it's SHANGHAI WEEK: Tuesday

In complete contrast to the dizzying world of New Shanghai, the Jade Temple was the first stop for Tuesday. On the way there, was a post nuclear landscape of rubble (and there are MANY piles of rubble in and Shanghai as they clear out old for new) but the temple itself has been there forever. In the days of the Cultural Revolution it was simply closed. But this is the Old China that seems to have more character than the New - and far less in the way of LED lights. Now that Mao's crazed clean out of brain power and religion (a la Stalin) is over, there's plenty customers coming through to exercise their need for Buddha's enlightenment - and that is a good thing.

A banjo playing Buddha!

There were plenty beggars outside - and on the inside there was a bit of a sales job - the temple sales raise funds for it's mission - a school for kids.

This lady paints landscapes with the palm of her hand and a fingernail

Many Buddhas including a Jade buddha, the "fifth buddha" and I wasn't allowed to take a pic :(

I like the roof work :)

Putting coins on here grants wishes, so I put 1 Yuan on it.

less palatial housing in this part of town.

Back to Pudong!

The building with the handle on top was next, as there was blue sky and sunshine that day - the world's highest observation deck at 477M - higher than the Burj in Dubai - oddly that building is very tall but they put the observation deck quite low. Once you gain some altitude above Shanghai however, the haze is apparent - the view was less than stellar, but you could see The Bund - sort of, and the window cleaners appeared on the 100th floor too. The 100th floor is the top of this building, and it's a long corridor, of shiny floor and wall, someone walks around sweeping all day long - and all that shiny-ness makes for reflections in windows. The observation deck is spread on 4 floors - with 100 being the highlight, also a lowlight - as much of the floor is see through glass tiles. Vertigo must not be a virtue of the Shanghainese. It is for me however, so very carefully approached the glass windows to place the lens up against - as a means to remove the reflections. The polarizing filter I used however had to come off as it makes the tempering of the glass visible.

The elevator on the way up has many LED's twirling in a pattern as you rise, there are nearly 100 elevators in the building, but this one had no windows, apart from ears popping there's no feeling of lift or the world dropping away - half a kilometre in the sky you get out, and above you is blue sky…but below is what Shanghai bathes in… smog. Humidity is always odd in Asia, I've seen it look like smoke in the air, not seen anything in the air but it's unbreathable because of the moisture, but in Shanghai, the sun mixes with the sunlight and the pollution and Shanghai Soup is what you get as a result…

Nothing however took my breath away like the window cleaners, in one shot, one of them on the left is drifting to sleep, but it's a job I could not do.

From a lower deck floor looking up "through the handle" to 100th floor..

And to cap it all a restaurant celebrating tomatoes!

These kites are cool.

The metro is nice and new still...

I ran off to Nanjing Road West to meet Damiao as we were going to the Propaganda Museum, hidden away in the French Concession area - some very European buildings there for the middle classes to enjoy - and a unique feel in this town for sure. It's older though, so the unprotected parts might turn into a heap of rubble… Damiao explains that all the new buildings have leases of only 50 years - the government still owns the land - so buying something - in china like much of the wold property speculation has made a financial bubble - seems pointless. Before you die, you will lose it unless you buy another lease…. oh and I ate two more Macau custard tarts, gawd they are yummy..

I feel sorry for the crabs, they tie them up so people can carry them home, and in convenience stores they sit in the fridge - alive :(

Plaques on important houses.

That said, the Propaganda Museum was pretty good, very small, very atmospheric in its claustrophobic basement space - original posters and such from the days when everyone except Communists were enemies, they didn't allow pictures inside however :( I nearly bought an artefact - there is much Mau era tat for sale in China (you can even find it in Vancouver) but much is mass produced to feed the tat market - these seemed real however… A rare thing in China! The amount of fancy cars seen here is astounding, sure there are many poor, but you have never seen so many Audis. I would have thought with so many around they would lose the cachet.

Euro buildings in Shanghai..

Audrey, Damiao's wife, came to meet us and we toddled off to an odd little place where veggie hotspots are the call of the day, all vegetarian, you pick your vegetables (mostly mushrooms for me) and season your own pot and cook and eat as you go along - loved it. Damiao and Audrey are interesting people, as well as being very nice, so the chit chat was good. I was picking Audrey's brain as she had chose to move to Shanghai when she could have gone anywhere, no job or family drew her in - and I am quite intrigued in the reasons for her choice. We picked up my mushroom boxes and walked it back to the hotel afterwards - passing a young man out for a walk in his pyjamas (Audrey explained they used to go for walks before bed in their PJ's - something that the gov't tried to discourage pre-Olympics as well as spitting and hacking up phlegm all over). We discussed my plan for Hangzhou (Hang-Joe) on Wednesday… a trip out of the city for Dave. Assuming the weather holds out! They even drew me a map and wrote in Chinese some expressions I might need :)

The gov't didn't just fail in it's attempt to stop the man in PJ's - but also the spitting and the phlegm hacking - especially in the older men, standing near a wall with a finger over a nostril and blowing whatever out forcefully is an all too common sight… gross though these things are - as I always say you have to try to look beyond it - but it can be ear drum shattering to hear some of these guys hack stuff up… That said, with all the capitalism and consumerism here I have to wonder what the point of the Communist Party now is… the poor are in the same situation as the capitalist world and the rich here are getting richer - but they block what they don't like on the internet like discussion of government corruption. It's a strange brew like the air around us here...

Damiao sent some pics from his phone of me eating, so I am posting one of Audrey and Damiao - they have really helped me out with my trip. That said, after several emails where he was trying to get his way on a point, I have now renamed him Chairman Miao. The spelling is correct - just think about it… :)