A day in Shanghai
Refreshed .. Daylight travel and night time sleeping is logical … Why do we usually do it the other way round?
Breakfast .. The Hotel Narada maintains its exemplary standards … Penguin number one tries everything she has not tried before.. Penguin number two ignores all prior advice from his cardiac advisers… Look out the window … Exposed to a Crescent of Modern high rises in the middle ground contrasting with a single dilapidated old and crumbling ten story something or other in the foreground … The contrast of Modern China….
The phone rings .. The tour guide has arrived .. Bright in nature …. Bright by her English name … A frustrated opera singer .. A Chinese sense of personal space … I dream of singing on the stage at the Sydney Opera House .. What do you want to see? … Fuxing Park … The French concession … The bird and pet market ... We want to try Shanghai dumplings … A taxi is summonsed.
Fuxing Park .. Penguin number one has her iPad at the ready…community singers are videoed …tai chi exponents have their privacy violated ... Not a problem… They are so engrossed they don’t seem to notice .. The kite flyers seduce the camera but soon lose its attention to the top spinners … More singers ... A dance class … Why aren’t Daryl and Laurene here – they would have accepted the invitation to join in ... stroll some more .. Bright decides to give us an impromptu performance of Chinese opera ... She again enters the penguin’s personal space to sing some Chinese opera … the other park patrons oblivious … Enjoy … Enjoy
Walk in a back Street of the French concession ... The area dominated by bicycles and electric scooters ... So busy ... So … quiet ... Amazing ... So quiet ... This is how silent you can make a metropolis…
Tiazafang … Cutesy .. A pretty tourist trap .. Great art in the art stadium…coffee produced by vendors more skilled in the extraction of funds from tourists than in the trade of the barista … Penguin number one stops to indulge the grand children… Pretty pop up cards are added to the luggage inventory
Shanghai dumplings … My memory told me they were to die for ... My memory had not failed me ... We participate at a franchise store in the subway ... Not the street vendor experience of the previous visit. … The dumplings just as good but the cleanliness of the surroundings vastly superior ... the shop girls wear impressive transparent face shields ... perhaps our sandwich shops should note the innovation.
The BIRD and Pet market…. Crickets ... Crickets ... Crickets ... Pretty crickets ... fighting crickets … crickets of various sizes ...crickets of various colours … A favourite pet of the space restricted inner city inhabitants of Shanghai …They are exposed to the penguins camera flashes ... The vendors demonstrate the fighting prowess of their particular crickets and offer potential customers a full compliment of cricket keeping accessories from feeding stations to fighting bowls ... Onwards … tiny fish … Small kittens … Small dogs ... Finches … Birds and more birds ... Walnut carved as bracelets and necklaces ... Watch you yourself… You will be drenched from the overflow of the bird cage ablation ... Don’t step in that hole ... Watch out … The lady with the cart is coming through … she is stopping for no one… Fascinating ... Only saw two other tourists … This is a fantastic place to visit
Say goodbye to Bright… She will collect us tomorrow morning ... Hotel…
Penguin number two gives penguin number one a shoulder massage … Nana nap..
Refreshed ... A stroll around the city …. Wander past multitudes of old Chinese Street stall vendors squatting ... Waiting for interest in their wares … kick myself … what an idiot ... what a complete idiot … there has never been any reason to admire the Chinese ability to squat for hours with knees fully bent and backsides close to the ground … why have you not made the toilet training connection … You are not a penguin … You are a goose!
Into People’s Square ... Alas the match market does not operate during the week … the result is that Penguin number one misses the spectacle and that numbers of Chinese parents are forced to wait a little longer to market the marital potential of their offspring to other parents.
On to the excesses of Nanging Road … Chinese tourists from the regions wander this huge pedestrian mail ... This is the China they aspire to … The wealthy of Shanghai wander in and out of ridiculously priced shops and stores ... They emerge with bags full and with wallets that in spite of the battering at the hands of the store owners still bulge sufficiently for them to venture onward to the next stop on their shopping itinerary … The Korean and the Taiwanese visitors seem to dominate the international contingent ... Europeans are few and far between .. Perhaps the summer holiday season is yet to encourage their travels?... The roller skating girls selling the latest Chinese toy fad buzz around the tourists … enough of this…glitzy at night but a little obscene for the penguins during the day!
Back on the metro to Shanghai Circus World.. The penguins are now experienced metro travellers …
The circus … As we leave we hear an Australian voice in the crowd… She says to her husband… How could you tell anyone about that at home ... They already think we exaggerate … they would just think we had gone completely over the top …The husband says ... I agree ... Just don’t tell them! :.. the penguins smile to themselves.
The penguins had treated themselves to front row seats ... the show stunning … slick … each act builds and builds … Penguin number one can be heard…good grief.. Good grief ... No … No ... She isn’t going to do that is she … wow … wow… The juggler toys with an oversized porcelain garden urn as if it were a golf ball ... Tossed High into the air...it is caught on the back of his neck … his shoulders return it to the air… it’s drops ... His head catches it … it teeters on its rim supported only by his head… The strength ... The balance ...wow….
Two male gymnasts … One lies stretched on his stomach ... The other places his hands on the back of his partners ankles and proceeds to a hand stand … That is impressive.. Oh no … His partner bends his legs …raises him up ... The force on his partners knees tendons astounding … The structural engineer inherent in penguin number two estimates the force to be equivalent to 400 kilogrammes … how can the human body sustain that … Ok that is pretty impressive ... Oh no says penguin number one … The formally prostrate gymnast now raises himself to his own handstand with his partner still hand standing on his ankles … Penguin number two thinks that enough is enough and relegates the thought processes of the structural engineer to his deep sub conscious … what he has just seen is just not possible.
More and more amazing things ... More and more wows ... Intermission.
More and more amazing things … high wire romantic dances with lengths of silk for wire … the partners swinging high about the crowd… More and more amazing things … the finale…a 10 metre diameter mesh globe moves on stage … motor bikes appear…head lights blazing.. A door opens in the globe … one of the bike enters … round and around like an electron orbiting an atom … Amazing … Amazing … oh no … another bike enters … round and round they go ... Two electrons in different orbits ... Oh no ... oh no ... More and more bikes enter until there are seven ... each adopts a different orbit … each in perfect synch to cross and recross … the sight … the sound … fantastic…..
Towards home … elated ... fantastic says penguin number one…
In the train … young Chinese male is yet to appreciate how close he came to death in his commute home ... he rises from his seat in the crowded train to offer penguin number two his seat … Not penguin number one but penguin number two … his offer is firmly declined ... He resumes his seat … penguin number two fumes … He thinks to himself…. You little expletive deleted …. What in the world made you think you needed to give me your seat … expletive deleted … Another expletive deleted … you have shattered me you little expletive deleted … how am I ever going to convince myself that I am still a youngster in the prime of life … You little expletive deleted you are probably thinking how kind you are having offered your seat to that old man … Forget it son you are just a little expletive deleted … Just in time the change station is approached and Penguin number two’s mind is refocused to transit navigation … the scar imposed by this misguided but well intentioned youth remain to haunt his victim!
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