It was insane seeing my mom bound toward me in the Beijing airport. It was like, Nance, what are you doing in China? Of course I was happy to see her but it was quite a shock. I was stoked (bro) to fly her out to Chengdu with me to see the place that I had called home for the past three months.
Unfortunately, our drive into Chengdu was pretty uneventful. I was expecting a full on Chengdu taxi ride. Complete with horns, speeding, people driving on the sidewalk. You know the works. I was really upset because I wanted my mom to experience and feel the full on insanity that I had most weekends. Oh well. I think she enjoyed Chengdu in the sense that she got to experience the real China. Other than that there wasn't that much to do. She kept asking me what she would do and see. It was then I realized that I hadn't ever actually done anything in Chengdu but eat American food, shop at Shunxi Lu and rage.
It was also completely humid and sweltering hot. And smelly. All in all a beautiful day. So I took her to the People's park and showed her where I blew bubbles for all the Children and started a gathering of all the Chinese. She watched the old women and men dance in the park. Watched them perform songs and dances for audiences. Watched the old men play checkers, chess, and mahh-jong. We both came to the conclusion that retired old people really do live the life in China. Naturally we got stares everywhere we went, especially since my mom was platinum blond. She loved it. Next we went to some Temple that was probably cool at one point but now it was just a cheap copy of what Mao so brilliantly destroyed sixty years ago.
I think my mom's favorite part of Chengdu was being able to talk to Chinese people about China. She absolutely drilled my friends. It's my moms favorite past time so naturally she was in heaven. Both nights we went out to dinner with Eamon, Winnie, Joannah and Lisa and she asked them all their opinions on what they thought about the safety of China to the one Child policy. Conclusion? This country is completely insane. I learned things that I had never even thought to ask. I figured China was a pretty safe place but Joannah told me that all crime goes unreported until they find the murderer or rapist. If the felony is over 20 years old they just sort of pardon the person and let it go. Nice...
We said goodbye to Chengdu after two days and headed East to the amazing city of Shanghai. I could live in Shanghai it's so cool. On a scale of one to China it is definitely closer to a one but it still is very China in the sense that "OMG what is going to happen next?!". Oh and they walk around in their pajamas. All of them. Isn't that strange? I have never encountered it in any other city and here, in the most westernized China city there it is. People in their pajamas on the back of motorbikes, walking down the street, buying vegetables, doing Tai Chi...just going about their daily lives in their nice striped cotton suits. Some expat told me that last year for the expo they police used to ride around and make the people in their pajamas go home and change to look more civilized to all the foreigners. Also, there are so many lights in Shanghai. It made me think. China really only cares about two cities in the whole country and really play it up so foreigners are all impressed. They spend so much energy on light in Shanghai but they won't pay a dime on anywhere else. Take SWUFE for example. They never turned on the lights in the building, the escalators they implemented in the meat locker were only turned on at random times. And heat? Ha! Yeahhh...well we all know about that situation.
Mom and I had a pretty good time walking around and exploring Shanghai. The city is dripping with all kinds of history and since I am pretty into that subject I was all about it. I mean, it was taken over by so many different people. Namely the Eurpopeans, which is why the architecture and buildings around the bund look so pretty. Oh the Bund. I could walk up and down that forever. It's a long stretch of path overlooking the Shanghai river on the Puxi side. It gives you a breath-taking view of Pudong. The boats coming and going. It made me pretty home sick, like watching the ferries come and go from Seattle to Bremerton, Bainbridge, etc.
My mom wanted to buy shitty souveneirs for people back home so I spent the better part of four days being drug around to random market places finding cheap goods to bring back (that honestly probably wouldn't even make it back without breaking). We were so go, go go the whole time I had to tell her we needed to slow it down. I mean, I had spend the past two weeks on my own waking up when I wanted and eating when I wanted. Not to mention I have had no sort of parental guidance in three months so that was a bit rough to say the least! But it was really fun. It was beautiful and unlike cloudy Sichuan province you could actually see blue skies and sunshine!
At night we went to swanky bars on the bund. It was beautiful. Everyone looked really fabulous. It was where all the wealthy expat men went to find some pretty Chinese mistresses or foreign girls. Where pretty Chinese girls would go to try and find a man to take care of them. Where rich Chinese men would go to try and their luck with pretty foreign girls (good luck with that..absolutely not going to happen!). Then there was my mom and I just hanging out being super Chinese and just straight up surveying the scene and staring at people. No respect. We also went up to the tallest bar in the world in the World Financial Center in Pudong. Drinking champagne in a swanky bar 97 stories up in the air in a foreign country is pretty cool. Especially when you're with your mom.
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