Shanghai Thoughts

Shanghai's a crazy place and not always in a good way. A country that can find small pockets to place a park, build tall high rises, still has a long way to go with people's rights. A big mystery is the  birth defects street beggars. People without limbs, huge tumor growths, and indescribable phyical deformities are wheeled out each  morning and placed on the sidewalk near Nanjing Rd. to beg. Or, as they can't talk, to sit by a cup. And someone puts blankets on them and checks from them from time to time and then wheels them all back somewhere at the end of the day.  Sad. Strange. No answer.

As a western tourist there's the hassle of walking down a tourist street. Big scam that has to end soon. People are holding up cell phones and pretending to be tourists. You can tell them from the real tourists who are holding up cell phones and taking selfies. The fake tourists ask if you will take their photo when "selfie" is the easy answer these days to their dilemma. Only westerners are approached and since I have ignored everyone, I don't know what they want. Because the "buy watch lady, buy bag lady" people just say so.  Or for the men, "buy girl."

And the spitting. It's enough to make me want to buy a mouth net and wear it over my face to make sure no random spit hits me on the wind and someone lets out a big splat on the street. Just stop people. This is worse than the street sellers. And rats. Be grateful that if you eat something at a mall you can take consolation in fried food knowing that 350F cooking oil kills germs, even rat germs. Hmm. I was having french fries for lunch but that may have been a deal breaker.

So yes, China is a great place to visit if you live in a tourist bubble. But get out on your own two feet and the allure of the place will grow old, quickly.  Meanwhile, beauty can be found if you close your eyes and ears and take the time to find it.