SHANGHAI
The "showpiece" of the booming economy of China.
I was invited to be a Graphic Facilitator for a project with Maersk (China) - one of the worlds largest shipping corporations.
They had a workshop which comprised of teams that came from all over South East Asia, to brainstorm on different ideas. I had to play the role of the person who can give this idea a form, identify a story around it and make the data look meaningful.
I was traveling to China for the first time and it was a challenge owing to the fact that neither my number, network, Whatsapp
or Facebook would work in China. It is one of the most restricted countries in the world in terms of internet. But being technologically smarter and businessmen by nature, they have created a variety of their own social media platforms which are popular but work only in Chinese languages! The first place I saw was Shanghai as the Maersk event was held here.
The name Shanghai is derived from shàng/zan, "upon and hǎi/hae, "sea", together meaning "Upon the Sea". It is one of the largest port cities which has the second largest population in the world. The city is a personification of an urbane salesperson -with neat, smooth lit up roads, tall buildings punctuating the skyline, bullet trains, westernized hostels and hotels. It is the coming together of Orient and Western cultures. Many expats have made it a second home. A walk on The Bund is a different experience compared to a walk downtown past ghost buildings which look like large empty film sets. Fragments of Imperial
art iconic of the Ming and Qing dynasties can be seen in different galleries and pockets of the city. Movement, growth,
saturated and steep are words that come to my mind while I was shooting these images.
A sparkly clean plane at the Shanghai airport ... surrounded by rusty, beat up baggage carriers. It says a lot about what we see as travelers and the many things we don't.
A beautiful piece of calligraphy in the stone-drum script by ancient calligrapher 'Wu Changshuo' from the late Qing period.
This is one of the pieces from an entire gallery dedicated to Chinese calligraphy in the Shanghai museum.
This is a piece of Porcelain pottery from Jiangxi in Qianlong blue and white. It is typical of the Ming and Qing dynasties. .
Treated myself to a Chinese water colour book from this roadside book shop near the Bund, close to Zhongshan Road.
Textures of a tree.
The view from my room on the 30th floor of Holiday Inn - Shanghai Jinxiu in the Pudong Area.
After my work with Maersk was completed we stayed another couple of days in The Rock and Wood International Youth Hostel to explore the city and places nearby.
This was home for a few days! I loved browsing thorough their books, seeing their script written everywhere and how it was used on posters and postcards.
Although the common room is very western or European looking like a typical airbnb ... all the knick-knacks and paraphernalia lying around were locally sourced or made.
I absolutely loved this building. It was under construction and the scaffolding itself was a piece of art.
The entire building looks as though it is covered in a pattern.
Check, tick, done.
Waiting for the Shanghai Maglev train better know as the Shanghai Trans Rapid - it is a magnetic levitation train.
The Maglev train is the fastest commercial electric train in the world - operating at speeds of 431 km / hr. We took it on the way back to the Shanghai International Airport for the journey back. When the train begins to move they have a ticker informing you of the speed at which it is running. And for a while one almost gets that feeling in the stomach...
