28 July 2007
The Communist Party in China
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Today’s plan is to “do” the French concession… the only part of the city we have not been in to date. We also plan to explore a bit more of the old city. We’ve plotted a few stops for the day. To be more specific, we plan to start at an outdoor market that specializes in antiques. It’s known to have a large assortment of Mao memorabilia. Then take a ride to the far end of the French concession and stroll through the area to get a feel for it. The guide books have made some suggestions for stops along the way….jpg){kind=link}
When we get to the antique market we find a cross section of streets without a trace of shade… and in case I haven’t made it clear… it’s hot here. We amble round for awhile looking at all the “stuff,” there is an abundance of Mao stuff, and Cultural Revolution mementos,
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but it is all new, gee we thought this was supposed to be antiques. Oh well, we see several things that we would love to buy, but they are very large (wooden arches from various dynasties), very heavy (stone Buddha heads), or very expensive (we’re talking big ¥ here). We settle for a couple of ice pops and a taxi ride to the next destination.This is another super sized city, this Shanghai, and the ride seems to go on forever (20 ¥ please … that’s $2.50). When we get to the edge of town we realize that at high noon it is just too hot to walk…. So we jump onto the handy dandy metro for a most interesting ride. We find the people here to be most patient and friendly. It takes two of them to get us through the turnstile…gee I never realized how many ways there are to insert a magnetic card into a reader… and that’s after it taking 15 minutes to get the tickets for the trip to the right station, and that took three or four people helping… Anyway, we like the metro here. It is fast, clean, efficient, and like many paces in Europe it has a clock telling you when the next train will arrive. (see the picture insert) How civil! The only thing that strikes us as odd (in a good way) is that the entire track is behind glass. When the train comes into the station it is quiet, then the doors from the train and the platform open upon an air condition clean and yes, very crowded car. We like the whole feel to the glass partition, made the station feel safer and cleaner. When we get above ground again we have a walk of just several blocks.
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In route to the Museum of Communism we happen upon a section of the concession that has been “gentrified”… oh what a lovely place. In general the area we are now in really feels like a European city. The walkway, fences, architecture, road patterns and even the planting are markedly different than the rest of the city. We almost feel like we are no longer in Shanghai. This section has a Home of the 1930’s Museum, which is a refurbished home. It appears that Shanghai has designated this area as its historic landmark and compares it to the SoHo of NYC and the Left Bank of Paris. This reconstruction is an attempt to preserve the area and teach about both the process of preservation and its history. There were no barriers between us and any part of the house and it was furnished right down to personal items like hairbrushes and pens and kitchen utensils. We loved the whole experience, and really felt like we were roaming around a friend’s home. We also found a new name for our
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"funny room"... It seems that in this area, to make a few extra bucks a small room was created between the first and second story, at the first landing (like our funny room.) It was cold in winter and hot in summer... it was rented out to artists of various types. It was called the Tingzijian.When we get to the museum, a very plain building indeed, we found out that the reason that it is the Museum of Communism is that it is where THE communist party of China had its origin. We
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walked through many rooms of pictures and documents… all in Chinese only… so although we could figure out some stuff, most of it was lost on us. However, the section of the museum that was wax figures and picture story boards DID have an English translation, for which we were grateful. I think, and I think I speak for both of us, that the best part of the museum was what happened to Jeff. We were walking around the museum and realized that there was some kind of elementary age field trip going on… well that really had no impact on us… or did it! Firs.jpg)
t one 10 year old walked up to Jeff and said “Hell-o”… Jeff of course, use to this game by now, replied “Hell-o”… well she was soooo excited that she brought over her friend, this time they both said in unison “Hell-o,” with great big smiles and a few giggles… so of course the polite response is Hell-o ! Well, it seems that none of the class had ever seen a “white .jpg)
guy” and that they had never had the chance to practice their English, sooooo every time Jeff turned around ….. There was a larger and larger group of ten year old girls… all giggling and smiling and all happy and cooing, and repeatedly saying, not quite in unison “Hell-o”…. Well Jeff, of course, thought this the best thing since tenure! He just hadda have a picture! So he gather his “girls” together and took the picture you see at the left… they loved that fact that they got to see the picture instantly on my camera… in fact so did the security guard, who immediately after, looked at Jeff, pointed, and shouted Australia ! To which Jeff replied, New York! Then the guard insisted I take their picture together. Truly, moments to remember. PS the picture is of hj at the entry to the room where China had it communist origins..
# posted by Henry @ 10:50 AM 
