Hai from Shanghai
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Showing posts tagged travel
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”At times, (our guide) marvelled at Europe’s high standard of living—bombarding us with statistics on the price of Bordeaux wines or the average height of a well-fed Dutchman—but, if there was ever a time when Chinese visitors marvelled at Europe’s economy, this was not that time. Li made a great show of acting out a Mediterranean life style: “Wake up slowly, brush teeth, make a cup of espresso, take in the aroma.” The crowd laughed. “With a pace like that, how can their economies keep growing? It’s impossible.” He added, “In this world, only when you have diligent, hardworking people will the nation’s economy grow.
From “The Grand Tour,” Evan Osnos’s wonderful piece about a Chinese tour group’s trip through Europe, from last spring’s New Yorker Travel Issue. The story works on two levels, with deep insights about that Great Inescapable 21st-Century Topic (i.e., the Inevitable Rise of 21st-Century China) woven into a hilarious travelogue (Oh, those wacky Chinese — so different than we…).
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”Zhu said that Chinese interest in Europe contained a deeply personal motivation: “When Europe was ruling the world, China was strong as well. So why did we fall behind? We’ve been thinking about that ever since.” Indeed, the question of why a civilization that had printing six hundred years before Gutenberg slumped in the fifteenth century runs like a central nerve through China’s analysis of its past and its prospects for a return to greatness. Zhu offered an explanation: “Once we were invaded, we didn’t respond quickly enough.” It was a narrative of victimhood and decline that I’d often heard in China. (Historians also tend to blame the stifling effects of bureaucracy and authoritarianism, among other factors.) But Zhu did not trace all of China’s troubles to foreign invaders. “We cast aside our three core ideas—Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism—and that was a mistake. We were taught Marxist revolutionary ideas from 1949 to 1978.” He paused and watched his wife and daughter snapping photographs at the railing, an orange sun sinking into the city beyond them. “We spent thirty years on what we now know was a disaster,” he said.
More from “The Grand Tour”
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(The "Other") China Mike
Really good site, whatever you’re looking for. Very comprehensive.
Guess I’ll have to be China Michael.
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”It’s so high! I reach the top and see all the skyscrapers at a single glimpse!” she talked to the people nearby with her legs trembling on the transparent glass floor and thought: will this glass floor collapse by stepping on it?
Promotional text for the observation deck at the World Financial Center, from the “Shanghai Visitor’s Kit.”
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Yesterday I went to the Bund, Shanghai’s most famous — and photogenic — spot, and took a few hundred photos. Here are a few of ‘em.
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At 10 a.m. on 1 December 2011, the pastry chefs of Pudong Shangri-La, Shanghai will attempt to break the existing Guinness World Record for the longest Yule log cake, which stands at 207.80 metres long, by creating an 888‑metre-long cake.
Seems appropriate that the longest Christmas dessert of all time should be Made in China.
BTW, 888 meters is more than half a mile. How is that only the longest yule-log cake of all time??
Likes
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CYBERDOG
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SHANGHAI’S GANGNAM GRANNIES
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HOW MY ST PATRICK'S DAY ENDED
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Huskies look pretty pumped to be taking part in a training session at Feshiebridge, in Aviemore,...
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WALKING PAST THAT CD HAWKER ON DONGHU LU WHO'S ALWAYS PLAYING 'THE ROSE'
