Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Helpful Steel Rail




When you wake up in the morning with a cough and a cold that’s brewing down in your lungs, it casts a pall over the day.  I’ve too much to do to be encumbered.  My third or fourth cognizant thought is the steel rail, never far from the hand’s grab that says: “remember, the first of the morning is always the most wretched and impactful part of the cold.  Push through.  It will begin to feel more tolerable.”  I was told my grandfather’s adage was that “if you can get out of bed, your well enough to head to work.”

I had a pocket full of throat lozenges, which I reached for.  That cuts through.  Heart beating fast, residue from the last espresso I’d had yesterday.  Slow it down.  Slow it.  The cabs don't mind me this morning.  Certainly sir, right this way.  I’m heading out all the way to Pudong Airport.  Sailing along the elevated high way.  Traffic is noted.  For 6:38AM the roads are already full but at least they aren’t yet jammed.  “Homesickness” the tune playing faintly from off the iPhone. Sister, Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou the Ethiopian nun on the keys here  recorded this apropos number between 1969-1975.

Taking a smaller airline today down to Hong Kong.  The fare was just too low not to consider.  I’ve never really done a bargain air in China and their marketing    departments haven’t managed to pierce my consciousness yet because I don’t recognize any of the names mentioned.  “Spring Air.”  OK.  “Juneair.”  I see.  I missed the memo on this bit of SOE restructuring.  We’ll have a look then and report on just what, if any differences there are. 



Shanghai’s weather hasn’t been bad.  Warm, wetter than Beijing but pleasant, really, so far.  Given what it could be its all rather 合情合理[1]  We’re well passed the time when the dread summer heat could arrive.  Hong Kong, meanwhile, I assume will be like a sopping towel of humidity.   I’ll have to shed this light jacket, but keep it handy for Hong Kong’s aggressively air-conditioned environments that await.

I usually only deal with Hongqiao Airport and try to keep as much as I can to Puxi when I’m in town.  I’m usually flying in and out of Shanghai from somewhere else in the country, not the world.  Look at all these trucks on the road.  There must be as many freight cars, and dump trucks and chemical cars as there are automobiles along side me.  Thinking about it there must be a port facility out this way.   I’ll have to look to see where the actual mega port that serves the Yangzi for Shanghai is located. (Looks like it is just south of the airport, which, I hadn't realized was also on the water:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Shanghai )

Uncomfortable suddenly, I’ve asked the cabby to throw on the aircon.  Sometimes in Beijing they look at you cross-eyed when you make that particular request as if you’ve asked for something ought not be free.  But down south, with this gent, not an issue.  “Yes sir.”  Suddenly two pounds of pressure is off my shoulders and my face and arms.  I can feel a light buoyancy as my body responds to the water disappearing from the air.  Miles of small, riverside houses off to the right.  Someone, somehow decided that three story buildings would suffice for this vast stretch.  They all look reasonably new, they aren’t particularly fancy and they must have been part of some urban housing scheme.  Who decides where the high-rises stop and where three story jobs start?  Certainly not the market.



Warehouses now.  Miles of warehouse like constructions.  They are also zoned it seems, keeping to two and three stories in height.  My friend has just stated the obvious:  “Wouldn’t it have been good if they’d actually connected the two airports in this city with the Maglev.”  “Aye, t’would have.”  The super high-speed train at present only takes you half the way into the city from Pudong at 350 kilometers per hour. Then you need to get a cab the rest of the way.  Were you to have the connectivity the entire way between these two facilities, the nearly two hour drive would be reduced to some twenty minutes. 

The former Shanghai Party secretary Chen Liangyu wanted the train to do just that.  But residents weren’t having it.  One of the first, well-documented NIMBY movements metastasized.  I want to say it was ten years ago.  I’ll look it up. (2008) People insisted it would ruin their property values and expose them to hazards.  They rose up and . . . surprise, they were listened to.  The train’s progression was halted.  Party Secretary Chen was later taken out for corruption.  




I’m arriving now.  While we’re not soaring in at Maglev speed, it was a pretty quick jaunt.  There are some benefits to early flights like lighter trafffic.  We’re gonna need to find some kinda coffee shop real soon.  Once I do, I’ll let you know about the Juneyao, (which is, to my ears, a homophone for “army desire”) experience. 




[1] héqínghélǐ:  reasonable and fair (idiom)

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