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Today we walked about 50 miles through the hot city to a pile of
buildings built to look old. The garden there is actually old, and is
very nice. I met a young student there who was eager to practice
english, like most of the cheap scammers here are, but was not eager
to sell me anything. So I let him tell me some things about the jade
and the caligraphy and he was very nice, even taking his leave of me
before I had exhausted my questions. His con was to leave me lonely,
a crime of omission indeed. He asked to shake my hand and I said no,
you are dirty and a freak from the street. Just kidding; I shook his
hand heartily and I have a good feeling this story will be told to his
class as sort of an extra credit moment. Like we taking part in a tea
ceremony, shaking hands is a foreign and cute ritual to Chinese People.

They refer to themselves as Chinese People, and their ancestry is Old
Chinese People. Of course this is said in the funny accent you know
from the pointy hats and long gray beard cartoons. Bamboo stands for
strength and ingenuity and also, probably more recently, the corporate
ladder.

There is something called the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel here in Shanghai
and it is cute. It's a cable car under the river to the sleepy hollow
of Pudong that has been dressed up with rope lights and the balloon
men from used car lots. As you ride through a voice says, in English,
"Hot Magma" "Salt in Blue Water" "Meteor Shower" as you are
transported in the thinnest of You pay about $6 to ride this, which
means that it is mostly rich people buying tickets in the cave that
serves as the ticket office under the roadway. Even the rich don't
stand in line, they push fiercely and come in waves from the sides to
cut in front and get their tickets to this middle school play of an
attraction. We four have concieved of the arc: stand shoulder to
shoulder with arms crossed in an arc radial to the destination, like
calvary. Then the arc can push forward through the mess and achieve
the goal.