the Bund was a bummer.

pretty racist toothpaste there. i remember squeezing the paste of out my grandfather's yellow tubes in taiwan when i was young. it literally translates to black person toothpaste! plus no jumping into the tracks!

mulch view-yay!

one of em is supposed to b the tallest building in china or SH

the bund on pudong side

i am obsessed with this thing

architecture on the bund

why???!!

people's square area. nope kids, that ain't minnie!

ok, so the Bund wasn't how i thought it would be. first of all, they're doing major construction to prep for the shanghai expo in june '10 so the walkway which would usually boast a nice view of the 58 styles of architecture and the murky huangpu wasn't in existence anymore. we walked thru clouds of dust kicked up from the construction and were inches away from oncoming traffic to find a sidewalk or crosswalk or something that resembled safety from the imminent harm. we finally found a crappy but A/C'd ferry that took us to the other side of the river, to Pudong for 2rmb, which is really cheap. before that, we entertained the idea of going thru the Bund tourist tunnel, in which i'm not even sure there is a view anyway, and i'm unsure if it goes over or under the water, but thought better of it and saved our 100rmb. after watching mulch on barges pass us while on the ferry, and smelling the usual chinese B.O. and worrying if there was lice on the seats we were sitting on, and not really having a view of anything but the brown river water, we ushered off the ferry like cattle to Pudong, where we walked and walked, enjoying the huge skyscrapers, a viewspot of the river and the bund from the pudong side, (i thought the other side was more impressive probably b/c the cool architecture was over there), a park, the Oriental pearl tower, up close, which is the hugest phallic symbol of china, and a green tea smoothie, and we finally found a subway and took that back across the river to puxi. we concluded that if you walk long enough, you will eventually find some metro station, or at least taxis that can take you home.

it was a fun day for me altho dave complained of sunburn and his back hurting. sorry dave. :( we walked thru the People's Square area on nanjing east road, first going the wrong direction, then finally going the right direction. we walked a few blocks then hit zhongshan road which is basically the road the Bund is on. we passed by the place dave got scammed and saw the scammers waiting like vultures.

later that nite we met up with a fellow DnD-er, a swede studying in SH who has a chinese gf at a grungy expat bar called Harley's Bar down the street. i want to do a social psychology study to profile these local chinese women who date expats. i'm guessing there is a pattern here. my first specimen confirms my theory that local chinese women with expat bfs/husbands tend to be more nonconformist, open minded, educated and not just opportunists who are money grubbers, which was what i originally hypothesized. i asked dave if he would canvas his coworkers for me to interview their partners. there are a couple other DnD-er expats with local gfs/wives. perhaps i could make a mini-documentary about these women who are quite numerous here in SH. my theory is that for them to go against the tradition of dating and especially marrying within their race, where the guy won't be able to communicate with their families, is a big taboo. the chinese are pretty racist people in general, and even in the US where the traditions don't run as deep, it is kinda taboo for us to date outside of our race b/c our parents want to be able to talk to our partners and want them to understand our traditions and values. what happens here is the guy eventually learns chinese and becomes accustomed to the chinese ways, which always impresses me, b/c i can't even do it! anyway, the study continues of people and culture.