is the grass more green in outer space?

Yesterday, wu yi kuai le! Finally made it over to the other side of the river. What I had heard was a clean, civil, sparse Pudong was packed with people, travellers from all over China, many of whom were seeing Shanghai for the very first time for the Labour Day festival. It was insanity. Photographers everywhere trying to sell you a picture of yourself in front of the pearl tower. Talia and I found this very puzzling at first. We soon realized that most of the travellers from the middle of China can't afford a digital camera. A quick snap from a photographer at the Pearl Tower is a definite cost effective way to document your trip to outerspace. Because trully that is what it must be like for many people. A trip to outerspace. Imagine going all the way there with your life savings only to you return home to discover that your picture didn't come out. In Pudong that can be avoided. I also saw a woman throw herself in front of a van while holding a baby. It all happened very quickly but I knew right away that she did this on purpose in order to extort money from the driver. A few weeks ago I watched a Shanghainese movie called The postmodern life of my Aunt. There was a scene in the movie where a woman bought a vase and then threw herself in front of a car so that the vase broke and then tried to get the driver to pay for the vase (or her inflated price of it). Yesterday this woman's foot became jammed under the front wheel of the van, the driver would not budge while people swarmed around, yelling at him to back up. Thankfully the baby was fine, did not even make a peep. And the driver also was unfazed. I was not. horrified to say small things.























Back on my side of the river there is grass and also pandas.