2018-08-23

【Aiden in English】

        Alright, so now I'm in Shanghai... That was fast. I guess it's expected of a bullet train. Leaving Nanjing in the late morning, we arrived at Shanghai at mid-day, receiving a very, very warm welcome with delicious Shanghai cuisine. Luckily, the humidity dialed down a notch to a bearable level, and many shops in Shanghai had air conditioning. 

        I suppose that would be the first difference I noted between Shanghai and Nanjing. There was quite a drop in degrees, Celsius, but the sun shines brightly I feel in Shanghai. Perhaps it's the East China Sea residing right beside the city, or the lack of ozone right above the city, but under the sun, it is swelteringly hot. Then you step into one of the many Gucci or Nike stores and it feels like a freezer. This also transitions into another major difference: there are a lot, I mean a ton, of the imported goods. Today's journey took me and mom along Shanghai's Main Street like Yu Garden and Nanjing Road, normally a culturally rich place. However, Shanghai is a port city with a lot of money and a lot of visitors, resulting in high cultural diffusion. So, instead of some local sportswear, you have some American models posing with style rocking Air Jordan's or Gucci sweatshirts. It may seem pointless, but the flare of these streets comes at night when an ocean of people comes out and policemen have to direct the flow wandering the sidewalk. On any given block, you could have ten police officers lined up with batons and obnoxious whistles tweeting at any sign of stepping out of order. 

        So what does being the center of Chinese trade make you? Well, you get the best coastal city view in the world. I thought Penn's Landing in Philadelphia at night was magical; Shanghai wanted to destroy that image. And well, I can safely say Shanghai's city coastline blows every other city I've been to out of the water. Surrounding the Bund along the Huangpu River, a mother river, the mouth opens straight into the East China Sea. That should be a beautiful natural sight, but money decides city growth, not scenery, so the spread of skyscrapers ended up swallowing up the mouth on both sides. The result, arguably a more beautiful sight than the river itself. A night lit up by stars, the moon, and an electric glow emitting from several modern pieces of metal.

        China has a lot of people as we already know. But it's astonishing to see so many people around the world come out at once for a night view of a river. I suppose when you get a sight so clean like this, it motivates the soul to go out and explore. A black surface extends to the horizon, only to be interrupted by ships and reflections. Then, an opposing bank rises out of the dark, protruding high into the black sky, black as the water, similarly lit by reflection. In limbo hangs a series of modern architectural works of art, testing and turning, lights illuminating the edges, marking the angles, and defining each corner. Later on in the night, the Oriental Pearl Tower even put on a light show, drawing 'oooh's and 'aaaahhh's from the crowd of spectators. And what a crowd it was. Massive lines piled up to even get onto the riverside. We went with the flow, and twenty minutes later arrived at the night show, all well worth the wait.

        Today felt like our visit to Rome all over again. We hardly stopped (the longest break all afternoon was for restrooms), and we drained all our water. However, neither the heat nor the people stopped us from exploring (almost). Due to the two days we are spending in Shanghai, mom attempted to cram as much of the city into 24 hours as possible, and I got to say, sometimes more is more.

【紅霞譯文】

        這下好嘞，現在我來到上海……眨眼工夫，多虧了高鐵，上午很晚的時候動身離寧，中午時分便如期抵滬，千里之行始於嘴下，美味可口的本幫菜隆重為我們接風洗塵。值得慶幸的，濕度業已降到好過的程度，況且上海許多商場店鋪愛用空調。

