We walked along the Bund � the raised walk along the Huang Po River that appears to have been patterned after the Thames Embankment in London. Across a busy street is an arcade of colonial European buildings, most of which now house Chinese banks. On the other side of the river is the Pudong New Area which contains futuristic towers, skyscrapers, and globes, looking for all the world as though they were taken out of an old Buck Rogers movie. Advertising abounds everywhere � Coca Cola, VW, Volvo, NEC, Apple. We also saw quite a number of Communist monuments � the heroic worker, Mao, and symbol-covered obelisks and walkways.
The people are friendly, and the children looked at us curiously. Several college art students accosted us on the street, with fairly good English, �Where are you from?� Each time it turned out they wanted us to see an exhibit which their school was putting on in an upstairs room, to raise money for the school. One group was from Beijing and another from Xian. We accepted the invitation from the Xian student. His art work was traditional, and well done, and the prices were excellent. His professor�s work was even better, but the prices were higher.
Two or three days is hardly enough to do justice to Shanghai. There were many sights we missed, and out of town excursions that sounded interesting. |
