Chinese For A Day
As I crossed over to the other side of the river, PuDong, so I crossed over into the world of the the real Shanghai Chinese. It was a beautiful day in Pudong with the sun out and refreshing 65F degree weather. Although the past three days walking around with Will (a really easy going, 6’3″ tall, white as rice Englishman) was quite a bit of fun, you can imagine he sticks out in a Chinese crowd like Gulliver in Lilliput. And as such draws all the trinket salesmen and husslers to us like the proverbial flies on shit. Today, I was out for a different kind of experience. Adorned with my newly purchased 62 cent typical Chinese shoes and $6.25 communist drab colored jacket (the bag is not mine), I walked amongst the locals unnoticed and unhasseled by the throngs of “Rolex” watch salesmen, beggars, massage girls and pickpockets. 
I walked passed no less than 5 “massage” parlors without a single, “Herro… Masagy, you rike young girs”. It was great! My costume blended in so well that even Chinese and tourists alike were asking me for directions. For the Chinese that I didn’t understand, I said in my best Mandarin, “dwui buchi, wo bu ji dao” (Sorry, I don’t know). For the tourists, it was quite a bit more fun! Two German tourists came to me pointing and gesticulating wildly and apparently miming what looked to be a long thin cylinder asked me in heavily accented but passable English where the Jinmao Tower (the tallest building in Shanghai) was 
. I gave them my best puzzled not understanding look while they were “miming” paused a moment and said, “right, you go down 3 blocks this way, turn left, look up, and you will see a very tall building about 5 blocks ahead of you.” I only wish I could have taken a picture of the stunned look on their faces. As they thanked me with very relieved smiles, I said “bitte shoen” and walked back off into anonymity. At one point, I felt a little like Jane Goodall trying to figure out just how close she could get to her chimpanzees before they realized she’s not one of them. I got more and more daring. I walked down a street market that didn’t have the usual Shanghai T-shirts, backpacks, little red books, mao bags, watches, windup fish, and lighted wheels for your shoes, but instead had worn jeans, used long sleeve shirts, communist drab jackets and cheap shoes (like the ones I had on). It was very nice to just be allowed to browse without the hassels of being tugged or shouted at to come closer. There was a crowd formed all around in a semi-circle around an old man reading a book behind a sign in Chinese with some kind of equation, playing cards clothes pinned in a specific pattern, and some Chinese chess pieces layed out on multiple game boards. Now I don’t have any idea what was going on, but it clearly looked like an intellectual version of 3 card monty as there was a guy intently looking at the cards trying to decifer the key to the riddle presented to him. I pushed my way up to the front to get a better look (when in Rome, do as the Romans do) and stood in the middle of all this, shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the men. Like Jane, this is when I knew they accepted me as one of their own. Satisfied, I walked off towards home to see if C had arisen from her jetlagged slumber, but it’s now 8:15pm and she has yet to move. I think I may wake her and take her out clubbing as she should be well rested for another 5am night.
Tags: Travel
Kane
Yo, Yo, Yo. What’s happenin’ Rayman. Looks like a good time is being had out there. While you are in Hong Kong see if you can find the best bet in terms of lodging for when I get out there in June just before Bobman’s wedding. I’ll want something in the middle of all the action and pretty nice without having to sell my soul or dip too far into the beer budget.
Have a good time.
Toy Boy
ok, what i want to know is… #1, how come there’s no picture of me ANYWHERE in this stinking blog when i’ve been mentioned so many times??? but other people’s pics are all over the place??? 2ndly, just b/c i was in a 20 hr slumber, which anyone should allow themselves to when they want to feel lazy, you DON’T need to tell the whole world about it!!!
c-
So glad you are having a great time and managing to entertain yourself and others. I can see you fitting right in. Thanks for blogging semi-regularly…it’s great to read about the places you’ve been and the silly antics you get up to. Wish I would have known about blogging for SL, would have made my life a whole lot easier! Until next time. xo!
Ray this sounds like the adventure of a lifetime. But I know for you it is another one of your great trips. How do the people treat you as an american? Do you get a sense of being in a communist country? The buildings in some of the pictures are very impressive. Was is more modern that you thought it would be? Teddy and Barbara and Amanda and I are doing fine. We are having our own adventure of raising a family. We miss seeing you at the gangs get togethers. I hope you are back in time to go see a canes game. The cheerleaders miss us.
Hey Greg, Great to hear from you. I’m not sure if this trip seems better because I’m able to share it with others back home or because it’s happening now or just because I’m having a great time. My other travels were great as well, but as with everything all but the greatest moments have started to fade. Good luck with your adventure. Say hello to the family for me.
Steven,
Unfortunately, you won’t be in HK with me next week. My dad is hooking me up with a friend’s apartment that is empty for not much more than paying for the maid services. I’ll look around to see what I can find for you in Central or Wanchai (where I lived when I was working there just above The World of Susie Wong) . HK as I’m sure u know is an extremely expensive city. Email me what your upper limit is and I’ll work down from there. See you soon at Bob’s Soiree in Bali.
C,
Now here’s a perfect example of be careful of what you ask for. I asked for comments… But also, in your request for pictures of you to be posted, u may want to be careful of what you ask for! Remember the pics from the Intercontinental? LOL
But thanks for mentioning it because I just realized that I didn’t post a single picture of my dad in Xian either. All my blogging is done on the fly and as such, there are sure to be ommissions and additions that should not or should have been left out. There’s no shame in being jetlagged after flying 12 times zones clear to the other side of the world. I will strike it from the record tho.
Brandi,
Glad u r enjoying my tales from the trail. It’s at least as fun for me to write this stuff as it is to do this stuff. I only wish I could remember 1/2 the stuff that I want to write about, but forget before it can hit the press. There are litterally hundredes of quotes that haven’t made it and almost as many stories that should have been posted, but due to my short term memory problems, they have been lost for the moment. Maybe they’ll turn up in other’s blogs.