Night and Day

ByErin Chase

Japan and China are such radically different countries that it’s a real culture shock having gone from one to the other.

Before trying to describe the China we are experiencing (with, granted, our own cultural biases), I want to remember a few of the amazing things I enjoyed about Japan.

I have already written about the efficient taxi stand, the taxi doors that open and close themselves, the timely public transportation system, and the unwavering helpfulness of the people. Then there were the traffic cops that appeared on Saturday to assure safe pedestrian passage (we couldn’t decide if that was because it was Saturday or because it was raining or for some other reason, but it was nice to safely cross the street, especially because the Japanese drive on the “wrong” side of the road and I was always looking the wrong way for oncoming traffic). And Japanese toilets have been written about plenty by others, but clean, and clean-smelling, public restrooms are particularly missed from here in China.

Other “little things” that left me feeling that the Japanese have really got things figured out:

  • The pushbutton/doorbell thing at our table at one large restaurant to let the waitress know we were ready to order
  • The baskets under the chairs in restaurants for storing your purse
  • The lazy-susan-style turntable for cars pulling out of crowded parking garages and onto the crowded Tokyo streets
  • The train seats that automatically rotate at the end of the line so that the next group of passengers will be facing forward when the train pulls out going the opposite direction
  • The refillable cash card that not only works on all the subway lines but also at vending machines and even some convenience stores
  • The subway ticket gates that stay open as long as you wave your ticket over the sensor and close only if you try to pass without a ticket — this keeps the human traffic moving quickly so the crowded subways don’t clog as people try to get through these potential bottlenecks (and reinforces paying, and shaming if you don’t — no one doesn’t pay)

They’ve got shit figured out. Really.

I miss Japan so much, because in China:

  • spitting
  • salespeople who latch onto you and follow you like a (very nearby) shadow as you try to shop
  • the constant feeling that someone is trying to trick you into spending much more than the actual price (ex.: our “cab ride” from the airport)
  • garbage on the streets
  • puddles of you’re-not-sure-what that you have to dodge
  • lane lines on the road that are really merely suggestions
  • outdoor cooking stands that smell like, well, I didn’t at first think it even smelled like food; I had to see it cooking before I realized that was the smell
  • The masses of people, which also exist in Tokyo, but here who push and shove and yell and barely allow you to dodge out of the way of honking motor scooters
  • also, spitting

Anna is having a particularly difficult time with the fact that every single person we encounter here expects her to speak Chinese. Even when she’s with me: they look at me, then turn to her and start speaking Chinese. If they speak enough English, they will then say, when they see she doesn’t speak Chinese: “But she is a Chinese girl.” She wants me always by her side to fend off what she sees as being judged; I say, in English: “Yes, she is a Chinese girl. She is Chinese-American.” A few venture further and ask if her father is Chinese, but I am so very white, and she is so obviously not mixed race, that even they know this won’t solve the puzzle. By this point, we’ve moved on to the next store.

But by far the most difficult thing in Shanghai is the unbearable, oppressive, torturous humidity. You can literally see it in the air, feel the weight of it on your body; you can’t drink enough water to defend against it. Imagine the steamy sauna at your gym; now imagine a city-sized sauna. I’m not exaggerating.

The best time to see Shanghai is at night. It’s still crowded and hot and steamy, but the darkness hides some of the negatives and the city lights are a definite positive, and they really glow through the steam hanging in the air. Our hotel is right on the Bund (the riverfront facing the famous Shanghai skyline), with lit-up river-dinner-cruise ships and party boats going by (there are also untold numbers of barges going up river in the morning and downriver at night, but they are not lit up; I still haven’t figured out what they’re hauling).

We leave today for the next leg: an all-day bullet train to where we embark on our Yangtze River cruise. Not sure if we’ll have access to the outside world at all from there!

A handful of pictures of Shanghai, by day (Yuyuan Garden) and by night (the Bund):