Shi Bow and thoughts…

I guess yesterday day was on of those days where you ask your elf is this is really happening? There I was in the cold snow, it couldn’t have been more then 5 degrees. I found myself in this little town where I was literally the only foreigner I had seen in the last 6 hours. Shi bow is the name of this hidden market town which translates as ‘Seven Treasures’. It’s not your typical tourist place like the Yuyuan Garden. If anything it was the opposite - instead of attracting all the tourists of Shanghai, Shi Bow is a market for the locals. As I walked down the main market street I could see endless colours; most of them red, decorations, and loads and I mean loads, of typical Chinese food. The locals greeted me with ‘Ne-How’ which means hello, and smiles that made me smile more then I could have thought. Even though we couldn’t communicate, that head nod or handshake, gesture or smile made it seem comfortable. I don’t know about you but when I visit a country or city the first thing I want to do is visit the main attractions or as I like to call them the mountains and the stars of our cities… you see a couple of hundred years ago they use to use astrology and geography to tell themselves what direction to go in to get to their destinations. Mountains were the cities landmarks and meeting points, but now buildings, sport arenas, bridges, monuments etc… are what differentiates one city to the next. A perfect example was when we went to Australia, the very first thing I wanted to do was run to the Opera House or see the Harbour Bridge, and when I go to India I hope to see the Taj Mahal, you get the point... This city was no different. I got to see the TV Tower, the finance centre, central Hyatt and the Wai Bai Du bridge, take a couple of pictures of them, learn the history and story behind them and I was good to go. Going back to my main point, these places that define cities is where the media is most focused on, however if you truly want to see a city you need to go out and do some explorations for yourself. If it wasn’t for a job I had with the Shanghai Media Network for a local show called A Tail Of Three Cities I would have never had the chance to see what I did, and Getting to see the town of Shi Bow really gave me the feeling that I was in a completely different place and time. This job showed me a different side of Shanghai I am glad I got to see.