Efficiency? Never heard of it...

So, the one thing that is constantly surprising me the most about China is that, for a Communist country, it appears to be extremely inefficient, and devoid of rules and regulations. Or at least, of people following them. Every place you go, everywhere you look, things are in constant chaos. The most obvious one, of course, is traffic; drivers don't feel limited by signs, traffic lights, or even lanes. These are considered merely suggestions. Not only does everybody turn right on red lights (without stopping or even slowing down), plenty of people turn left on red lights, cut others off while honking, and simply create an extra lane, if they think they can squeeze their car or cab (always a Volkswagen Santana) through it.

Coming from Japan, where we saw absolute top-of-the-line efficiency on my last day there, at the Toyota factory, this has been quite an experience. Steph picked me up at the airport Friday night, and it's surprising how a day of doing nothing (well, travelling) can exhaust you! Saturday, after lunch at "English Menu", we went to the botanical gardens (saw a troupe of tap dancing housewives there), and then to a little street market around the corner from Steph's school. THAT was China as I expected it. Bustling crowds, weird and sometimes disgusting foods for sale (I especially 'liked' the moving fish head even though the rest of the body had been cut off). In the evening, a large group of people from the school all went out to celebrate Hayley's birthday, so we had tapas and large quantities of wine (picture left: Hayley, Stephanie, me). Good times!

The next day, we obviously didn't make it out the door very early. But once we did, Steph took me to the Yuyuan Bazaar; another type of market but completely different, much more modern and bigger, with actual storefronts rather than tents. It looked like we discovered what the Chinese do on their day off: they go to this Bazaar... what a crowd (see right)!! We then also went to the Yuyan gardens that were right there, which were just beautiful; lots of rocks etc that they work with. After that, we had tea right there in the Bazaar in this cute little tea house (picture left), with a nice view of the crazy crowds below. In the evening, we first walked around the famous Bund area with some beautiful buildings, and after that Steph took me to the Xintiandi neighborhood; a rather European looking area with lots of restaurants & bars, very pleasant (car-free!).

On Monday we went to the Shanghai aquarium, to satisfy Steph's obsession with fish. The coolest part about that particular aquarium is that they have a 150m long glass underwater tunnel, from which you can see all the fish (incl. sharks). The aquarium is on the opposite bank of the Huangpu River (picture right), an area called Pudong. What's funny about the Pudong area is that, before 1990, this was all farm and swamp land. The Government then decided to start developing the area, which has since seen the raising of a ton of shiny new buildings, including the futuristic looking Pearl tower and the beautiful Jinmao tower. After a nice Chinese massage we had arranged, Steph and I went up the Jinmao tower, which is the tallest building in China and (if it still is) the fourth tallest in the world. On the 87th floor, there was a bar (Cloud 9), so we enjoyed a couple of martinis with a view of the Pearl tower and the Bund (see right). We had dinner at a dumpling restaurant, a local specialty in Shanghai.

Tuesday, Stephanie and I went to Suzhou, a small town (well, small... there are "only" 6 million people living there), which according to an ancient Chinese proverb is paradise on earth (and Marco Polo loved it, when he saw it on his travels here). It certainly was quite a change of pace from Shanghai, but the smog still remained in the air, things were still quite dirty, and in the words of Steph, "nothing is authentic". When you're looking for real, old China, well, it's pretty much gone. You can find some reminders, absolutely, but they're spread out widely and the 'filler' is often much less appealing as a tourist location. That said, we did find two beautiful places in Suzhou, namely the Garden of the Master of the Nets (picture left), and the Twin Pagodas (one of them in the picture on the right below). In the evening, we went back to one of my favorite areas (Xintiandi) to have a nice, somewhat fancy dinner there.

So. China. Very interesting, and in a way exactly what you expect: no privacy or personal space, chaos, loud noises, and a lot of smog in the air. In other ways, it's the opposite from what you expect: lawlessness, no sense of tradition or history, and lots of apparent personal freedom. Getting into China, for example, was much, much easier than even getting out of Japan, where I was questioned for a half hour. But, most importantly, I'm getting to spend some time with Steph, and it's great to see with my own eyes that she's doing so well out here. Today, we're going to take a river cruise, get another massage (yippee!), and then have some sushi at Steph's favorite place. Tomorrow I'll be headed to Hangzhou, about 2 hours south of Shanghai, and after that straight on to Guangzhou, about a 23-hour train ride away (just north of Hong Kong). Luckily the weather's been great, and thinking about how Shanghai is the coldest place I'll be at in the next 7 months or so, well, this makes me a very optimistic little boy.