I know many of you have been here before, and lots of people were even raised here, so I'm not sure what the point of my impressions would be, as I'm sure there are many who can give much more insight to the city than I. (Besides the fact that I have barely been here 24 hours, and I'm already on my way again).
But a few observations: Work starts late, and ends late. Like some nation-wide Chinese time, or something. Oddly, coming into the city at 9am, I was struck by the entire lack of pedestrian or vehicular traffic. Apparently, things don't really start getting busy around here till at least 11am, and then keep going till the wee hours of the morning....
Also, despite all the glitz and glamour here (of which there is much: how many Burberrys does a city need, anyways? Though I have been equally as guilty, dragging everyone to Shanghai Tang to shop :P ), I sense a world-weariness here. Certainly, there have been political and economic issues surrounding this area for a while, perhaps not on a 'human devastation' scale, but ??perhaps because of all the consumerism, or relative wealth??, I do sense a fatigue from that.... ??perhaps it is a vague realization of the lack of satisfaction from speed and haste, or from things?? I can't quite grasp that... I just sense that the whole city almost sighs from its weariness... or maybe I'm just blowing out of my ear, but at least, that's what I sense when I am here...
Onto Thailand, and, if I'm lucky, the best pad thai ever...
No comments:
Post a Comment