The Great Change: Turning Cathy into a Lawyer

My trip to China yesterday began as all trips to China begin - by being met at the airport by a tall German. Oh, is that not how most of them begin? Too bad, because it was enormously helpful to have him there. Of course it was just really nice to see him too. He was a friend I met at Bucerius who's doing a summer internship in Shanghai, and he nicely offered to pick me up at the airport. Never mind that being met at airports is one of my favorite things in the world, it made entering this strange, new place where I can't read or speak the language much less traumatic. Especially since getting to my hotel was no small feat. At first we were hampered by the fact that he'd managed to lose the printout he made of the map pinpointing the hotel somewhere on the subway. But that turned out to be ok, since it turned out that the location shown on the map and the actual location of the hotel bore no relation to each other. Still, eventually we got there, and eventually the non-English speaking staff decided to honor the reservation, and it didn't turn out to be in such a bad location after all, but it all seemed a little too arduous given how hot and tired I was at the time.

On the upside, the hotel was located between where my friend lives and where he works, so he was able to help orient me to the area. It's in Pudong, the "new" Shanghai area that's been subject to massive development in recent years. An easy bus ride from the hotel west and you end up at the Orient Pearl TV tower. I'm not sure why so many countries are so enamored with tall, bulbous TV towers, but they do often afford nice views of their respective cities. So today I paid too much to ascend to the penultimate bulbous sphere and finally got my first good look at Shanghai.

Afterwards I walked around the area for a bit. It seems to be developing more like the US than Europe. What I mean is that while there's obviously some thought being put into the street plan and the need to preserve open park space, each building rises up separately from its own footing. Whereas in places like La Defense, or even Crystal City in Virginia, developments are systems of towers and plazas, with one plan for cars and another for pedestrians. But here it looks like not enough thought has really been given to pedestrian flow. They share the streets with the cars, but I'm not sure that's a good arrangement for either constituency. Especially given Chinese driving habits...

I decided to fjord the traffic anyway and made my way to the nearby mall. It looked like pretty much every other mall in the world (US, Israel, Europe), although in my experience it's really only American malls that ever offer anyplace to sit down. The top floor of this mall was full of restaurants, so I ate at a Chinese fast food one. I was a little worried about having had a fountain soda though because it had ice, and you can't drink the tap water in Shanghai. But it's really hot here, I was really thirsty, and my two-word Chinese vocabulary does not include how to ask for no ice. So hopefully I'll live.

After lunch I then went to the supermarket in the basement (a typical feature of malls in Europe and Japan) to find something to take back for dinner since I didn't imagine I'd have the energy to go out later. Problem: no refrigeration. But except for the free block of cheddar cheese they were giving out... I think everything else (sliced pineapple, pistachios, pea snacks (pulverized peas reconstituted into pod-like shapes and sold like potato chips), and oranges) should survive a few hours in the air conditioned room.

Written 8/5, posted 8/7.