Searching for Dragons: New Favorite City: Shanghai

I have heard that Shanghai is dreadful in the summer with just crazy humidity and the temperature maxing out at 110 degrees. Luckily, I was walking around today with 86 degree weather and a nice breeze coming off the river. Not only was the weather just perfect, the city of Shanghai is SO COOL!

I went exploring today on Shanghai’s main boardwalk, the Bund. The Bund consists of a bunch of European styled buildings, and they were constructed when Britain and other western powers came to Shanghai a long time ago. On one side of the river is the Bund, and on the other side is another densely populated area (I don’t know what it’s called but it is) the heart of downtown Shanghai. In the downtown section there is a huge TV tower, a bunch of skyscrapers, and some crazy cool malls. Different elevated bridges connect buildings together, making it easy for pedestrians to get by.

While walking, I saw about 5 electric-cars parked on the boardwalk, and they were designed in such a way that they became like ice-cream trucks, but for beverages. Below is a car vendor for Coca-Cola—and I got a 550mL water bottle for 1 yuan—for 15 cents! (How do you like that marketing, BPang?)

I continued walking along the boardwalk and came to a section that was called the “Bund Viewing Tunnel”. I was in my exploring mode so I went and checked it out. 55 Yuan later (8 bucks), I was in a cart going underneath the river in a tunnel that had crazy flashing lights. Below are just two pictures—it was nuts. Mom, if you are reading this, you would not like to go through the tunnel one bit.

After the crazy-lights ride, I came out of the tunnel and was on the other side of the river. In the cart with me was a guy named Chris that I had just met. Chris is from Canada but works in Australia, but was taking his winter vacation (cause the seasons are all screwed up in Australia…) in China for a bit. We ended up talking for a bit on the other side of the river and sat down at a Starbucks to talk over some drinks. Pretty cool dude.

While taking pictures on the river, we saw this adorably tiny McDonalds building. It looked big enough to hold about two or three port-a-potties. But this McDonalds vendor solely sold ice cream, which I thought was pretty sweet (no pun intended). There ended up being two of these right next to the river. Oh, and the Chinese love to hang out together over an ice cream or an iced-coffee beverage. Especially in the summer or in hot places, you see a lot of people holding an ice cream cone.

After Chris had left, I stayed on the Starbucks patio to read while enjoying the shade and a cool breeze. Sitting at that Starbucks right on the river was one of the more peaceful moments I’ve had in a long time. Earlier that morning I had finished reading my pastor’s book The Power of a Whisper—SIDE NOTE: Do you ever pick up a book, get real excited about reading it, read two chapters, and then don’t pick it up until 8 months later? Good, me too—and I remember reading a chapter last year about Bill (the pastor) recalling his experiences traveling alone across the globe while still being a teenager. I thought it would be suiting to reread that chapter due to me traveling alone, and I came upon a passage that I underlined and written in my journal a year ago.

In this passage Bill, at 16 years old, is traveling alone in Rio de Janeiro, sitting at a restaurant at a beach. He overheard a retired couple a table over from him say, “Honey, being here tonight, at this hotel on this beach, makes all of life’s efforts worthwhile. I mean, look at this! Copacabana Beach! The long hours at work, the overtime, the business travel….It was all worth it to be able to be right here, right now.” Bill was put off by that comment, because he was sitting at that beach—and 50 years later that exact same beach should be the goal of his time spent working? Bill felt that God was whispering to him, “How many checks will you need to pile up before you get it? If money fired you up, you would have used your last two bullets by now (talking about the money he had while in Brazil). Paychecks are never going to energize you, Bill. That is not who I wired you to be.” I had that phrase underlined, because I felt God was saying the same thing to me: “money and material items aren’t worth it—they don’t get you excited, Alex. I have something bigger in store for you.” As I reread this, those same feelings came back to me a year later in another country while traveling alone. How fitting? But this time, as I read this part of the chapter, I felt that that calling doesn’t apply to only me, but I think that calling is supposed to be for everyone.

Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Whatever you occupation may be, God wants you to work, in whatever capacity that may be, for Him. Not that earning money and having a nicer income is a bad thing, but I don’t think God’s intention was to get people fired up and energized over money—but being energized that we can serve God and his people with that money, that we can get fired up about! Even more than just earning money, if you are working at an occupation where you come in contact with people, (probably 95% of occupations) then serve God in the relationships you have at work: love one another. Take a genuine interest in that other person: their family, their hobbies, their strengths and fears. Serve God right where you are. That sure pumps me up!

(You fly that China flag!)

After more exploring through the “heart of downtown” and seeing some cool buildings like the gigantic TV tower, I turned a corner and saw something I had seen on the internet…the outside of Shanghai’s Apple Store! It’s soo cool! The main entrance is a glass encased staircase that goes underground…and then you are in the store (which is pretty normal). The store is rather large for an Apple Store, if I do say so myself…and listening to Dave Barnes’ Little Lies on the factory-set iPod touches was pretty sweet…Dave Barnes having a musical presence in China—I had no clue.