End of Vacation
October 7 is not as pleasant as October 1 for me. It is the last day of the long vacation. I finally spent all my seven days luxuriously and tomorrow (Friday) is the first working day after the national holiday. As the cost of withdrawing my vacation deposit in advance, I have to work on the following two-day weekend on Saturday and Sunday.
I didn’t go out of Shanghai this time. I remember in the year 2002, we went to Daocheng. I just started my blog and I recorded the trip in my Daocheng category. It is one of the most interesting travel experiences I have. The next year, the year of 2003, Wendy and I got married we spent the seven days with my family who gathered in Shanghai. This year, I am happy that my family came to Shanghai so I can stay with them. I also worked a lot for many days. It is very exciting though.
Dark City is Better City to Me
Just now, I drove back from the downtown. It was already approaching the mid-night. The lights of all buildings were turned off. There are some seldom light windows on some buildings I learnt that all the scenery lighting system started to work at 6:30 PM till 11:00 PM. I happened to drove along the Bund around 6:20 PM today. The Bund was completely dark – even darker than the nights of the energy crisis, since the road lights were not lit yet.
At around 0:00 AM, when I was driving fast on the Nanpu Bridge, the city is completely dark. I could hardly find the Oriental Pearl and the Jin Mao Building, partly because I was driving so I cannot look for it in the dark night, partly because all the lights were turned off except the twinkle one on the top, so aircrafts do not hit it. The other buildings, near or far, big or small, tall or short, were all dark with shapes that could barely be recognized.
I love this face of the city. When all the colors that lights project on the buildings/towers/squares.. (no matter how you call them) fade out, the city become a better place for people. It is just like the small place I live when I grew up. The moon and stars come out, while they were completely covered by the light on the ground at other times. This appears more nature, more attractive to me than the modern city of Shanghai.
Drive Safely
On the Nanpu Bridge, I could drive at 80 km/hour. The speed limit is 60 km/hour, but other cars passed beside me one by one fast. There are not many cars on the road and it seems safe to driver faster and faster, until something really bad happens. So I always tell me self: the most serious traffic accidents always happen at night.
I am a very skillful driver now. I was very anxious when I changed my lane on the Nanpu Bridge at the begining. Now, I don’t worry about it any more. I am no longer an intern driver – according to my driver’s license. I have to renew the license since it is already one year. I don’t know where to go yet, but I believe I can find out later on some website.
Mr. Wang
For the long holiday you enjoyed during the National Day, I understand you have to re-pay by working over several weekends. Is that mean most of the commercial activities in the country will come a halt for a week? Do the companies in China have any contingency measures against it?
Here in North America, the longest holiday in a row does not exceed 3 days which in line with business activities.
Stephen
Quite on the contrary, the long vacation is the best business time for retailing, travel and food industries. Shops in China do not close when there’s more money to make.
Mr. Zhu
Manufacturing is the major source which drives the economy of China today, having it shut down for a week will result in production disorder and backlot of orders. Worker in China can have prolong holiday three times a year, i.e. National/labour/New Year is unthinkable in western standard.
I am sure the tourist industry is doing a brisky business during the event, but it has little effect in earning hard curreny from overseas.
Stephen
Jian Shuo:
So interesting, your site, your blog, and your pictures. Thank you for all the effort that goes into mainting this. I look forward to getting a peek into life in China by keeping up with your blog.
I was in China on an exchange program in 1986 (Hangzhou). Things were in some ways very different then, and, from what I can tell from this distance, in some ways pretty close to the same. But, wow, the growth spurt the big cities have been going through!! Shanghai has changed so much in 18 years!
The URL I linked just shows pictures I took as I travelled around China. I’m hoping to gather the photos of some of my fellow students and link them to that page sometime this year. Hopefully, though old, the photos will be interesting to you and some of your readers.
Cheers,
Kevin
Your comments are really intresting. the visuals of the buildings & ligthts sounds nice. I hope to see Shanghai some day too. Maybe shoot an independent film there.