This morning I was up early, and down to breakfast before eight o'clock. Afterwards I decided to take an impromtu stroll, and took off without going back upstairs for my cellphone or my bag (home to my new, untried, umbrella).
I hadn't planned on all that much of a walk, less than my usual walk to work, but perhaps ending up near a place where I could pick up some hangers, since I've got shirts that need washing.
A few days before I'd ended up on a street that seemed between the Pent-Ox and the river. I couldn't see anything like that from the window. From my place on the 15th floor it looks like the storage yard, filled with house sided mounds, covered with green tarps, stretching all the way to the riverfront, but it seemed worth checking, especially since there was a street just to the east that headed toward the river.
After passing a few high-end apartment complexes, the road didn't end. It didn't cut back around the Pent-Ox, but it did turn to the east, and I could see a few shops, just past a fire station and about an acre of park lawn.
The walk eastward took me into deep into poverty. As usual, it's not that far, here in China, from riches to people living in squalor. The shops got progressively more meager, and the concrete and wood houses were in a downward spiral, some with big chunks missing, others just falling apart. A couple of blocks later, I was flanked by walls on both side, and what I could see through the gaps were either fields, or ruins... but there were still people selling stuff, and there were still residences, even if the only sign was a hole in the wall, covered by a roped-up blanket.
At the next intersection, surprisingly, a big one, I found another wet market, this one as downscale as anything I've seen. Only a few of the vendors had makeshift tables; most of the product was on the ground. They also had the biggest selection of eels imaginable; at least a couple of dozen different kinds. It was packed, and happy. A sunny day, warm and bright, and what seemed like poverty to me, didn't seem to be dampening the spirits of any of the multitude.
Disentangling myself from the crowd, I checked out the cross street. It was larger than I'd expected, and it didn't look like a dead end, even though it was pointed straight at the river.
A couple of more blocks and I reached the ferry landing. Not quite nine o'clock on a Sunday morning, and the fare was .5RMB. Just six cents. Too good an opportunity to ignore.
It was nothing like Hong Kong's Star Ferry. No amenities, just a painted metal ramp leading down. We, my fellow passengers and I, including those on bicycles, motorbikes and motorcycles, were sent down the ramp like cattle in a stockyard. A few minutes later the ferry showed up, and I got to see the docking (sideways!), and the unloading. A stream of pedestrians and cyclists, including quite a few in yellow hard hats, flowing off to my left.
A buzzer, our gate opened, and I followed the others on to the ferry. No ramp to deal with. The flat metal deck of the ferry was flush with the flat metal dock. It was as no frills as a military transport. Mostly just a flat open area, covered by a roof, with a few green painted benches and ledges around the edges. On the other hand, there was nothing to stop me from walking out to the exposed bow, and have the full open air experiece. Terrific! Definitely worth six cents!
I got off in Puxi, in some unknown neighborhood. From there I just headed north and west, figuring I'd run into Nanjing Road, or some major thoroughfare, eventually. It took over an hour of walking, mostly through neighborhoods that looks like they're scheduled for demolition and renovation, and along the way I bought a shoulder bag (120RMP - too much), and a pair of tweezers (8RMB), and finished the bottle of water I'd carried with me from breakfast.
Eventually I ended up at the beginning of the Bund. Interesting, since the previous evening I'd looked across the river from the Pudong side.
Nothing too adventurous after that. Just a matter of finding the subway, and from there to here, to my office...
Oh, but across the street from here, I cut through the big shopping center that's still under construction (open, but they're still working on the exterior). A wide curve of the modern building faces the intersection of two major streets. Along that curve are huge structural columns, each around ten feet square. And the bottom six or seven feet are massive blocks of rough stone (it's smoother farther up). For the last week about a dozen workmen have been finishing the rough stone. By hand. With double-headed axes as their only tools.
China!