Look Up

Shanghai is under construction. I read that 10 percent of the world's construction cranes are in Shanghai. Workers from the country come in and get paid ridiculously low wages to work day and night in less than safe working conditions. By less than safe, I mean the guy who is balancing on bamboo scaffolding 10 stories up with no hard hat probably doesn't have the right gear to remove that asbestos. It's cool at night though when you see the blue glow of blow torches in the high rises.

I went for a walk behind my apartments last weekend. It's nice because there are old neighborhoods where people are drying their meat next to their socks. I went down a street where they were butchering fish on the sidewalk. They put live fish and crabs and turtles in little bins of water and when you want one, they chop it up right there.

Behind my Apartment

There is so much action my neck started to hurt from looking at everything. I had about 10 little kids following me and yelling "hello, hello" for quite a while. At one point, I heard a crash, a huge thud and the sound of broken glass hitting the sidewalk. An air conditioner had fallen out of a window and landed right next to a lady working her sewing machine on the sidewalk. She was covered in glass. She stood up and started yelling up at the window but there was no one to be seen. I was stunned. It did not phase the little kid who was peeing in the street next to me.

So now, I cross the street if the building I am walking next to is under construction.