Sometimes, when walking through the seemingly endless crowds on Nanjing Dong Lu, you realize that someday, probably before most of us die, the entire world will be like this — overcrowded, noisy, bathed in neon with an oft contentious mix of East and West. I’m not sure if this will be a positive development or not, but I think it is certainly coming.
Travelling to Shanghai for the National Day holiday was perhaps not the smartest move I’ve ever made. It is crowded beyond belief here, as millions of people from the countryside come into the city to spend their time off among all the amenities modern China can offer. The subway is nearly unmanageable, and to control the flow of people a number of changes have been made to the otherwise predictable flow of pedestrian and motor traffic (which basically renders maps useless, and things no longer work quite like the map suggests they do).
For instance, my hostel is at the western end of Fuzhou Lu, just a stone’s throw from the Bund and with a rather magnificent view of the Pudong skyline from the 6th floor bar. It is a one-way road heading away from the Bund, meaning that in normal conditions one could simply get a taxi up a parallel road and then cut over to Fuzhou Lu. But now, to accommodate the tremendous foot traffic around the Bund, the cross streets (as well as a number of the parallel streets) have been closed to motor traffic. The closest we can get by taxi in People’s Square, nearly two kilometres from the Bund. To make matters even more interesting, after a certain time (the time has yet to be exactly determined), they close the closest subway station (Henan Zhong Lu) so the train runs directly from People’s Square to Liujiazui on the other side of the Huang Pu river, meaning that again the closest we can get is People’s Square by any means other than foot. It makes for quite a long walk on a stomach full of heavy Western food.
The food has, without a doubt, been the saving grace of the trip so far. You don’t realize what a franchise really means until you experience a familiar taste in a starkly unfamiliar place. The Subway sandwich I ate today for lunch may well have been the finest sandwich ever constructed by man (were my taste buds polled for comment).
My father’s old dental practice was on Nanjing Dong Lu… in Taipei.
Left by Dave on October 1st, 2003
You gonna brave pizza hut again? More power to you if you do, but I for one, would rather eat Big Macs for years on end than the Hut’s “salad bar” once.
Left by Jordan on October 1st, 2003
Dave, it seems the Chinese are not very imaginative with their street names. It seems like either they’re named after cities, provinces or famous people, and when they run out they just repeat. I swear every city on the mainland has a Renmin Guangchang (some bigger than others), a Nanjing Lu, etc.
Jordan, I’ve thought about it, and now they actually offer a personal pan pizza style lunch for one, which is tempting as it is only RMB35 or so and even the smallest, cheapest pizza is RMB55. For now, though, I don’t have any plans… unless perhaps Russell or any other coworkers decide to come after all, in which case a bit of real pizza would probably hit the spot (after hitting up the Taco Bell restaraunt, which is a funny story for another post).
Left by John on October 1st, 2003
Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd. Main Street. 5th Avenue. The streets of Washington DC
That list was in defense of Chinese lack of imagination.
Left by David on October 2nd, 2003