Pudong
Mar 23, 2011 by Sushi Bird
A big statue of Chen Yi right in front of our hotel. There was not much signs of communism apart from internet cencorship and various statues. I thought it was quite interesting that the statues are still standing. Well, obviously they are still standing, but I remember going on holiday through Eastern Europe, and a lot of the old communist statues there have been torn down, so it was really neat to see a country where all the statues are still standing and in great condition.
On the left, our hotel. On the right, one of the many walkways in Pudong.
Pudong by day. The night scene with the lights are absolutely amazing, pictures to follow in a later post.
A floating golden pagoda!
And in the middle of all the concrete, a little shrine. I love the contrasts.
We then had noodles for lunch, followed by…
…Starbucks. Still not convinced by Starbucks, their coffee is so incredibly mediocre to me. Maybe they have some special things on the menu that I have not tried yet? It seems a lot of other people love Starbucks, and if you do, please recommend a drink or two from their menu that does not taste like overheated milk with traces of mediocre espresso beans. Please. That being said, Starbucks beats most of the common Japanese coffee chains any day.
And then we took this incredibly silly but very cute tunnel that went from Luwan to Pudong. It seems to me like China is trying to be all fancy and high-tech and glamorous at times, but it doesn’t quite give the same feeling of high-class as fancy-high-class Japanese? Maybe I am wrong here, I have had far more time exploring Tokyo, so I assume that a short week in Shanghai can not really capture the true essence of the city. There is tons of good stuff about China as well, people here are outgoing and not afraid to try to talk to you, and it makes me feel less worried and less self-conscious when everyone else is just kind of whatever.
I think it’s digusting that the statue is still standing. Mao is responsible for taking 77,000 lives. Not cool.
I actually do not agree with you on this one. Not because I think Mao is a good guy or that he is not responsible for the loss of a lot of people, but my personal opinion is that we should not cover up important historical events or monuments. I understand if other people feel otherwise, but I believe that we should preserve important historic monuments no matter if they are good or bad, for the sake of history. If we start going down the path of destroying important historical artifacts, we can also burn the remains of viking ships (since they were used for rape and plundering), close of the pyramids in Egypt (since they were built by slaves), and we should close Auschwitz and Birkenau (since in reality they were death factories). It is important to remember history the way it went down, and keeping up monuments will help in preserving a more nuanced view of history, instead of trying to erase uncomfortable events from the history books. I believe that when we try to erase part of our history, it gives history an excellent opportunity to repeat itself.
Well, I think it’s ridiculus they have it in the middle of the street. I think they should’ve put it on a museum or some place where you can learn about communism, but you certainly have a point. 🙂
it’s a statue of Chen Yi, not of Mao! Chen Yi was a Mayor of Shanghai…
That is totally true! I actually found that out a couple of months back, but I never got around to update my entry! Thanks for pointing it out again, it is fixed now 🙂
Ah, nydelige bilder som vanlig… Lyst til å besøke Kina en dag!
Tusen takk skal du ha. Shanghai var en veldig fin by, jeg hadde hatt utrolig lyst til å besøke andre deler av Kina også, men det får bli neste gang. Nå kjenner jeg litt på den følelsen av at “jeg var i Kina, men jeg så ikke muren”… Akkurat som da jeg dro til Egypt og _ikke_ så pyramidene.
In Moscow they made an amazing park out of their old statues. There are still many around in the city, but I guess the sheer number of monuments was a bit much.
It really not so strange that the statues are still standing in China though. In Beijing, Mao’s portrait hangs at the Tiananmen gate in to the Forbidden City, his face is on the currency and people queue to visit his maosoleum. Mao is no longer a god in China, but he is still an important figure and the official policy today is that he did 70% good and 30% bad. And in my opinion, while China are guilty of not dealing with their history, the rest of the world tends to have a simplistic view of an entire century of history in the world’s largest country.
I absolutely agree with you about how the world has a simplistic view on China. I was just thinking about just how little I learned about Asian countries when I was in school, I have so many gaps and holes to fill in when it comes to history knowledge.
Kjempeflotte bilder! Veldig gøy å følge bloggen din! 🙂 Neste gang du er på Starbucks bør du prøve frappuccino chocolat eller java chip, men chocolat er absolutt best 🙂 Den varme kakaoen (viennois? det heter det hvertfall på fransk, men greia er bare at det er med masse krem på) er også veldig god.
Jeg har helt glemt å svare på en kommentar jeg skrev og du svare på for lenge siden. Takk for svar om skole i Japan, forresten! Jeg går på vgs i Lyon, det er ikke utveksling heller, men gjennom Fylkesmannen i Vest-Agder (FIVAI.no) som gjør at 8 jenter får muligheten til å komme inn på skolen i Lyon hvert år, og flere andre på noen skoler i nord. Jeg kjedet meg rett og slett i min lille bygd i sør-Norge og ville gjerne ut i verden så fort som mulig! 🙂 Jeg angrer ikke et sekund! Det har helt klart fått meg til å vokse opp fortere enn de fleste andre, men det å studere og bo i utlandet fører jo bare positive ting med seg for framtiden! 🙂
Tusen takk for forslag. Jeg er faktisk innom Starbucks kanskje en gang i uken når jeg skal treffe en venninne for language exchange, men jeg ender alltid opp med å bestille samme type latte eller svart kaffe. Nå skal jeg prøve en frappuchino neste gang 🙂