Shanghai Bob

Schwinger is living on the 18th floor of a serviced apartment just across the street from Jiao Tong University. (Really it’s on the 16th floor, but the apartment doesn’t number any floor ending with 4 — his building skips 4, 14, and 24 because the word for four sounds like “death”.) It’s a great location for a student, though more expensive than the $7/day charged by the student dorms. This is the view out his window on the most polluted day of the trip so far.

I’m staying in a hotel in TianPing Road not far from campus, closer to the metro station. I am on a tenth floor which is really the tenth floor, but my only view is from the little round fisheye lens set into the door — there are no other windows.

This has been great for me. Although it means it has taken me longer to get over jet lag from the 9-hour flight from Germany, it also means that when Dawn’s rosy fingers pull back the cover of night, I’m completely oblivious. I’ve slept until noon on several days. The combination of no appointments and a completely dark room means my sleep deficit is almost cured.

Across the street from Andrew’s building is this building that looks like a keyboard.

Across the street from the hotel is a wet market. Only one block away from one of the largest and most popular modern malls in Shanghai you can buy a plucked and dressed chicken from a grey kitchen towel spread on the sidewalk.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 7:54 am and is filed under shanghai.