Last Call

Shanghai.
Yesterday, Suzchou. Visited the Master of Nets Garden, the quintessential Chinese garden. Suzchou is sister city to PDX, and built the Portland Chinese garden. The street of shops reminded me of New Hope, PA, or Pike St Market with a sea of humanity on bicycles coming at you up and down the street. There is so much building going on in every city we have visited, and Suzchou was no different. They are protecting the older part of town, lots of canals (the "venice" of China) and little lakes, and are building a newer part of town in partnership with Singapore. A huge public park with art, dragon boats, music, grass, walks, trees on their big lake. This is not the quaint old china that one thinks about before coming here.

Every meal has been huge - we are served lots of food. The guide is the "country host" and part of this is a cultural thing, serving food to guests as a welcoming gesture. But there is so much, we are feeling badly about leaving food behind. We asked Mark, the guide, what happens to the extra? Can you give it to the poor? Can you feed animals with it? But, no. It gets thrown out. He said, not to worry. It wouldn't be so bad, but most of us remember hearing "Finish the food on your plate, think of all the starving kids in China..." or something like that.

Our hotel (The Ocean Hotel) is close to the Bund - the big waterfront area of Shanghai, another open space for walking, etc. Our room looks out on smaller one and two story homes, very old. And interspersed are skyscrapers. It is an odd mixed use of real estate. They are tearing down the old as fast as they can and building more skyscrapers. My historic preservation packrat wants to get out there among the buildings being demolished and bring home a window frame or two...

The open door policy has changed China in the last 10 years, and if I am to come here again, even in 1 or 2 years, it will be very different.

Signing off. This computer is 2 yuan per minute!