Shanghai China Snippets Observations about living in Shanghai and China in general

Yesterday I realized again why I hate shopping in supermarkets in China.

The Lotus Supermarket in Pudong, Shanghai:

• Asking staff where one has to go to move to a different floor only results in a shrug of the shoulder and vaguely pointing of a hand while at the same time the head is doing it’s best to stare somewhere in oblivion.
• The cheese and meat section has a lovely counter, the only thing lacking is a person behind it. It takes some gesturing, walking over to somewhere else to get a person willing to help. Disturbing these persons in their very important conversations with colleagues is, I admit, rather intrusive.
• Taxi stand, we don’t have a taxi stand anymore, just carry your kilo’s up the stairs, wrestle though the crowds and hope there is a taxi. Thanks for shopping and by the way, prices are roughly the same as in the small supermarket around the corner

Sometime ago, in March, I put up a picture I made from a construction site near me to get a close up of what is happening in the Shanghai real estate market. It’s a bit more than 2 months later now and time to show the speed of building.

The constant noise of drilling, the grinding of old trucks and the occasional honking of horns have become part of my sleeping pattern. No drill, even when it seems to be a wall away, will make me jump out of bed, entice me to shout or have any more influence on me than the song of a passing bird. Silence has become unknown and I probably can’t sleep if I will be ever confronted with it again.