Thames Town

Greetings from Shanghai

Greetings from Shanghai! We arrived without incident on Saturday morning. My wife’s family picked us up at the airport and took us to their home in a van. We spent several hours at their place eating lunch, catching up with family, and eating dinner (eating is a perpetual activity in China). Easter morning was quiet. We did not have a church to attend in China, marking the first time I’ve ever missed church on Easter Sunday. It’s something I always make a point to do, but this time we did not have a church home to attend. A friend’s friend we tried to connect with could not attend on Sunday morning because she had to work and planned to attend on another day. It’s hard to find a good church home in a place like Shanghai, especially when you’ve just arrived. Instead, we spent a quiet morning by ourselves reflecting on the meaning of Easter. Dear Reader, I hope you also had a good, peaceful Easter weekend.

Yesterday afternoon I went with family and friends to visit Thames Town. It was fabulous as expected, although it is quite far from town. It truly does feel like a quaint part of England nestled in China. The town is under construction and not quite yet open for business. Land use about 1/4 commercial and 3/4 residential. The town features a small cathedral and two college campuses as well as a variety of small shops and domiciles. A British firm is in charge of engineering Thames Town, and I think they’ve done a good job at building an authentic-looking place. There appear to be covenants in place requiring that the store owners and residents retain the look and feel of the town. It may seem odd to visit Thames Town, but after seeing it featured on CNN.com, I couldn’t resist traveling to such an intriguing place. I’ve seen many of Shanghai’s most popular sites on previous visits, so I wanted to see something entirely new. Tomorrow night we will visit Xintiandi, another new entertainment, mixed-use area in Shanghai with a traditional Chinese theme. I hear that it’s one of the new hot spots in Shanghai. I probably won’t have time to visit any of the other eight new internationally-themed areas, including German Town, Czech Town, and Norway Town. Thames Town is it for now. Perhaps I’ll see them on my next tour.

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Change of Scenery

Dear Reader, I anticipate that I won’t have time to blog tomorrow night, and I’ll be preoccupied in Shanghai with family over the weekend. This may be my last entry for a few days. I will write again early next week, perhaps sooner. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with some general thoughts on China and musings about changes transforming this immense and fascinating place. Having married into a Chinese family, I am far more intimated to Chinese culture than Korean culture. Traveling to China is like meeting up with a long-time friend, and I’m looking forward to visiting the Middle Kingdom again.

This will be my fourth trip to China in 12 years. I’ve seen some remarkable changes in this amazing country since my first trip in 1994, and I expect that China will have changed even more since my last visit in 2002. It is perhaps the most dynamic place on earth at the moment, and our destination, Shanghai, is the epicenter. I am looking forward to seeing not only the architectural changes that have revolutionized and modernized the city but also changes in the mindset of its residents.

When I first visited China in 1994, Shanghai had just begun its current push to become the economic center of East Asia. The Pearl of the Orient Tower was one of the few buildings standing in Pudong New City, a new commercial development situated across from the Bund, the downtown waterfront and former British concession. By 2002, Pudong had been largely developed. Despite the city’s architectural transformation, during my 2002 visit, I noted that Shanghai residents remained somewhat parochial and lacked the cosmopolitan paradigm of peer cities such as London and New York. During my upcoming visit, I plan to observe how attitudes have changed in China over the past four years. Chinese have always been a proud people, but what is new in Chinese minds’ is a sense of destiny, that China will reclaim its position as the center of the known world. Until the 1700’s, China was the strongest, most powerful realm in Asia. It is on its way to becoming so again. What remains to be seen is whether the Chinese can channel its newfound enthusiasm and energy into becoming a place that is fully integrated with the rest of the world. It may with time. This is not intended to upset ethnic Chinese who might read this–it is a realistic assessment of a nation that is moving so rapidly into modernity that it cannot possibly mature until it slows down.

We have several activities planned during our visit. On Saturday we arrive in Shanghai and will be met by family at Pudong International Airport. I wanted to take the high-speed Maglev train from the airport to downtown, but the family would rather pick us up by car (high-speed train and private automobiles–yet another change in China since the 1990’s). On Saturday evening we have a dinner planned with family. Sunday is Easter. We have a friend who will take us to church (yet another change since the Cultural Revolution–the spread Christianity has spread dramatically since the start of economic reform period of the 1980’s. Then, as mentioned earlier, we will visit Thames Town on Sunday afternoon (a very recent change–suburban, planned communities). On Monday I will go to work at an office in a large mall. I never would have thought that one day I would be working in a mall in China. The changes are absolutely amazing.

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Pre-China Trip Clutter

Much as I try, life always seems too cluttered. I sit here tonight typing amidst a pile of things to do to prepare for our trip to Shanghai, China on Saturday. Every time life seems to cool down, it suddenly shifts into high gear and becomes too hectic. One of these days I would really like to jump off this crazy merry-go-round. My new mantra is “Vive el Paraguay!” I’ve heard that Paraguay, my next assigned location, offers a much slower pace of life than Korea does. As my predecessor told me by e-mail (we’ve been in contact), “bring lots of reading material [to Paraguay].” Somehow I wish that were true. I’ll believe it when it happens, after I’ve made it through four books in four weeks. I’m sure I will somehow find a way to make myself too busy to chill out–even in Paraguay. It’s in my nature to do more than I have time to do.

I am really looking forward my first trip outside Korea since I arrived early last year. First I have to wade through annoying trip planning. Perhaps the worst part of any trip is the advance planning and preparation. It’s more than suitcase packing. It’s the little things like making sure your medical insurance covers you in exotic locations and putting together a photo album for the family back home. It’s the plane tickets, passports, visas, bill paying, activity planning, transportation arrangements, electricity conversion, emergency planning, cash reserves build up, closure at work, fridge emptying–you name it. Anyone who’s planned a multi-week trip away from home can relate to the grind of pre-trip planning and preparation.

China isn’t actually going to be a vacation for me. I will work in Shanghai for about two weeks while my family is on vacation. Fortunately, I can take time out on the weekends to have some fun. On Sunday I will visit Thames Town, a new, unbelievable development reminiscent of Merry Ol’ England located in the suburbs of Shanghai. The following weekend my wife, son, and I will take a short trip to Xi’an, home to the famous terracotta warriors. As we have spent most of our time in the eastern half of China, I’m looking forward to seeing the Chinese Interior for the first time. I don’t know how much time I will have to write during my journey in China, but I will post as frequently as I can. Photos will follow when I return to Korea.