Home - I see it as dwelling of me
House - I see it as dwelling I use
Hotel - I see it as dwelling that is away from "home".
And with the traveling, houses and hotels very quickly become home because is where I am and it can also include my closest family an friends. It is an emotional place rather than a physical location. And nationality is similar, I see myself the nationalities of the places I have stayed and interacted significantly like Irish, English, Norwegian, Finnish, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, American, Mexican, German, Swiss etc. It is funny that after such a short time in a mystical land far away to begin to feel at home already. China is where I am even though the language, culture and so many things are unknown, this is where I am and I can feel my sense of fascination for the place growing...
Nanjing Road East has become my focal point in Shanghai. Off for breakfast in my Starbucks (http://www.starbucks.com.cn/en/), I know I am missing out on what a Chinese breakfast is but a few things at a time. I am consciously saying 'Ni hao' (你好, hello) and 'Xie Xie' (谢谢, thank you) to the girls behind the counter and listening to what they are saying to each other even though I have little clue of what they mean. The only indicators I have are their gestures which are different, simple things like when they laugh they cover their mouths with their hands. When they do that, they look like school girls that are laughing when they shouldn't be.
For the afternoon I will head west on Nanjing Road again and the first major crossing I approach is Henan Middle Road. On the far side of the road is the pedestrian zone of Nanjing Road. I watched the upcoming big road with timed traffic lights and traffic assistants to help us the public cross the road. I notice a large truck breaking hard in front of me. A truck that was racing as the lights had turned from green to red. The pedestrians had begun their crossing and the reason this truck, it looked like a concrete mixing truck, braked hard was to avoid knocking down pedestrians that had begun to cross but the driver was too late. A man was knocked flat back to the side of the road. The truck that was braking deciding then decided to keep going. Now I come from Europe where I was expecting uproar from the surrounding public. 2 people had picked the older man towards the side, they were looking at him and everyone kept moving. I was getting the feeling that this was a relatively common occurrence and they continued on their paths. The movement of people barely changed when a man was probably killed. As I passed it hard to understand if he was dead or not but it was a very possible consequence of the scene that had just passed before me. I was left in shock, not sure if or how to respond and somehow in this moment since I am a visitor in this new place allowed myself to be shunted to the position of observer. I just think of how such a incident would have been reacted to in Italy. There I have seen 30 minute queues of cars going slowly just to see an already finished accident. This was a live collision with potential the ultimate consequence. Being in a big city of 20+ million, it makes me question, "What is the value of life here?". I don't have answers but the question came forth. Maybe the authorities will capture the driver and justice will prevail. This could happen anywhere, maybe because it is my first days here, I am more impressionable and may extrapolate out of the larger context. I don't know but I am thinking... I move on Nanjing Road with the philosophical mind focused on the shared value of life. just as this begins there is the huge Apple Store that is the pinnacle of Commercial and Design value in the world. A mixed lanscape of thoughts re-evaluate with each other in terms of value. We are now global. I am a European in an Asian land. I am human on our planet!
More stimulus attract my attention from the stores, the languages signs that I do not understand. My visual receptors, eyes, have prioritised their work to indicate to me the types of shops, the types of relationships between people, mothers and sons, boyfriends and girlfriends, groups of guys and girls. Chinese seem closer to Italians than Irish. They are comfortable with closer physical contact and holding on to each other arms and hands. My attention is on alert to notice differences and yet I find so many similarities. The world is probably flattening!
The People's Park is a park along Nanjing Road that gives visual space from the taller buildings in the city. It is a break in one of the busiest streets in the world. It gives me a chance to contemplate China outside the concrete jungles that I have decided to visit. The famous holy mountains around CHina, the beaches in the south on the mainland and on islands in the South China sea. For a future visit, I want to learn a bit more.
A lovely evening meal at the shanghai first foodhall on the 3rd or 4th floors is on the cards. This time as I go in I take a better tour
Floor 1 - Chinese Speciality Foods
Floor 2 - International Imported Foods
Floor 3 - Restaurants (Hong Kong, Curry House, Green Tea Shop)
Floor 4 - Restaurants (Chinese Hotpot, Japanese, Thai, Chinese)
Fish has a particular appeal to me and I enter the Sushi bar. No Chinese on my side and no English on theirs makes the interactions very interesting and sometimes funny. Explaining with pictures becomes a very normal way to work. The fish, the beer and the sake were all excellent but most of all I enjoyed 'talking' with the chef's behind the counter and the waitresses bringing me the requests and trying their best to figure out what I wanted. Having very limited language, good intent on both sides and a sense of humour can even be more enjoyable that our normal detailed life. The lightness is contagious. My enjoyment of interacting with Chinese people is amazing.....I want to interact more...
Tomorrow evening I will fly to Shenzhen :)
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