March 24/00

Dalian
chronicles

(part 1)

have just returned from Shanghai

and felt I should put the effort
into writing a few words.

It has been a very quiet time once
everyone left for the holidays, but it
has given me a chance to get caught
up on a lot of projects both at the
office and at home. Last week the
only ones left on the campus seemed
to be Mr. Tian, the computer
departmentemployees, and myself.
Yes it is just like North Vancouver
— the computer employees are
always working. Most people who
live in the development zone (where
I live) have moved here from other
cities to work. Consequently they all
leave and go to their hometowns for
the holiday. This place has become a
ghost town with all the shopping
areas and even the supermarkets
closed not for a day but eight days.
It is hard to find even a street vendor
to buy fruit and vegetables.

On the previous Saturday, Mr.
Tian had called me and asked if I
would be interested in some work at
the local TV studio. The next
morning I went in and had a real fun
day. They were producing a
promotional film for the new

Mitsubitshi Motor Company’s plant
here and needed someone to narrate the
English version of the film. I spent more
time editing the script than I did
actually recording the narration. They
had done a literal translation of the
script and had ended up with phrases
like “the elegant motor part.” It was fun
trying to figure out what they really
wanted to say. In the end, I got well-
paid for the day — and so I should. You
try saying Mitsubitshi a hundred times
in an hour.

Now with some extra cash in hand I
decided to go ahead with my planned
trip to Shanghai for the celebration of
the Spring Festival. With the help of my
friend Peter, I booked passage on a boat
trip, which lasts 40 hours, down the
coast. A first-class ticket was $50. First
class, as I found out, means your own
room and a bathroom. Second class
means you share a room for six and you
can imagine what fourth and fifth class
are like. I was the only foreigner on the
boat and never felt more stared at. The
Chinese people are used to seeing
foreigners on airplanes and trains but I
guess they couldn’t figure out why this
crazy foreigner would want to take a
slow boat to Shanghai.

I arrived in Shanghai at 7 a.m. The
sight of the new business district across
the river with the Pearl Tower seemed
surreal, like some futuristic movie set.
On the west side of the river is the
Bund. It is the old city with its well-
preserved European classical
architecture. I left the boat and walked
to my hotel. The air was fresh and
warm. The vegetation reminded me
very much of Vancouver. The city is
beautiful and so clean. It is for sure a
shopper’s paradise with more malls and
shopping areas than I have ever seen.
Auburn hair for women and an
“orangey” blonde for men seems to be
the height of fashion here. Everyone
crowds into Pizza Hut and KFC, which
are everywhere in the city. They all like
whipping cream on top of their
Coke-Cola.

It is the first city I have seen here that
is completely accessible to the disabled
with all the sidewalks ramped and all
buildings having elevators and signs on
washrooms indicating wheelchair

accessibility. It is also the first city
where I have actually seen a lot of
disabled people in modern wheelchairs
and electric scooters. My room at the
YMCA hotel was a dormitory room
that sleeps four, but of course at this
time of year there are few tourists and
so I had the room to myself. Not bad
for $15 a night.

Friday evening of the festival I
strolled down to People’s Square where
there was, to say the least, a lot of
activity. Dragons were everywhere and
there was a large permanent TV screen
showing special entertainment.
Fireworks began at dusk and came
from every street corner. They
continued non-stop until beyond 1 a.m.
I don’t know when they stopped
because that is when I fell asleep. The
air was so thick with smoke that you
could hardly see the fireworks after a
few hours.

The next morning it was raining and
the streets were crimson with the
wrappers from the firecrackers of the
night before, but the street cleaning
ladies were out with their bamboo
brooms sweeping up. The Shanghai
museum is one of the best I have ever
seen. I spent nearly a whole day in
there. To me it is a real treat to see
artifacts from a civilization that was
flourishing seven millennium ago and
is still continuing to this day.

Once all of the fun was over and I
had shopped at the post-Spring Festival
sales, it was time to try to book my
passage back to Dalian. After quite a
bit of enquiring with sign language,
and the aid of my Chinese phrase book,
I found that the next boat to Dalian
would not depart for several days. I
quickly booked a train ticket back to
Dalian via Beijing. The train ride was a
very pleasant experience with a
comfortable sleeper berth. The trains
are very clean, modern and fast. A
thermos of hot water is always
provided to each set of berths. The
table had a white linen tablecloth and
the berth had a down comforter. The
attendant even comes around after the
lights are turned off and arranges your
shoes and bags neatly at the end of the
bed. I had a few hours between trains in
Beijing and strolled and shopped. cont.