My daily walk …

As mundane life can sometimes be interesting, I have documented my daily walk to work.  Here’s a map so you don’t get lost.

This is Shangcheng Road, just outside my building (behind the shrubbery to the right).  The only people I ever see using this green space are the gardeners, who work at all hours – often after dark.

Here are my local shops, though I don’t shop here often.  There is a breadshop (Paris Baguette), florist, hairdresser and two massage parlours.  One is staffed by blind people – it’s a charity thing that happens here – and the other is open 24 hours (ahem).

When I turn left into Pucheng Road, I get quite a good view of the two big towers of the city – Jinmao and WFC, which I think is now called Shanghai Hills.  They are planning to build a third, even taller, building just beside these.  I call one the Bottle Opener and one the Ugly One.

From Pucheng Road (after passing my regular supermarket), I duck through a shortcut via a large residential complex.  It becomes much finer grained and grittier, and I think a lot more local in terms of residents.  I have many expats living in my building, particularly French and German.

Along here, I get a good shot of Chinese laundry.  Every one in my building has a clothes dryer, of course.

Through this gate …

I enter a small pedestrian street full of food stalls.  In the mornings, it is really lively, with people stopping to buy breakfast on the way to work – steamed buns, pancakes, dumplings, soup … When I eat here, I get liang ge cai bao (ie two steamed vege buns) for the huge sum of RMB1.50 – about 25 cents.

This is where I re-enter Pudong proper (this view is looking back to the street stalls).   The hairdresser on the left is incredibly narrow and periodically update the big banner above the door with some wacky hair-themed photo. 

Once I get across this road (which can take forever – one day, I will do a whole post on crossing the road), I take a shortcut to the office via the Metro Station.  Ready for work!  Or not.  🙂