Tuesday:
Coming into Shanghai, the first thing I noticed was the absence of cranes. When I was here last, the skyline was a forrest of cranes, raising clusters of apartment
buildings all across the city. Now the apartments are complete with just one small grove of cranes marking the latest addition to the skyline. My taxi quickly wound its way through mostly electric cars, motorcycles and e-bikes into city center, quiet replacing the usual din and stink of the gasoline powered cars of Atlanta.
Wednesday morning:
Today we visited the Yu district of the old town- pagoda style buildings, and passage ways with every kind of shop you could imagine. Noodle shops, pearls, colorful stones, antiquities, silks, “snack” foods, the smell of incense and roast, all mingling together. The crowd getting denser as the day progressed and tour groups pressing through, ladies in bright traditional garb, young people with colorful dyed hair. The city,at its center, is vibrant. You can feel the excitement of the beginning of a new era, an ascendance into this time of possibilities.