September 17 2006 – Reflections on a Shanghai Sunday Morning

1030 HRS: Lobby Restaurant (Get Name) breakfast buffet—bacon and eggs over easy with croissants and butter (I get the last of the chocolate croissants). Outside the high ceiling restaurant, peppered with last minute diners, the sky is overcast on this Sunday morning.

1100 HRS: Out of the hotel and crossing Yanggao Nanlu (lu “road” nan “south”), I begin walking down Lan Chun Lu on my way to Nextage, the second largest department store in the world. As soon as I cross Yanggao I pass an upscale wine shop, no doubt frequented by the guests at the Sofitel. I look inside as I call my daughter RF to wish her happy birthday. I let the phone ring for a bit then leave a message and turn from the wine shop heading west on Lan Chun. About a half block along the way, I pass four men squatting on the sidewalk playing cards, their bicycles—parked on either side of the foursome—are loaded down with cardboard. I surmise that they recycle cardboard and have taken a break to see if they can supplement their earnings at their fellow workers’ expense. A short while later, RF calls me back and we have a chat as I walk. I describe the wine shop—RF and her husband AF are into wine, my encounter with the gamblers, and my destination. She recounts her Saturday birthday celebration, which has just concluded with dinner. I ring off wishing her happy birthday and telling her to kiss the grand kids for me.

1120 HRS: I had stopped at the intersection where Lan Chun crosses Dong Fang Lu, which is a wider boulevard teaming with pedestrians. I had found an eddy in the stream of pedestrian traffic to stand and talk not wanting to hazard a crossing while conversing. Once across the intersection, Lan Chun has grown more congested with pedestrian and street traffic. I’m now walking along a tree lined sidewalk with vendors showing their wares on any space they can spread a cloth and not completely obstruct foot traffic—pirated DVDs, watches, handbags, fruits and vegetables from wooden carts, cooked foods, etc. My senses are overwhelmed with: the smell of engine exhaust and cooking food from street vendors and the restaurants lining Lan Chun Lu; the steady stream of young and old faces coming toward me; the sound of honking horns and chatter of conversations all around me—buyers and sellers bartering, men and women speaking earnestly into cell phones, conversations between friends catching up on the latest gossip, news, or personal experiences; the sea of Chinese characters filling my field of view advertising everything a shopper might want to buy. The shops along Lan Chun Lu are small businesses, not outlets of well known chains—stores selling small consumer appliances, barbers, beauty shops, small retailers selling mostly women’s fashions, a shop offering chairs—hard to tell if he made the finished goods on site…

What I’ve noticed walking west along Lan Chun Lu is that the street is narrower than the wide boulevard Yanggao Nanlu and Hua Mu Lu where I ran earlier this morning. Traffic is more congested with cars competing for space with bicycles and motorcycles, and motor scooters. On the sidewalks, two wheeled motorized or manually propelled cycles vie with pedestrians for right of way. The sidewalks serve as parking as well for all the forms of transport, with pedestrians weaving their way among the beached machines. When I reach the intersection where Lan Chun Lu crosses Nan Quan Lu, for some reason I think it’s time to turn right and head north if I’m to reach Nextage. The route along Nan Quan has a mix of high rise residential—one named the Golden Pool Garden—as well as store front businesses and the occasional big business—the Bank of Shanghai, which is open on Sunday. Just before I come upon the bank, I’m struck by a young boy, pre or early teens, walking toward me with his grandmother, holding her arm—both about the same height. He is speaking rapidly to her and she is listening intently to his every word. As I cross a canal that runs beneath Nan Quan Lu, I see Feiyu Printing, which is on the opposite side of the road from me and across from Fortune Securities in a larger building that befits its lofty name at the intersection of Nan Quan and Bei Zhangjiabang Lu. Next to this enterprise with the upscale name is another commercial structure that has one tenant sporting the English name East Day Bar and another proclaiming itself Hainer Health & Fit Keeping with the slogan “By Our Hands.” I find the juxtaposition interesting—financial well being next to sensory alteration and physical therapy.

1200 HRS: Beyong Bei Zhangjiabang Lu, Nan Quan Lu becomes Laoshan Lu, which is a commercial corridor similar to what I’ve been passing through. I see in the street bicyclist loaded down with cardboard. This time I notice that they have a bell they ring as they ride, no doubt asking the merchant to bring out their discarded cardboard. The one establishment that makes me stop and take note is a restaurant along the way with the unlikely name of “Smart Noshery Makes You Slobber.” Now if that isn’t a name to conjure I don’t know what is. It appears to be doing a good business. The brisk breeze and the shade from the trees keep the walk comfortable until Laoshan Lu crosses the wider boulevard of Zhang Yang Lu. There across the boulevard is my destination, the huge Nextage Department store. I join the pedestrians massed on this side of Zhang Yang waiting for the traffic light to change. I see crossing guards on all for corners of the intersection in light blue uniforms, whistles at the ready to chastise pedestrians and motorists alike for any infractions. They have their jobs cut out for them for motorists routinely run red lights and weave in and out of the stream of pedestrians crossing the intersection, who likewise taunt the lights and the crossing guards. The pedestrians resemble water flowing around obstacles that are also moving. I manage to make the crossing without any close calls and momentarily look back at the chaotic corridor before going into the southeast entrance to the huge shopping complex that is Nextage.

