Out With the Old…

8/1/15

East Side Skyline

In the afternoon, we were taken to see the Bund, Shanghai’s river front that separates the old from the new. On the older, west bank of the Huangpu River, you can see the Western-style buildings which are now mostly banks. (NN: They are remnants from English and French colonial rule. Later the biggest building was the Shanghai City Hall till the 1990’s.) These are very recognizable English, French and Communist-era style buildings with elaborate facades and decorative domed roofs. But turn 180 degrees to face the new eastern bank of the city and it’s like a time warp. All you see are towering skyscrapers, with more under construction. (NN: The tallest one, which is almost complete, is called Shanghai Tower and will be the 2^nd tallest building in the world.)

Oriental Pearl TV Tower

Trying to cool off in 90+ degree weather!

West Side Older Buildings

West Side Older Buildings

Almost everywhere in Shanghai there are giant buildings under construction. Our tour guide jokes that the construction crane is considered China’s national bird (apparently Nick read a statistic that 70% of all the world’s construction cranes are in China and our guide said that China uses as much concrete per year as the U.S. has in the last decade). With the majority of the population moving into areas close to the coast and the standard of living rising in China, their housing market is booming. However, unlike us, they do not own the land their house is on. If someone purchases a house China, they can own the home for up to 70 years (which makes sense since it’s customary for 2-3 family generations to live together) but the land it’s on will always be owned by the government. So after 70 years, when their lease is up, they can renew for another 70 years (with added surcharges) or the government will just sell it to someone else.

Housing Boom

Our last stop of the day was the Jade Buddha temple. Under Mao’s communist regime, religion (among other things) was forbidden. As a result, (according to our guide) most Chinese are atheists but now that red curtain has been somewhat lifted, there is a resurgence in Buddhism. We were not allowed to take photographs of the temple’s namesake Buddha carved out of a life-size chunk of jade, but we were able to snap pictures of the surrounding alcoves and statues.

1st Floor Altar

1st Floor Altar Ceiling

1st Floor Side Altar

1st Floor Side Altar Figure

Ceremonial Drum

Inner Courtyard

Dragon Figures

Elephant Figures

Good Fortune Sculpture 

Decorative Window

Jade Buddha Replica

Roof Decorations

Roof Decorations Closeup

The evening ended with a Chinese acrobatic show (no pictures allowed), which was cool. I assume this is what Cirque de Soleil must be like without all the Vegas flash. The strength and flexibility of these kids is astounding! They had guys somersaulting on tightropes, balancing on stacks of chairs, doing back flips off of suspended bamboo planks, the girls did pyramids while balancing only on one hand, aerial ribbon shows, balancing giant vases and tables on their tip toes; it was crazy! We were told that these performers are identified early on in youth and sent to special acrobatic schools where they get an academic education for about 2-3 hours a day (to learn the basics) and then spend the next 5-7 hours a day in practice. I wonder how long they are able to do this kind of work, though. I would imagine that much intense training is a very short lived career with the impact it would have on one’s body.