Every once in a while, I receive requests to use my photos, and today I found the result of one such request:

The artist is a student at UC Berkeley, and you can find more of her work here: Yuumei’s Deviant Art Gallery. The amazing thing is that this drawing captures the space so much better than my photo, and it is exactly the way I felt in the little alley way of Shanghai. The original photo was in this post: Shanghai Lane Houses and Fuxing Park

Nik left for work on Monday morning at the normal time, and my single goal for the day was to pack. I slowly gathered my stuff on the bed while mentally picturing how it was all going to fit in my luggage. This time, everything HAD to fit. I wasn’t leaving on a short trip, I was leaving for good.

While I emptied my drawers, my mind wandered. Friday had been my last day at work, and Sunday had been my last full day with Nik, but those days didn’t really seem final. As I hugged everyone goodbye, I felt like I would see them next week. It was no big deal. Then when I was all alone in our apartment deciding what to take and what to leave, I realized it was final. I would probably never live in Shanghai again. It is possible that I may never even visit Shanghai again. Even if I do, the city will not be the one it is today. Most of my friends will have moved on. The buildings I walk past every day will probably be razed and replaced. The restaurants we frequent will be long closed to make way for something else. The bikes we love will eventually cease to exist in the fast paced world of motorbikes and automobiles. Shanghai will never be Shanghai as we know it, and that is when the anxiety of moving away from Asia hit me.

The good thing is that our reason for living in Shanghai in 2009 is precisely because it will be something completely different in a year’s time. China is growing so fast and recklessly that buildings are falling down as quickly as they are put up. Roads are being ripped apart to add more infrastructure as soon as the pavement is dry. Schools are too small as soon as they are built. Apartments are full before they open. Shanghai is simply growing at an outrageous rate, and it hasn’t found it’s identity as an international city yet, and that’s okay.

To ease my mind and put off packing as long as possible, I started this “Shanghai Miss List” on Monday and continued adding to it until I landed in Chicago on Tuesday evening (Wednesday morning China Time). It is a literal brain-dump of everything I’ve thought about missing or not missing that makes my 2009 Shanghai unique. They are in no particular order, but I know that I will miss exploring the city with Nik the most. On any given weekend we would be out and about walking or riding through the streets. Neither of us ever backed out of seeing or doing something new, and I know that it is Shanghai’s mysterious nature that pulled us away from the comfort of our apartment. I hope that we will have the desire to explore as much in the next place we live, but the allure of Shanghai will be hard to top.

Things I will miss
1. Exploring the city with Nik
2. My Students
3. My Friends
4. Watching people watch me with curiosity
5. Chatting with my bus ladies (a.k.a. other teachers)
6. Feeling that I will never see the entire city
7. Opportunities to see China
8. Surrounding myself with people unlike me
9. Empty coffee shops
10. The markets
11. Street sweepers using hand-made brooms
12. Sweet Potato vendors
13. Chinese Amusement Parks
14. Cheap (price) everything
15. Biking with the boys
16. The reckless abandon of the Shanghainese
17. Nik’s excitement at every turn to see something else demolished
18. Weird snacks
19. Not understanding conversations
20. The sound of bicycle bells
21. Steamer dinners for 2
22. Chinese dumplings
23. Group dinners
24. 8 kuai dvd’s
25. Locals arguing
26. Asian faces that appear to have made it through so much
27. Grocery shopping at Tesco
28. Hearing at least 2 if not 5 different languages spoken every day

Things I won’t miss
1. Incredibly Slow Internet
2. Being locally illiterate
3. Constantly worrying about being ripped off
4. The distance between me and my family
5. The 1-hour commute in the morning
6. The 1+ hour commute in the evening
7. Waking up at 5:30am
8. Falling asleep at 9:30pm
9. Donald’s
10. Nik’s long hours
11. The pollution
12. Street Smells
13. Shanghai summer heat & humidity
14. Seeing beautiful old neighborhoods being demolished
15. Cheap (quality) everything
16. The reckless abandon of the Shanghainese taxi drivers
17. Constant construction
18. Spitting and littering
19. The sound of screeching breaks
20. $5 mediocre coffee
21. Living in a high rise hotel room
22. Not having a full kitchen
23. Never feeling like a “local”
24. The stereotypical “expat” community
25. Really bad “western” food
26. Waiting in “line” in China
27. The abundance of mediocre food
28. Power outlets that spark

One day last week, my bike was stolen. My precious Giant that I knew and loved was gone. I was a little sad, but really, it couldn’t have happened at a better time. I only have one more week in Shanghai, and this way I don’t have to worry about what to do with the bike when I leave.

Since we were now short a bike, this weekend Nik and I set out to explore Shanghai the old fashioned way: on foot.

We hadn’t had a significant walking day since we visited last December, and I honestly forgot that it was possible. Sure, we’ve walked five or six blocks to get from one place to another over the past year, but we haven’t set out for a destination on the other side of the city.

On Saturday, the Bund Soft Spinning Market (aka “the Fabric Market”) was our destination and along the way, we needed to pick up a cup of coffee, eat breakfast, exchange RMB for $$$, and enjoy the crisp November weather. For the first stretch, I window shopped while Nik filled up his memory card. I thought it was going to be a day where I was along for the ride…and then we crossed Chongqing Road into the older section of downtown. All of a sudden there was a ton of activity around a young couple getting married, so I took my camera out to take video of the firecrackers, and I never put my camera away until we made it to the Fabric Market.

If you ever visit Shanghai, be sure to reserve a day for wandering around the area east of Chongqing Rd South between Xujiahui Road and Fuxing Road West. Many of the buildings seem to be ramshackle and in disrepair, but they are loved and taken care of by multi-generational families that have probably lived and worked there for over 50 years. These are the streets that I will think of when I miss Shanghai. The ones where no matter where you turn, a hundred things are going on at the same time. Behind an elderly woman sitting in the sun is a doorway leading to another woman washing clothes in the shared sink in front of another open door leading to a table of five men playing cards where the sixth is mounting his motorbike and rolling it through the door towards the elderly woman. The layers of this neighborhood are amazing, and there are very few cultures in the western world where each family’s space flows into another family’s to the point where as an outsider, I feel as though I am walking through one huge maze-like garage.

Now I understand why Nik is worried about being bored in America. Please tell me if any of you know of a place in the continental United States where you can walk for four hours and see scenes as diverse, textural and beautiful as these. Because if this place exists, that might be where we should move next.

Then today after meeting Andy for lunch, Nik and I took a detour down an old lane so that I could photograph the three blankets that I have made here in Shanghai. The first and last ones are gifts for new little ones, and the middle one is for Nik and I. I had never made blankets before, but for some reason I was drawn to the repetition here in China. We’ll see how long my blanket streak lasts!

Nik has also written a blog post about this weekend’s adventure, that is accompanied by 90+ photos!

Nik’s blog: Walking through Shanghai’s Old Town