Bomb Threats in Shanghai

As always, Wendy, and I brought Yifan to the Super Brand Mall on Sunday. There are many interesting things for Yifan to play with, from the cute elecronic devices in BestBuy to toys in ToysRus, and the big shoes from Crocs…

However, there are something strange today. The undergrand garage of Super Brand Mall was closed today. There are two policemen safeguarding the entrance, and the entrance was blocked completely with big red road blockers.

At the very begining, I thought it was because the parking lot has been full. Without second thought, I drove on, took a U-turn and get back, and turned right into Shangri-la hotel - my favorite parking lot (although it charges the same as Super Brand Mall - 10 RMB per hour).

To my surprise, the same thing happened with that parking lot. Policemen are standing in front of the entrance, and the sign shows the parking lot is full, again.

I still didn’t realize anything. I thought - what a Christmas crazy time!

I drove on again, and turn right at the Fudu Road - the road along the Huangpu River in Pudong.

Again, all the cars parking long the roads are cleared up. There are five policemen there, and asking all the cars to move on.

I thought it is maybe because this place was cleared up that all the parking lot was full.

I drive on and on, until I reached the parking area under the garden of the Huangpu Park. In normal days, this parking lot is always full, and I didn’t expect they have space. Again, to my even greater surprise, it is almost empty - only 1/5 of the places were occupied.

How come?

When I drove back alnog the Lujiazui area, I found there are at least one policeman at every corner of the street. It is unusual.

Then I started to connect what I saw to the news Wendy told me: Ikea received bomb threat in the garage, and all the customers were evacuated at around 7:00 PM the other day. (Chinese news source).

From last year, people in Shanghai, or other big cities in China started to face the same trouble many countries had been facing for many years - terrism, and attack. It seems to be more and more common in the future. We just need to get used to it.