A beautiful night scene from Shanghai
A beautiful night scene from Shanghai
I was born in Shanghai, China in 1979. As most Chinese parents
are, my father wanted me to be a child genius. So he began suffing
classic chinese poetry down my throat even before I could read. I attended
$e G
(Confucius Temple Street Elementary)in Shanghai at
the age of 5. Most people in my class were 2 year older than I was.
Amazingly, I got a perfect mark on my 1st midterm ever. But good luck like
this don't last forever. By the time I got to grade 5, I actually failed
my Chinese midterm. So natually the teacher gave me a good yelling for
pulling down the class average. On the way home, I received a balloon
from a foreign visitor at the school. He meant it as a gesture of good
faith. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
I escaped certain doom (have another year of grade 5), and came to
settle in Vancouver, Canada in 1989. Vancouver is a beautiful
city and have very nice people. I made a lot of friends here.
I'm currently studying at UBC as a 3rd year Commerce student. I'm also
trying to learn Japanese these days. It hasn't been exactly easy for
me to have to break the language barrier from Chinese to English. Even
more difficult will this reverse cultural barrier be. But without
these experiences, I won't be who I am today.
This summer, I returned to my hometown Shanghai for a short visit.
They say the city is the coolest it has ever been in the last 124 years but
most of the time, I still find my entire body sticky with sweat from the
moment I get up to the point when I fall asleep. To me, the sheer number of
population is astounding. The entire country of Canada has about 33 million people,
which is just about two times of Shanghai's population. YIKES! So it's small wonder
I feel so insignificant when standing on the streets which are virtually flooded
with people.
Despite the initial "environment shock". I have grown to fall in love
with the city once again. Who could resist a place where the fashions (and everything else)
are so good and so cheap?! (^_^) Ever since my my return to Vancouver I try my hardest not
to visit local malls for fear I might cry at the sight of those "horrandous"
pieces with incredible price tags they call clothing. Ok, maybe I've been
exaggerating a little. But what I miss about Shanghai are the beautiful skyscrapers,
the crowded atmosphere and most of all, the shopping sprees where you don't
have to pay some !@#@!# "GST" tax on every item you purchase.
While on the subject of shopping, I find it a very pleasant experience in Shanghai.
Pleasant that is, until you're trying to move everything you've bought back home.
Private autos are rather rare due to city restrictions, so one has to call a taxi.
But the traffic conditions are always stagnent. It would take me a good 1 hour to
travel a distance of merely 15 kilos via taxi due to various traffic jams
in Shanghai (it wasn't even peak hour). If I drive in North America, it
would probably take about 20 minutes.
Enough of me babbling, why don't you see some pictures of (me in) Shanghai?
2. They call these clothing "ten thousand world flags"
both for their diversity of shapes and wild assortment
of visual effects.
3. Talk about a not paying attention at a family reunion.
I'm the big guy on the left (if you don't know me, that is)
4. Me and my aunt at this old old tower in Shanghai.
5. Typical Shanghai. Building in front is built during Japanese
Occupation in the 1930s. The skysraper in the back is being built now.
6. New soccer stadium. Manchester United played there in July on
their visit to Shanghai.
7. This is the tallest building in Shanghai, nearly 500 meters tall.
8. A commercial district in Shanghai. Lots of people.
Now you've seen my pics, let's get back to reality here.
So What does the future hold for me? I'll have to look into the crystal ball and tell you that next time I update this page. For the time being, you'll just have to wait. Sorry.