It’s a short hop there from here: only about two and a half hours. Of course I didn’t sleep much the night before, so I passed out on the plane for about an hour, struggled to consciousness to eat, then we were landing. My friend (former student) Chengcheng and her cousin met just outside of Customs at the airport in Shanghai. They had a driver there, a man who worked for her mother’s company, to drive us to the train station to catch the train back to Nanjing.
Nanjing and Shanghai, where I spent this trip, are south of Osaka by quite a bit, so temperatures were quite a bit warmer, maybe 10 degrees Fahrenheit, but much more damp, so that it felt as cold, or sometimes colder most of the days. And, unfortunately, it was also overcast or foggy. I’m from Hawaii, and we don’t really get fog, not serious fog, and this was some serious fog. Not every day, but quite a few days. Sometimes it was cool, making certain vistas seems like you were standing on the edge of the world, but it also gave me a kind of claustrophobic feeling after a week.
My friend’s family put me up in a nice hotel just down the block from their apartment, making it convenient to meet up in the morning to go sightseeing or afterwards for dinner. It was a far nicer hotel than I’m used, with a nice (hard) bed and a small sofa beside the window that was nice for reading.
(I put away three books on this ten day trip.) In addition to this generosity (I was told it is Chinese culture to pay for someone’s expenses when they visit you…), I was treated to quite a number of nice dinners, and received some rather extravagant gifts, my favorite of which is a Columbia waterproof shell jacket. I was completely spoiled.Chengcheng took me to a few places around town, two of which were about Sun-Yat Sen, a pre-Mao political reformer from Nanjing. (If I have any facts wrong, please forgive me.) One was located in a massive park in the city, which, along with another park I saw, made me wish I could visit again in the spring; I’m sure they would both be absolutely gorgeous. My favorite building was the new library: it’s architecture was fascinating, with a lot of glass letting in natural light.
I wondered how hot it might get in there in the summer, but in the light was amazing. According to my friend, there were quite a lot of new buildings, which fit with my understanding that the economic boom in China had been greatly about real estate development. (Sadly, according to an article I just read, that has ended along with, it seems, the world’s economic prosperity. As a short aside: Where do these billions that are lost go? How can everyone in the world lose money? SOMEONE must have it! Let’s rob them…) There were new shopping centers and a lot of construction, not only in Nanjing but Shanghai as well.
After four nice days visiting with my friend, I made the somewhat lonely trek back to Shanghai on a bullet train. Shanghai is a lively city with a lot going on in various neighborhoods: The Bund, Old Town, the French Concession, Pudong, etc. I toured around, usually one per day. I had a good time in Old Town, walking around the markets, the most unusual and thus most interesting was the insect, bird, and goldfish market. There were an amazing number of cricket-like bugs on display, and I couldn’t help but stop and stare and take pictures…these things were big, too, with bodies the size of my pinky finger.
Pudong was ok, but the morning I went it was so foggy I couldn’t see the tops of some of the buildings, and so didn’t bother going up to get a view of fog at a higher elevation. My favorite thing in Pudong was a building that was free climbed by two people: one a Chinese shoe salesman and one a French climber, who did it dressed as Spiderman! 
So funny. But looking at the building up close, which now has signs declaring, one can only imagine, quite seriously, I can see why they climbed it: there are holds galore! (The French guy claimed you could climb it with just one arm…maybe.) But in the evenings, when sightseeing isn’t really what to do, I got a little bored (thus the number of books I read). I’m not much for going to bars or night clubs, so I usually tried to find a movie to take in (only a very small number of those) or I just grabbed some snacks and holed up in my room and read. On a small, esoteric note: I found a place called 85 degrees C, which had pastries and various coffee and tea drinks. They had a wonderful loaf of break which looked and tasted like whole-wheat and had a bunch of nuts and raisins in it. I had one every morning for breakfast. Wonderful. (Japan does not have good bread, which is somewhat shocking when considering the number of bakeries.)
In retrospect, I should have stayed in Shanghai first, then gone to Nanjing. It would have been better, I think, but oh well, I still had a great trip.
Since returning, I’ve just been teaching on Saturdays, hanging out, and rock climbing. I climbed outdoors twice more. The first time was near Himeji, at a place right on the ocean. The weather was great that day, getting so warm that in the middle of one route, I had to take off my hat, fleece vest, and top layer shirt. I probably could have ditched my undershirt as well! I think it was at least 60 F, maybe more, and in the middle of a climb, I wasn’t cold at all.
The second place outdoors was bouldering at a park not too far from my place. I didn’t succeed in finishing a lot of problems, but still had fun. But I came home with red circles on all my fingertips: places where the skin had worn off. The rock was granite, which practically eats skin, so after 8 hours, seriously, I was just about down to nothing. (Picking up a hot cup of coffee, forget about it.)
I’ve got another six weeks until I go until I’m back at work in early April. My plans include climbing, reading, climbing, running, hanging out, climbing, and taking a trip to Seoul at the end of March. And then climbing.
Hope all of you are well. Take care.
Aloha.
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