        可能這是上海與南京之間我所察覺的首要區別，溫度低了幾度（攝氏），不過陽光火辣，也許因為靠近東海或缺乏臭氧層的緣故，所以天氣依舊悶熱，可一旦踏入像古馳、耐克之類的商店卻恍若鑽進冰庫，由此引出兩地第二個區別：進口產品比比皆是。今天我們的行程集中在豫園及南京路一帶，通常列為歷史積澱豐富的地方。然而，上海屬於港口城市，古往今來生意興隆群英薈萃，導致文化高度滲透，致使當地體育用品難尋立錐之土，美國模特所做的 “飛人喬丹”鞋款或“古馳”運動衫廣告牌鋪天蓋地，說這些似乎毫無特殊意義，但當夜幕降臨霓虹齊放潮水般的遊客湧上街頭時，警察不得不全力以赴疏導交通，任何一個交叉道口，你都能看到十名警官嚴陣以待，只要發現有人偏離步行過道，他們立刻揮舞手中的指揮棒並玩命吹響刺耳的哨笛。

        那麼身置中國貿易中心究竟有何感想呢？沒錯，你將全天下最棒的海岸線盡收眼底，我覺得費城威廉·潘登陸地的夜景固然奇妙，但跟上海外灘相比卻黯然失色，而且我可以肯定地說十里洋場萬國建築群與江水交相輝映的美景蓋過本人所鑑賞過的任何一座海濱城市。從外灘附近沿黃浦江這條母親河順流而下，江水經吳淞口直入東海，“一條大河波浪寬，風吹稻花香兩岸”，自然風光本應充滿質樸氣息，但金錢主宰城市發展，而非取決於地貌狀況，因此高樓大廈如雨後春筍般飛速發展，徹底改變了河口兩岸鄉土風貌，結果確實讓上海出落得摩登無比，黃浦江上繁星璀璨月光閃爍，若干現代化金屬產品發射出溢彩流光，外灘的夜晚燈火輝煌。

        中國人口眾多早已是既成事實，但親眼目睹來自五湖四海的遊客為觀賞夜景共同湧向黃浦江畔的宏大場面還是甚感震撼，我想每當趕上像今晚這麼好的能見度，難免讓人放飛思想，要不是船隻穿梭光線反射，黑黢黢水面一直會延伸到遠方的地平線。接着，對岸霓虹劃破黑暗，高高懸掛在夜空之中，水天一色珠璧交輝。一系列現代建築藝術作品仍處於施工階段，燈光打到框架四周，把邊角輪廓照得一清二楚。晚上，東方明珠塔上演了一場燈光秀，陣陣“哦”“啊”驚嘆聲從圍觀的人群里迸發出來，氣勢滂沱。大隊人馬集結於江邊，我們隨大流走到哪兒算那兒，廿分鐘後表演才開始進行，為此付出的等待非常值得。

        今天我仿佛重歸羅馬，一路上馬不停蹄（整個下午歇腳最長的地方非廁所莫屬），出了幾身臭汗。其實，這既不怪天氣炎熱也不怨人多擁堵（說得過去），由於上海之行咱前後僅逗留兩天時間，所以媽媽打算儘可能把大部頭活動安排在廿四小時以內，要我說有時多多益善。

Today in History(歷史上的今天):

2017: Black Forest NP—Home to Cuckoo Clocks(德國黑森林國家公園)

2017: Baden the Longest Wine Region, DEU(德國巴登—跨度最長的葡萄酒區)

2017: Neuf Brisach—Fortification of Vauban, FRA(法國新布賴薩赫—沃邦防禦工事)

2017: Breisach the Haven of Romance along the Rhine, DEU(德國布賴薩赫—萊茵河浪漫天堂)

2017: Colmar—Capital of Alsatian Wine(法國科爾馬—阿爾薩斯葡萄酒之都)

2017: Colmar the City of Fairy Tale, FRA(法國科爾馬—童話之城)

2017: Colmar—Hometown of F. Bartholdi, FRA(法國科爾馬—自由女神故鄉)

2017: Colmar the Little Venice, FRA(法國科爾馬—微型威尼斯)

2017: Strasbourg Kouglof, FRA(法國斯特拉斯堡—奶油圓蛋糕)

2015: Forbidden City, Beijing(北京紫禁城)

2014: YMCA Camp─Dodgeball-3(基督教青年會夏令營─躲避球之三)

Crosslink(相關博文):

China(出遊中國)