It was early evening when I exited the East Nanjing Road metro
station. I was tossed into a disorienting mass of people. Like extras in movie
flitting about, I found myself being swept along by people going in every
direction; only they seemed to know where they were going.
I was in the middle of a pedestrian mall in one of
Shanghai’s busiest shopping areas. Clutched in my hand was a terribly blurry
map of where my hotel was in relation to the metro station, but the challenge
was knowing which direction to go. It all made sense when I printed it at home, but
less so now that I was standing in the map.
I couldn’t pick out any landmarks
that would guide me, so I wandered down one street, and down another. After
some time, I asked a police officer, who gestured in a direction but offered little
more. It had been close to an hour of walking around and I realized that it was
possible I’d never find my hotel.
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| Shanghai at night |
I came up to the concierge of a hotel that I had considered booking. It was highly ironic. I showed him my now crumpled map. He entered the name of the hotel in his phone and showed me the
direction. I took a photo of his screen just in case.
As I toured the darkened streets in search of my hotel, it was surprisingly quiet. A few bicycles and scooters passed by. And even when I
chose to walk on the street instead of navigating the bumpy, brick sidewalks
with my suitcase, I kept looking over my shoulder fearing I’d be hit by a race
of cars, but the few that did pass me seemed to be in slow motion.
Down a small alley, I finally found my place of rest, and dropping my bags, I made my way to the Huangpu
River and the Bund area of Shanghai. The brightly coloured lights and the
futuristic, Jetson’s-like building on the Pudong side of the river dazzled. Several
newlyweds had their pictures taken with the iconic skyline of the city as a backdrop.
I was up early the next morning and set off again for the riverside.
There was a surreal quiet to the city. Bicycles, many with baskets attached to
the front drifted along without effort. And in a country scorned for its
pollution, progress was being made, I thought, as electric scooters passed by
in silence. The low cloud that masked the tops of the skyscrapers seemed to
dampen the city’s exuberance. Shanghai felt more like a provincial town than
one of the world’s largest cities.
Walking along the river, I passed scores of people doing their morning exercises. To some, the old, stone buildings along the Bund might have had the look of melancholy, but to me there was just a restful quiet.
It was a side of Shanghai I hadn’t expected.
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