Over the stretch of last weekend, a party of four of my family left for Shanghai on semi-DIY basis. On the way to the hotel we were dwelling, nearly starting from the airport, our van were stuck in the
bumper-to-bumper traffic, taken two hours before we could finally rest ourselves on beds. Later on in the evening, we confronted another heavy traffic, droves of tourists in Shintiendi(新天地), making us see no sights but different faces.

The densely-populated city has made people impatient and less tolerant toward others. No wonder the city has so emphasized "civilization"(文明) everywhere on almost all activities: traffic control, construction and daily life. The phenomenon is a sad reflection that people in Shanghai are now less civilized, at least not so civilized that required in doing the honors to host the Expo 2010 with true urbanity, despite the ostensible magnificience of the skyscrapers and neon lights.

In spite of all the congestion, there are several tranquil, tree-cladstreets worthy of taking a walk on, such as 衡山街 and 天平街, where some memorial residences or halls are located such as those of 孫中山，宋慶齡，周恩來 etc. I did walk down the streets, but I missed the chance visiting the attractions; instead, I visited 蔡元培s located near Jing’an Temple(靜安寺). By the way, if you prefer shopping, 淮海路 is a marvelous place to go, though it is not as classic and stylish as Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, NYC. Besides, on 南京路 there is a broad, colorful promonade of 1.1k that you can stroll along leisurely.

We also took a day visiting Zhouzhuang(周莊) in outskirts, a place
similiar to Venice but more of Chinese character. At first place we
planned to visit Soozhou(蘇州) to see pavilions, but we changed our mind when we had seen a splendid one, 豫園, located in towndown Shanghai.  Needless to say, it’s also worth you a while paying a nocturnal visit to that eyepopping scenes on either banks of Huangpu River .

p.s. Not exaggeratedly, I had seen as many Caucasians and Africans in five days as the total combined that Id in Taipei over past ten years! Think about this.

November, 2007