🙂 I am now staying at the Shanghai Le Royal Méridien Shanghai in 789 Nanjing Road East. We have a wonderful suite of rooms. This is probably the most beautiful hotel of our entire trip. So here is another view from our hotel suite, where the windows are the whole length to the floor.
Some way or other, the adventures of the last two weeks are more than I seem to be able to grasp. If in the 1960ies, when Mao reigned, or during the China of the Cultural Revolution, someone had told me how China will function today – and how in many respects it even has surpassed the USA – I would have called him crazy.
Still, my road movie continues. After having arrived in Shanghai today, we will go and see a bit of the city tomorrow. In the evening, we will take the night train to Peking shortly before 10 p.m. From there, we will go back to Munich on Sunday.
So here are some more of the things that I particularly noticed in China during my stay:
Initially, I was surprised about how all of a sudden the banging started. We kept hearing it again and again, especially in the big and better districts of Chinese cities. Then I noticed it is nothing to worry about. It is only private firework displays. You get them at all times: in the morning, at noon, in the evening and even at midnight.
Of course, fireworks are forbidden during the year. But then, a firework is good for celebrating all kinds of special occasions – the arrival of new babies, birthdays, anniversaries, even the death of a family member. And, naturally, both the neighbours and the police will turn a blind eye.
I also found the noises we heard in the hotel at night quite remarkable – they had a volume that would be unimaginable in Germany. But that, too, annoys nobody. The same is true for the helicopter flying close to the hotel at night.
It seems that in China prohibitions in general are not taken very seriously. Of course, in the best hotels there is always a poster stuck to the walls of the lift that says ”no smoking“. Regardless, you will see a passenger with a lit cigarette in his or her hand at an average of every third way up or down.
You will also feel it on the streets. Every available metre of space is contested.
During our last trip from the Sheraton Wetland Park Resort in Hangzhou to the railway station, I memorized the data. To be sure, I was not able to count the number of times our vehicle changed lanes. One of those agile taxi drivers will change lanes fifty times in one kilometer. Neither was I able to count the instances of speeding or violation of other traffic rules.
I am sure the nap during each red traffic light phase (in China they can take surprisingly long) was not according to the rules, either. To me, it seemed that the driver had already had a long day.
But I remember the facts from the taximeter. We rode a little less than 13 kilometres, which took a little less than 55 minutes. Almost 30 minutes of this time, the taxi was idle. That is what you have to expect in China. First, they speed, and then all the time you gained is lost in the traffic jam.
The train to Shanghai was also quite fast. On the speedometer, it often says around 300. And then we arrive and what happens: we have to wait in the taxi queue for almost as long as the entire way from Hangzhou to Shanghai had taken.
But let us get back to the traffic rules and regulations. They do not take traffic lights very seriously. If they make a turn at a crossroads with traffic light, they run right through the pedestrians who want to cross. The motto is: “save yourself if you can“. Instead of a right of way, you have “first come (and better nerves), first serve“. If you are in a car, you will meet cars from the opposite direction on all lanes. Then the big wheelbarrow someone is pushing will fight its own way through the middle of all these cars on a street which is, for instance, forbidden for cyclists.
It is similar with the waste. You will find signs telling you not to litter all over the place. And industrious employees are constantly collecting the waste with their shovels and brooms. And wherever you look there are people who take pains providing the scenery with waste, be it on foot or from their car windows.
Now I will call this a day, because I want to be rested and fit tomorrow. Still, there are more specialties I have to tell you about. However, there is one thing I already know: bidding China farewell will hurt!
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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