Days 28 & 29

Today's posting is about the subways, a quick visit to Pudong, the financial center of Asia, and our class field trip to an old neighborhood of Shanghai.

Shanghai has a very extensive subway system, called the metro, that operates throughout the city.  The system is clean, and the trains run frequently.  Two differences between it and the Metro in Washington are that food and drinks are allowed on the trains, and many of the metro stations have rest rooms.  At rush hour the trains are unbelievably crowded, with people forcing themselves on in extremely crowded positions.  There is no need to hold on because you can't move.

On Wednesday morning, June 22, 2011 our China Phenomenon instructor took our class on a field trip to one of the older communities in Shanghai.  It was built by the Communist government around 1960, and included many apartment buildings, a large and active community center, and large markets.  When the government first built the apartments, they were given to residents.  Now that they have a free market economy, the units sell on the open market.  We started the tour with a trip to the market, which was extremely large.  There were two large makets, one for food, and the other for clothing and the daily necessities.  We visited the food market and I took many photos there.  Many of the vendors specialize in specific items, so I took pictures of many of their shops.  For example, there were vendors specializing in fresh vegetables, fish, poultry(live birds,ducks, etc.) corn, tofu, eggs, soy sauce, frogs, grains, noodles, etc.  After we visited the market, we went to the community center, and it was unbelievably busy, and with a very active program.  There was a large auditorium with school children practicing a play, and rooms for dancing, reading, singing, computer usage, etc.  All were very busy and filled with active retired persons.  When the singers saw our group come, we got up and sang for them.  We sang the Star Spangled Banner.  After we finished visiting the community center, we were treated to lunch in the apartment of one of the residents.  It was a feast.

I also visited the Shanghai Fabric Market, which is a huge building with hundreds of vendors, all trying to sell you a custom made suit.  As you walk through the market, usually young cute women approach you and try to get you in their shop to sell you a suit.  Once in the stall, you need to pick out a fabric, a style, and then negotiate a price.  Prices usually start out at 1,000 to 1,200 RMB, and they usually end up agreeing to a final price of 500 to 600 RMB.  I had two suits made.



Subway station.  Even though photo is fuzzy, you can see thousands of people entering to find their train.



The Pudong area, with its many skyscrapers, and lakeside setting.

A few of the many tall buildings in Pudong

In spite of all the tall buildings in Pudong, this one is planned to be the tallest one in China.



Grain vendor in Food Market

Frogs for sale.  For food, not for pets

Fish vendor selling live and cut up fish

Poultry vendor selling birds, ducks, geese.

Vegetable vendor selling many kinds of corn

Vendor specializing in many types of eggs

Fresh vegetable vendor

Vendor specializing in pork and bacon

Noodle vendor

School children practicing for a play

Singing session in the community center

Our class singing to the group

People dancing for fun, and taking dance lessons

In the living room of the family that hosted our lunch.  On far left is host, and far right is instructor, Deeping Wong

Outside the food maket, looking across the street to the other market.

These were typical apartment buildings.  Six stories with no elevators.



Mary and Jeff.  Mary operates one of the stalls in the fabric market that makes men's suits and women's clothes.  Her husband, and several other tailors, make the suits, while Mary does the selling and fiting. I bought two suits.