talk600

In part one, I attempted to show Lighters a glimpse of Shanghai after a long absence of 50 plus years. The report turns out to be a recent travelogue with bare mentioning of the old apartment that is still standing but vastly altered. It did not get the loving tender treatment of some truly worthwhile buildings. I guess the government was very practical in giving people more living spaces in town than preserving one 1930's apartment building that only reminds them of the days of divided French settlement, British settlement, and a catch-all international settlement during the 50's. Lately with Beijing chosen to host the 2008 Olympics, Shanghai chosen to be the site for 2010 Worlds' Fair, the government started to preserve some of the very representative buildings with less than home-grown (Chinese) features but foreign characteristics. After all, Shanghai was once known as "Paris of the Orient". I believe Saigon was also accorded the same later. Anyway, so much on History and Geography, I cannot beat Short Lam and Snake-King Lee in a thousand years.

My first impression on arriving Shanghai was that the city has a smell that is distinctly not America. It was not the sweet fruity smell of Hawaii which I first met when President Wilson docked in Honolulu in June, '59. It was close to that of Durban, Natal, South Africa. We went there in '81 for the ex-wife's first home visit. My hunch is that both places got Chinese, Indian, and British people living together and each keep their own cooking habits. I did not smell that in Hong Kong when we moved there in the early '50's. I remembered vividly the side walks outside of the main Post Office close to the railway station, and Star Ferry, was so wide, clean, and smooth; it could qualify to be an ice rink. My first impression of Shanghai after World War II's Chungking was very vague. It could be due to the years gone by, and my age at the time (1943). I only remembered that the house was next door to Lan Sing (Blue Star) dairy farm, and West railway station. It was a very big house left behind by some foreigners. We didn't stay there long, cause we were robbed by eight people with seven guns. According to my mother, the robbery was a result of the cook telling others at the market about us returning from Chungking in airplanes (government C-47's) with heavy metal trunks. The trunks were my father's bank's documents etc. not valuables.

I know Larry, Raymond, and Walter, went to Shanghai recently as part of their Grand PRC tour. Their experience will be more current and up to date. James Koo, and Peter Chang, no doubt, visit Shanghai quite often. May be they will write and send to Tony their Shanghai impressions. In order not to let the Squarer's (class of '60) beat us in class web-sites for contents. Lighters unite and write! Tony's e-Bao is very good, but we cannot lump that into Lighters' web-site.