Write Again Soon

« China--Day One | Main | China--Day Four** »

November 13, 2006

China—Days Two and Three*

*Alternatively titled: Molested in Shanghai

Sunday was my day to explore Shanghai. I was met at 9:30 a.m. by a bright, chipper 23-year old by the name of Jackie, who graciously took me to see all of Shanghai's most prominent attractions. I saw the Oriental Tower, a monstrosity of ugly design that seems to delight the residents to no end. We took a walk around Pudong, the new financial district that is all 100-story glass-fronted buildings and carefully sculpted parks, then partook of the Shanghai Sex Culture Museum, the Underwater Mysteries Tour (which was really just a few aquariums full of fish and a row of disgusting 100-year old fish in formaldehyde), the Fantastic World of Sound (a bizarre experience that neither Jackie or I understood), and the fancy underground crossing that took us under the Huangpu River from Pudong to Puxi—the "older" side of Shanghai (where the oldest things date back to the 1920s).

A nice walk through the main shopping street Nanjing donglu and then a taxi ride ultimately led us to the Old Town section for a traditional lunch. By then I was exhausted, but delighted to take the ferry back to Pudong, then a walk and bus ride back to the hotel. All in all, I managed to try out all of Shanghai's transport options (except the subway—and I'm not sure I can manage that on my own).

By then I was desperate to take a nap, but decided that a massage was a nice alternative—and one that would better serve my attempt to acclimate to the time difference. And what an experience it was! First of all, a massage at the hotel spa was surprisingly inexpensive—two hours for $60. And it wasn't just a massage—on no, there was also molestation!

(It occurs to me that some of you, dear reader, will attribute that last statement to my flair for the dramatic—but let me assure you that I am *not* exaggerating. Unless you think that a breast massage (complete with nipple pinching) is part and parcel of a Shanghai massage. Which maybe it is, but was still rather shocking. My complete inability to communicate prevented me from better dealing with the situation—I confess that my ultimate reaction was to keep my eyes shut and go to a "happy place" where my breasts weren't being assaulted by a strange Chinese man.)

Aside from that very uncomfortable 15 minutes, I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the massage, but was very unhappy to discover that the process left me bruised. (I actually took a picture of my back this morning,, where the row of fingerprints down my spine does not do justice to the pain that woke me every time I moved last night.)

After the massage I had a very nice dinner with the company that contracted the Big Idea for the whole Shanghai project—then called it a night. So ended Day Two in China.

Day Three began early, and was filled with Big Idea activity. The workshop that I'm leading was VERY stressful, but I think it went well. Nothing as exciting as an uninvited breast massage—so I'll skip the details. Suffice it to say that the participants were quite nice, with excellent English skills. We'll see how it goes tomorrow, several of the participants were quite forthcoming with how they thought I should "improve" the sessions. Oh well—can't be everything to everyone, you know?

It's about 6:30 p.m. now. I've had a lovely dinner of room service and am now watching the tail end of Vanity Fair on HBO and making some corrections to tomorrow's workshop. I still haven't figured out how to spend my remaining time in Shanghai—that will be a task for tomorrow night. For now I just need to concentrate on convincing the workshop organizers to bring me back for a second time in the spring. I am determined to take a proper Chinese vacation, this week in Shanghai is just not enough.

Comments

Posted by: pleasant_mornings at November 13, 2006 12:56 PM

Posted by: bad apologies at November 20, 2006 04:21 PM

Post a comment