Personal Space: It’s a luxury, not a right



Qibao had shops filled with things you don’t need.



For Spring Festival, I had something like 10 days off from work. This is incredible because not only had I just arrived and really only worked a few weeks so far, but I don’t think I’ve ever had 10 days off from work for a holiday before.

I spent most of the time having “tourist” days with a group of expats. We’d essentially open a guidebook and whatever page we landed on that day, we’d go there, making pit stops along the way.



One day, on our way to The Bund – a touristy strip along the river – we stopped at a “fake market” and I haggled for a knock off Jimmy Choo handbag that feels a lot like a vinyl car seat.



Another day we went to Qibao on the outskirts of Shanghai. Qibao – a “river town” where we took a Venice-style boat ride and had tea at a traditional tea house – was not overrun with foreign tourists, like I’m used to in the expat area I live in, but rather Chinese tourists celebrating the New Year. And it tested my capacity to tolerate the Shanghai “zero personal space” policy.



Qibao shortly before dusk, looking a lot calmer than at midday!



There’s a lot of people in Shanghai, so things get tight. At 8 a.m. on a Monday morning, getting onto the metro is a lot being in the ocean. You sort of get caught up in this giant group of people trying to squeeze onto the metro and you’re carried on like a wave and then you’re packed in tight with nothing to hold onto and kind of sway with the others as the train goes around corners. When you get to your stop, you sort of just fall out of the train with the others. (On a sidenote, I just read today that in 1999, Shanghai’s metro had only one short line. But by 2007 it had become the 7th largest metro in the world. During the expo last year, apparently lots of new stops were also added).

In Shanghai, the streets are crowded. The stores are crowded. The restaurants are crowded. You learn to accept that there’s someone always at your elbow.



The crowds that I couldn’t handle.



But in Qibao it went beyond someone just walking close to you. The Old Town streets were narrow and packed with pedestrians. It was hard to peel off from the masses to even go into one of the little shops and there was always someone inadvertently touching you. It drives me crazy and I do not like it and I feel like I’m going through some sort of immersion therapy where I’m thrown into the deep end to get over my need for wide open personal space.





This guy was making some sort of “floss” candy that was a little like cotton candy but slightly chewier.





While our short boat ride was fun, the water was filthy and filled with trash. In fact, as you pass under the bridges, you sort of dodge trash people are throwing in the water.




This bridge was packed with pedestrians.