10th February, 2001
Shanghai City Life: Chinese Students And Bund. Friendship Store On Nanjing Road. Radiating Roads At Circular Overpass
August 1987
Shanghai city life was subdued during the Cultural Revolution, but now it is its boisterous self again. Shanghai city has a history of foreign concessions, a legacy of which is seen in some of the european architecture. Shanghai city life was certainly different to Guilin or Yangshuo and it was our first experience of an area of well established commerce with a flourishing port.
 The Peace Hotel is famous for its connection with Noel Coward, for it is here that he is said to have written the play Private Lives. The Bund is well known, and local students gather here to practice their English with each other and seek the opportunity of using their new skills by talking to foreign visitors. Cars and taxis were not so numerous in 1987, the year of my first visit, and people walked or used their bicycles, or packed buses to get around, but we travelled in our air-conditioned coach and escaped the scorching heat as we were taken from one place of interest to another. The Number One Friendship Store was situated in Nanjing Road and we were dutifully taken there to spend our Foreign Exchange Certificates, which were then issued for the sole use of tourists to buy items, not readily available to the local people.
 From the overpass in Nanjing Road, we had good views down the enticing radiating roads, North, South, East and West, where my friend and I got lost in the side streets, and were 25 minutes late getting back to our coach, being met by Jun and the local Guide, just starting out to look for us. We were greeted with many jovial comments as we rejoined the Group, and many years after, Jun regularly reminds me of that incident !
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