2015 China

24 March, Shanghai
Blue Mountain Youth Hostel 200CNY

We are in the biggest city in the world; a city of 23 million permanent and several million migrant residents. Put in context ... half South Africa’s population lives in this one Chinese city. The Blue Mountain hostel is located in the southeast corner of what used to be the French Concession, directly opposite the Luban Road (Line 4) Metro station. From our bedroom and bathroom windows we can see a daily market down a narrow alley. In our road, people ride bicycles and scooters (prohibited in some parts of the city), walk their well-groomed dogs, and gather in open areas to either do Tai Chi or dance by way of exercise. On this icy cold day we wandered the Bund under a weak spring sun, visited the Propaganda Poster Art Centre, and tonight took an elevator to the 94th floor of the Shanghai World Financial Center in Pudong to admire the neon-lit city.

“The Bund ... centres on a section of Zhongshan Road within the former Shanghai International Settlement, which runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River, facing Pudong ... It is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Shanghai ... The Bund lies north of the old, walled city of Shanghai. It was initially a British settlement; later the British and American settlements were combined in the International Settlement. Magnificent commercial buildings ... sprung up in the years around the turn of the 20th century as the Bund developed into a major financial center of East Asia ... However, with the Communist victory in the Chinese civil war, many of the financial institutions were moved out gradually in the 1950s, and the hotels and clubs closed or converted to other uses ... The Bund houses 52 buildings of various architectural styles ... Shanghai has one of the richest collections of Art Deco architectures in the world” (Wikipedia). From the Bund there are excellent views across the Huangpu River to Pudong on the east bank, home to some of Shanghai’s most impressive skyscrapers.

The Propaganda Poster Art Centre showcases original posters from the 1950s, 60s and 70s – “the golden age of Maoist poster production” (Lonely Planet). Posters encouraged and praised the Great Leap Forward during which farmers were removed from the land and put to work in steel factories to boost production and overtake the west. Around 30 million people died of starvation as a result of this attempt at social engineering. Posters also showed the Red Guards brandishing Mao’s Little Red Book and denouncing those who had fallen from favour. I was particularly enamoured with a poster advertising ballet dancers in fatigues performing one of the eight state-sanctioned theatre productions allowed during the decade of the Cultural Revolution!*  

We braved the icy weather to walk Pudong (home to the Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone) tonight and to take a high-speed elevator to the 94th floor of the 492m high Shanghai World Financial Center, until 2014 the tallest building in the city. There is also an observation deck on the 100th floor, but we were too stingy to spring for the additional fee and happy in the end with the stunning, neon-lit world far below us.

A super day in a super city.    

* Did you know? According to mic.com ... “Sometimes a piece of news trickles out from North Korea that seems like it came from a YA dystopia generator. The latest true scenario? Fauxhawks have been banned and the government controls hairstyles.

No, really: The North Korean government has released a guide to the 28 state-sanctioned haircuts. Ladies, you've got even more reasons to get married young now. The unwedded female can choose from short, above-the-shoulder styles, but put a ring on it and you can go wild with curls (with class), length (to a point) and… no, actually, that's pretty much it. But you're allowed 18 variations on a patriotic theme to choose from!

Sorry, fellas, but you've only got 5 cm (about 2 inches) to work with. Shagginess is a threat and a well-known symbol of free-thinking and rebellion, unless you're older, in which case, go wild up to 7 cm (3 inches). Not only that, but short hair is a matter of health. Young men are required to touch up their high'n'tights every 15 days to prevent nutrition from leaching away from their brains. (Apparently past a certain point, men have outlived their usefulness anyway, hence less concern for their neurological nourishment.)

By the way, if you're still not clear on what coifs are kosher, North Korean state TV put together a five-part series on how to maintain hair that's in line with communist values:

In a country where not even the Supreme Leader's family is safe, the politics of hair suddenly aren't so trivial. One news anchor known for Effie Trinkets levels of dictatorship buy-in created something of an uproar as viewers tried to make sense of what it meant when her hairstyle changed twice in two weeks.

North Korea is pretty much a parody of itself, which doesn't cancel out the fact that the people running it are inexplicable and awful. The indignities and horrors Kim Jong-un inflicts on his citizens are real, but to combine the policies that earned the nation a place on the Axis of Evil with state-approved lookbooks is surreal to the point of cartoonishness...”