Getting Around

Pudong Airport is one of two that serve Shanghai.  It’s not close to the city, but east of it, and shares air traffic with Hongqiao Airport which is a little closer and to the southwest of the city center.  Pudong is JFK in New York to Hongqiao’s Laguardia and takes all the International traffic.  Hongqiao is all domestic.

I landed at Pudong when I came to Shanghai in February and flew into Pudong last night from a long weekend in Xiamen to see friends and colleagues I knew when I was at Jimei University last year.  Xiamen is about ninety minutes by air from Shanghai, flights cost between $100 and $170 roundtrip depending on time and day. I took Shanghai’s “Maglev” train from the airport to the nearest subway stop — about a ten minute ride at a top speed on this route of 301 kilimeters per hour.  That’s about 187 miles per hour.  Maglev is short for magnetic levitation.  The airport connection Maglev (about 18 miles) goes as fast as 260 miles per hour, but we took our time.  Maglev means the train moves suspended in nothing by magnetic forces so there’s little or no friction.  The ticket cost 40RMB or about $5.20, expensive for China, but more convenient and faster than bus or taxi to the subway.  About what is costs to get into Manhatten via one of the bridges or tunnels.

The Maglev technology is German.

Bug splatters take on a whole new meaning at high speeds!

New York has no Maglev or even a subway link to Laguardia or Kennedy airports.  Long, expensive taxi rides, weird combinations of bus and subway, or buses are the less-than-convenient modes of travel.   Why is that?   We’re supposed to be good a things.

The long weekend of the  Qing Ming (Ching Ming) Festival, China’s equivalent to Memorial Day, is a big deal here.  Traditionally Chinese families gather to “sweep” the tombs of their ancestors.  They go to the gravesite or a temple and burn ersatz money for their ancestors’ well-being and offer fruit and good thoughts — often “talking” to their departed kin or reading letters or asking for advice.

Veteran's Ceremony at Qingming on Gulangyu, Xiamen

On Gulangyu islet, in Xiamen where I stayed for the weekend, I came upon a memorial ceremony honoring military veterans.  The Japanese first when they occupied Xiamen late in World War II and later civil war diehards in Taiwan caused Xiamen and the surrounding islands some grief.  I watched school kids drape red boyscout scarves around the necks of old Chinese vets and too many people shared a hand in carrying colorful tribute wreaths on tripod stands to the memorial stone much as they do everywhere in the world.

Veteran’s Recognition

Two honored vets

Construction here is quick and very practical.  Everywhere it seems there is construction.  I see people mixing concrete by hand on the street, taking whatever room they need.  Mixing concrete seems to be universal in technique.   Mix sand, stone sometimes and cement in some proportions ( I remember 1, 2 and 3 for shovelsful of cement, sand and stone) and heap it all into a pile; then dig out the center like a volcano and put water in the hole.

These three photos I took over two days on Gulangyu where a small shop was being refurbished.  The plumbing is barely subsurface (pragmatic people), everything is done by hand, and the two or three folks doing the job worked from early in the morning until late at night (after 10).  That’s typical in China from what I’ve seen.

Same day.............same two people