and gazed up for the first time, I was stunned! There was the emotion I was looking for! All you have seen in sci-fi movies... all that you have formed in your imagination as a vision of future... Well, there it was... in front of me, behind me, next to me, above me!
The lights were floating around and falling... sparkling and glittering away in synchronised mischief... outlining daring visions of architecture like tight black cocktail dress outline woman’s body. And there I was, little insignificant human being... but all that greatness did not intimidate me, because that greatness was a result of human mind... and I happen to own one of these myself... I got it for free the day I was born... :D