Inside the door, I pass a very large Haagan Daz Ice Cream shop which is across the way from a restaurant that I don’t remember the name of. Beyond these two eateries lies aisle after aisle of cosmetics with every designers’ name I know and many that I don’t. I continue down the aisle that confronted me as I entered looking on either side for an escalator to the next floor—this is not the place to buy men’s running shorts. I find what I’m looking for and proceed to the next floor, which is ladies fashions, up to the third floor which is linens and things as well as more ladies clothing. The fourth floor is devoted to men’s fashions and I get off the vertical treadmill and walk about among the aisle after aisle of men’s suits and casual wear all sporting high price tags and well known designer names. I see shirts that I really would like to buy but not at the prices shown. I realize that what I’m looking for is not here and take the escalator up one flight to the fifth floor and find my quest: athletic attire of every kind. I find two pair of white running shorts, two tee shirts just over 100 RMB. What a deal. I make my selection and the sales clerk and I communicate through body language and hand signs. She checks to make sure I want both pair—they are different sizes—large and extra large—but I figure for the price it didn’t matter if one didn’t fit. I reassure her that I want both and then select a packet of large tee-shirts. She writes up my purchase on a sales slip and I hand her a 100 RMB note, but she points to a cashier and hands me the sales slip. I realize that I have to pay the cashier and return with the paid receipt to collect my goods, which I do.

1225 HRS: Purchase complete, I begin to rethink whether I might really want to buy those shirts I had seen on the fourth floor. Off the escalator I begin looking at all the different counters and get stopped at the shoes where I see the familiar Playboy brand on men’s shoes. (If you want to build a brand, start in a newly affluent place where all brands start off equal.) I like the shoes and am about to buy a pair or two but think better of it. Start off to buy a shirt, get distracted into buying shoes, and once that purchase is made, end up with a suit. Spending RMBs didn’t seem like spending money. I content myself with the running togs and leave the way I came in. Once outside I notice that the building across the street is called Times Square, which I remember from my previous sightseeing tour through here in July. At the entrance to Times Square is a Starbucks and I decide I need a Caffe Latte. Taking my life in my hands I cross with the current of pedestrian to the other side of Zhang Yang, enter the coffee shop and purchase my latte, which I bring outside to drink at the outdoor tables set up in front of the shop.

1245 HRS: Latte consumed, I begin my return trip to the Sofitel retracing my route. As I reach the canal that Nan Quan Lu crosses just beyond its intersection with Bei Zhangjiabang Lu, my progress is arrested by the sound of a saxophone. At the top of the bridge over the canal I spy the lone male musician with an audience of one sitting beside him one of the several benches beneath a crawling plant covered trellis on the northern side of the canal. Nearer the bridge on the same side are two fishermen lines dipping into the pea soup colored waters. The melody that made me stop and listen had the familiar sound of a Chinese melody, nothing I could name but distinctly Chinese. He ends the piece and I wait for him to play another only this time when he begins, it’s the quite familiar melody of Greensleeves. Emotionally, I’ve been transported from one world to another in the matter of minutes. As I complete my journey to the Sofitel, I’m renewed and my steps seem lighter.

September 4, 2006 – Spending the Day with the Scots

September 4, 2006 – Spending the Day with the Scots

IM and I drove over to visit our daughter MS, her husband GS and our grandkids ES and JS, in Pleasanton this Sunday morning just before noon. IM and I spent the afternoon with MS at the Scottish Highland Games running at the Alameda County Fair Grounds over the weekend. It was one of those perfect summer days in the East Bay, temperature in the mid 80s Fahrenheit, an on shore breeze blowing a cooling wind off San Francisco Bay over the East Bay hills and cooling the cloudless summer day to the point that it felt just the slightest bit chilling when sitting in the shade, where we spent the afternoon watching Scottish Highland Dancing, which concluded with the Sailor's Hornpipe. After the dancing concluded at around 4:00 PM, we walked over to the grandstand of the fairground's horse racing track where the last of the Highland Games were concluding. We watched men attired in kilts heft briefcase shape 175-lbs lead weights along a course that rounded a cone and reversed to a starting cone. The trek was repeated until their muscles and/or will gave out. The man who went the furthest before dropping his load won. The same competition followed for women who had to heft 85-lbs loads. There is something compelling and absorbing about watching someone straining every muscle in their body after all their strength has seemingly been exhausted to carry on beyond their limit. We were less than twelve feet from one end of their short track and we could see the exertion and determination in their expression as well as the disappointment and relief when they quit their pursuit. Watching their struggle was more compelling than who won or lost.

