So when the day comes to check the pictures back home at the lab , you really come down with reality . I have always wild thoughts about shutter opening only half of its course , things like that . But mostly the result is OK , even if it is hard to be fully satisfied .Shanghai is there with her bright lights , dim lights , broad avenues , narrow streets , its human tides, the Huangpu river and its typical harbour smell, the Bund chiming clock in the old Customs House , and its melody every 1/4 hour (giving the place a London Big Ben atmosphere), ship horns , sputtering engines of old barges ...
My place being very close to the Bund and the river , I litterally breathed this atmosphere . And liked it . This town has a lot of energy and the Huangpu pumps even more air & blood into it. Hundreds of boats and ships of all kind going up and down, barges , tankers , freighters , day cruise boats , small old boats with their tchouc-tchouc old belt engines smoking and visible at the back . Early in the morning , like between 6 and 7 , people doing tai-chi or gym . At night , all the lights of boats and buildings ...
On the other side of the Huangpu river is the new Pudong district , with the tall buildings . The Bund being on the old town side , which has also several new neighbourhoods and skyscrapers , new architecture shopping centers which mix with old neighbourhoods and their narrow streets .
Mao still haunts China... This country is moving fast , and even the countryside which of course is still very poor , shows signs of economic activity and lots of building construction . 
Peasant work on their farm plots and slowly improve their lot . New roads , railroad tracks , skyscrapers , condominiums , individual houses , large housing complexes , sprout all over the country . The quality of the new buildings and high rises , even in secondary towns , is striking .
Even saw a chinese "lolita" [ Picture on left ] ! I was in a restaurant in Guilin trying to order something with gesture when I noticed her unusual attire . I asked and she kindly agreed for a pic .
Also, in China, I did not expect to see quite everyone with a cell phone . You see people riding old tired bicycles and answering a call . Phone stores sell dozens of different models of the last generation , like the ones you see in Japan . Our basic Nokia phone which many french people use in France , is rare here, most prefer the sophisticated models . They build and renovate much . Maybe too much .
Chinese tend to turn places of interest into neat renovated places with marble sidewalk and landscaping which erase their original charm and beauty. We probably did the same in the 60's . Speaking of the 60's , some one told me rightly that many of these brand new neighbourhoods had a Jacques Tati flavour , like in this movie he made about new architecture and modernism : Shiny new buildings , neat marked alleys and surroundings , and nobody around .
This pickpocket caught in a Shanghai bus (unlike his likes in France who would be free to exercise their sport the same day) is unlikely to be on the street or in a bus anytime soon . A woman caught him the hand in her bag and yelled to the driver to stop near a policeman . Other passengers grabbed him after a short scuffle as he tried to flee through a window . The bus then stopped 400 meters up the street near a police patrol which happened to be parked on the side and the guy was arrested after the officer took the names of the witnesses and victim. The country otherwise is very safe and foreigners-friendly .
Precision : I publish this pic , as access to Typepad websites in China is blocked by the chinese government : no harm can result from posting this citizens-arrest picture in China...
Peasant work on their farm plots and slowly improve their lot . New roads , railroad tracks , skyscrapers , condominiums , individual houses , large housing complexes , sprout all over the country . The quality of the new buildings and high rises , even in secondary towns , is striking . Even saw a chinese "lolita" [ Picture on left ] ! I was in a restaurant in Guilin trying to order something with gesture when I noticed her unusual attire . I asked and she kindly agreed for a pic .
Also, in China, I did not expect to see quite everyone with a cell phone . You see people riding old tired bicycles and answering a call . Phone stores sell dozens of different models of the last generation , like the ones you see in Japan . Our basic Nokia phone which many french people use in France , is rare here, most prefer the sophisticated models . They build and renovate much . Maybe too much .
Chinese tend to turn places of interest into neat renovated places with marble sidewalk and landscaping which erase their original charm and beauty. We probably did the same in the 60's . Speaking of the 60's , some one told me rightly that many of these brand new neighbourhoods had a Jacques Tati flavour , like in this movie he made about new architecture and modernism : Shiny new buildings , neat marked alleys and surroundings , and nobody around . This pickpocket caught in a Shanghai bus (unlike his likes in France who would be free to exercise their sport the same day) is unlikely to be on the street or in a bus anytime soon . A woman caught him the hand in her bag and yelled to the driver to stop near a policeman . Other passengers grabbed him after a short scuffle as he tried to flee through a window . The bus then stopped 400 meters up the street near a police patrol which happened to be parked on the side and the guy was arrested after the officer took the names of the witnesses and victim. The country otherwise is very safe and foreigners-friendly .
Precision : I publish this pic , as access to Typepad websites in China is blocked by the chinese government : no harm can result from posting this citizens-arrest picture in China...
