The Old & New Mingled Together
As I waited in the shiny hopping Hong Kong airport for my flight back to Penang on Sept. 3, I saw 5 monks in butterscotch-colored robes walking down the corridor. They carried black backpacks, maybe with a few laptops inside? This mixture of ancient tradition and modernity was an apt final image for me. Over 4 days in Shanghai, 3 in Guilin (a medium-sized city in the southwest) and 2 in Hong Kong, I got a good look at this country that many once referred to as the sleeping dragon.
Key Observation/Learning
I knew before my trip that China wasn’t remotely a backwards country, but now that I’ve visited, I can say I really know. Certainly, the Olympics impressed me and the rest of the world. Yet, I still expected a bit of a Communist-bloc feeling about the place – like Eastern Europe prior to the end of the Iron Curtain. Not at all. While the citizens surely are crystal clear on what can/cannot be done or said, the general feel on the streets is not one of fear or anxiety.
Things I enjoyed about Chinese culture
- The custom of spending time outdoors and the focus on daily exercise – tai chi, walking, dancing, etc.
- The reverence for ancestors and respect for the elderly
- The penchant for celebrations and festivals (though they are based on some darn sad and disturbing legends)
- Almost every element of design and decoration has a symbolic link to good fortune, longevity, prosperity, and happiness or some other positive concept. The US has its iconic images to be sure, but not nearly to the extent of China, with these images, as well as feng shui, embedded into almost every aspect of daily life it seems
- The custom of spending time outdoors and the focus on daily exercise – tai chi, walking, dancing, etc.
- The reverence for ancestors and respect for the elderly
- The penchant for celebrations and festivals (though they are based on some darn sad and disturbing legends)
- Almost every element of design and decoration has a symbolic link to good fortune, longevity, prosperity, and happiness or some other positive concept. The US has its iconic images to be sure, but not nearly to the extent of China, with these images, as well as feng shui, embedded into almost every aspect of daily life it seems
Memorable moments/images
- The Shanghai Museum's architecture – a circle on top symbolizing heaven, a square design on the bottom which represented earth.
- The prices in Shanghai – great deals everywhere, from the museum bookstore to the clothing boutiques.
- At the animal sanctuary outside Guilin, the tigers lounging in the hot, humid weather like frat boys sleeping off a hangover. The bears at the same place frolicking about – charming furry balls of fun wacky on the junk.
- The local fresh market in a Shanghai residential neighborhood – more orderly than the one in Penang, but still far different from anything we have in the US – the buckets of crabs and eels on display, the massive winter melons, the jugs of Chinese wine, the piles of hundreds of watermelons.
- Olympics highlights were still being played on TVs all over.
- The slurping of noodles and soup is common and perfectly acceptable manners.
- The hip women in Shanghai look great in flats. A woman with a chic pixie haircut wearing a sleeveless ruffled white cotton shirt and black flowing pants comes to mind.
- The traffic in Guilin – pedestrians walking headlong into traffic seemingly fearless of being hit, pedestrians milled everywhere on the roads.
- In the city of Suzhou outside Shanghai, there’s a million people and 600,000 bikes. It was raining on the day we visited. Bikers in long bright-colored rain ponchos – green, yellow, blue, red, purple, raspberry – populated the streets. People walking with umbrellas speckled the sidewalks with similar colors.
- The young waiter in Guilin who so clearly wanted to chat with us, practicing his English. He had a sweet handsome face with high cheekbones and spoke, among other things, of his adoration of Yao Ming, the basketball player – “he’s a hero here.” I wish I’d taken his picture.
Below are a few pix from my journey. I am thrilled to add this country to my life list of places visited.
- The Shanghai Museum's architecture – a circle on top symbolizing heaven, a square design on the bottom which represented earth.
- The prices in Shanghai – great deals everywhere, from the museum bookstore to the clothing boutiques.
- At the animal sanctuary outside Guilin, the tigers lounging in the hot, humid weather like frat boys sleeping off a hangover. The bears at the same place frolicking about – charming furry balls of fun wacky on the junk.
- The local fresh market in a Shanghai residential neighborhood – more orderly than the one in Penang, but still far different from anything we have in the US – the buckets of crabs and eels on display, the massive winter melons, the jugs of Chinese wine, the piles of hundreds of watermelons.
- Olympics highlights were still being played on TVs all over.
- The slurping of noodles and soup is common and perfectly acceptable manners.
- The hip women in Shanghai look great in flats. A woman with a chic pixie haircut wearing a sleeveless ruffled white cotton shirt and black flowing pants comes to mind.
- The traffic in Guilin – pedestrians walking headlong into traffic seemingly fearless of being hit, pedestrians milled everywhere on the roads.
- In the city of Suzhou outside Shanghai, there’s a million people and 600,000 bikes. It was raining on the day we visited. Bikers in long bright-colored rain ponchos – green, yellow, blue, red, purple, raspberry – populated the streets. People walking with umbrellas speckled the sidewalks with similar colors.
- The young waiter in Guilin who so clearly wanted to chat with us, practicing his English. He had a sweet handsome face with high cheekbones and spoke, among other things, of his adoration of Yao Ming, the basketball player – “he’s a hero here.” I wish I’d taken his picture.
Below are a few pix from my journey. I am thrilled to add this country to my life list of places visited.
At the market
The French Concession section of Shanghai
A scene from the Jade Buddha Temple in Shanghai
The stunning karst rock formations outside Guilin
A herd of cows on a tea plantation outside Guilin