The Scots have been coming together in these gatherings longer than anyone can remember. In the Highlands, every year members of a clan would assemble to celebrate and strengthen bonds. The practice continued in the U.S., Canada, and elsewhere in the British Empire when large numbers of clans were forced to emigrate from the highlands after the Battle of Culloden and legislation of 1746 that led to the destruction of the traditional clan system in Scotland. Many of the displaced arrived in Nova Scotia—the largest settlement of Gaelic speaking Scots outside of Great Britain, other parts of Canada, the United States—especially in the South, and Australia. A large number of Scots found their way to California during the Gold Rush. One newly arrived Scot was among the 48 members of the first State Convention in Monterey, California that drafted the first California Constitution on October 10, 1849. Formed in 1865, The Caledonian Club of San Francisco, sponsors of the Pleasanton Highland Games, started the first Highland Games, in 1866 and the tradition has continued to this day

The competition concluded at about 5:00 PM at which time nearly everyone at the fair began to converge on the grandstand and the macadam standing-room-only area in front of the grandstand that extended to the railing fencing in the racetrack, where we had taken up position. Everyone was awaiting the fair’s finale which concludes with massed pipe and drum bands from all over the Western states and Canada. The U.S. Marine Corp. band was also scheduled to perform. The program began with the large pipe and drum band from Los Angeles, winner of the band competition at the fair this year, marching in front of the grandstand to much applause and cheering. The song they were playing “Scotland the Brave” was what MS had been wanting to hear since she entered the fair. The sound of bagpipes and drums playing one of the most stirring melodies of Caledonia, made everyone assembled here Scottish and very proud of it. After ten minutes of play in front of the reviewing stand, the band marched off and the announcer with great fanfare introduced the 29 Palms U.S. Marine Corp. band massed on the dirt field of the racetrack to the left of where the three of us stood. Every man and woman of the ensemble was decked out in spit-shined shoes, white trousers, and ceremonial blue coat with anodized brass buttons running from waist to neck collar emblazoned with the USMC insignia.

With the introduction, the band struck up a march that after a few notes became the familiar sound of “Scotland the Brave,” an intro designed to please the audience. Moving past our position and reaching the reviewing stand, the band put on a show including an homage to New Orleans complete with the band reproducing a New Orleans jazz funeral. Various sections of the band—brass, woodwinds, tubas, and drums each took turns showing their virtuosity, ending with drums clowning and a couple of players loosing their sticks. At this moment the band master descend from his raise conducting stage, and assuming the strident authoritative voice of a drill instructor demand the screw-ups drop to the ground and deliver ten pushups, which they immediately do to great clamor from the audience all now engaged in the comedy going on before them. This over, the band reassembles and the announcer made known that the band would play music from Disney’s hit movie “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

When the Marine Corps band left the field, every pipe and drum band that had made the trip to Pleasanton to compete in band competition over the weekend massed on the field in front of the reviewing stand in preparation for one last performance before the Games officially came to an end. With one drum major leading and several other drum majors spaced in front of and along the ranks of assembled bands, the orders were given for all to begin play and we heard “Amazing Grace,” begun by a lone piper on the reviewing stand and accompanied by all those assembled on the field behind him. The Marine Corps band which had joined the assembled musicians, played a few more selections, including another Scottish standard “Auld Lang Syne." The band concluded by playing the anthems of each of the four military services, starting with the “Anchors Away,” then going to “Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder,” followed by “The Caissons Go Rolling Along,” and concluding with “From the Halls of Montezuma.” As each anthem was played veterans from that branch of the service were asked to stand and be recognized by the assembled audience. The Scots have been recruited for military service ever since there was a Scotland and they’ve filled the ranks of Britain, France, the United States, and many other nations over the centuries and will continue to do so.

With the bands marching off the field the stands began to clear and the three of us started our walk out of the fairgrounds and back to the car and the ride home. I was getting hungry as I hadn’t had anything since a late breakfast this morning, while IM and MS had stood in a long line just after we arrived at the fairground to get their serving of fish and chips for IM and Bangers and chips for MS. On the way home we scored Pizza at the New York Pizza on Main Street in Pleasanton at its junction with Spring Street then rushed home to eat our dinner in the backyard on MS’s and GS’s place watching the last rays of the late summer sun drop in the Western sky lighting the darkness over Asia: the end of a memorable day.