Ken's China Trip: Shanghai

After a couple of days in Beijing, I took the sleeper train to Shanghai. Beijing station was packed with people when I got there at 9:30pm to catch the 10:15 train. Everyone had to pass through a metal detector just to get in the station, so there was a huge bottleneck at the entrance.

The trip was 14 hours long, and I was able to sleep more than I thought (thank you, iTouch!). There were six beds stacked three high in each doorless compartment. It was fun to travel on the train and to see a slice of "normal" Chinese life. I talked with a student who had a cousin living in Detroit. I noticed that there were many women (young and old) who were traveling solo. Solo on a sleeper train, elbow to elbow with everyone. That would never happen in the U.S. But, on that train in China, everyone seemed to be part of one big family.

So I arrived in Shanghai 14 hours later. After having tea with some young women who were eager to practice their English, I found a hotel room and crashed.

I took the picture above (one of the most famous scenes of the new China, the Pearl TV tower) just a few feet away from my hotel, the Astor House. It was a historical building--my room was two doors down from President Grant's room.

I was able to find where Communism was "born" in China. Below is a picture of the museum where Mao and other revolutionary leaders met to plot the future of China.

As I was making my way through the museum, dozens of new recruits suddenly flooded in for a tour. It felt a bit strange to be an American in the middle of 30 Chinese soldiers in a museum dedicated to promote nationalist feelings. We were all looking at the same artifacts, but I'm sure we were coming to very different conclusions. According to the museum, communism in China was a natural outcome in response to Western imperialism.

Shanghai was a very interesting city, but it too was under construction (for Expo 2010). It was also the most commercialized city--kind of reminded me of New York or something. Even historical sites, like the picture below, were packed with Western products.