Summer Travel Journal entry 1
05/05 Shanghai
All these years of going back to China via Shanghai and I think this was the first time when the cloud cover was thin enough to see the coastline coming in. I've never seen the Mississippi from air but wow does the brackish flood plains near the mouth of the Yangtze give it a run for muddiness. The mud was especially shocking after seeing the waters near Hong Kong while lifting off after the layover. Beaches and postcard blue. But I guess machines for filter are gonna be at the ready near Shanghai. The most noticeable landmark coming down to Pudong was the huge golf course under construction. I think there might have been an artificial lake complete with trucked in sandy beaches nearby as well.
I remember something Jan Wong wrote, about how having ramped cutaways into the sidewalk curbs was her indicator of civlization and progress. Well, they have them in Shanghai now. Not sure about smaller towns such as Jintan. I guess I'll find out in three or four days. I don't know if I'm more attentive this year compared to previous visits, or this is the direct result of economic growth, technology transfer and an aging population, but I'm seeing a lot more people in wheelchairs this time around. At the China pavilion they had special entrances and admission rates for people in wheelchairs, the elderly, and caregivers pushing strollers. There as also a separate "accessible" washroom at the airport. Quotation marks because even though it was separate and had hand rails, the doorway was way to narrow for most motorized wheelchairs. The hospital-type pushcarts would fit. Actually, almost all of the wheelchairs I've seen have been the manual push ones. Something something filial piety something porous Confucian values something state capitalism.
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All these years of going back to China via Shanghai and I think this was the first time when the cloud cover was thin enough to see the coastline coming in. I've never seen the Mississippi from air but wow does the brackish flood plains near the mouth of the Yangtze give it a run for muddiness. The mud was especially shocking after seeing the waters near Hong Kong while lifting off after the layover. Beaches and postcard blue. But I guess machines for filter are gonna be at the ready near Shanghai. The most noticeable landmark coming down to Pudong was the huge golf course under construction. I think there might have been an artificial lake complete with trucked in sandy beaches nearby as well.
I remember something Jan Wong wrote, about how having ramped cutaways into the sidewalk curbs was her indicator of civlization and progress. Well, they have them in Shanghai now. Not sure about smaller towns such as Jintan. I guess I'll find out in three or four days. I don't know if I'm more attentive this year compared to previous visits, or this is the direct result of economic growth, technology transfer and an aging population, but I'm seeing a lot more people in wheelchairs this time around. At the China pavilion they had special entrances and admission rates for people in wheelchairs, the elderly, and caregivers pushing strollers. There as also a separate "accessible" washroom at the airport. Quotation marks because even though it was separate and had hand rails, the doorway was way to narrow for most motorized wheelchairs. The hospital-type pushcarts would fit. Actually, almost all of the wheelchairs I've seen have been the manual push ones. Something something filial piety something porous Confucian values something state capitalism.
[
at Dreamwidth | comment with OpenID]