My beautiful eight-minute Shanghai commute

Speaking about commuting, as I did yesterday, I decided to record my Shanghai morning commute. It’s normally about eight minutes. I could probably do it in six-and-a-half without running if I had to. So I brought my camera and took pictures every dozen yards or so sometimes looking forward, other times to the side.

What can I say? I consider community more important all the time.

I live in a beautiful part of the French Concession. I started with the interior of the old three-story building I live in. People call the building old Chinese style in that people use its common spaces for storage, drying racks, cooking spaces, and so on… a different view of privacy than the U.S. I say a few words in Chinese when I can to the people in the halls cooking or whatever and a few words in English to the little girl of the family on the ground floor who have expanded into everyone’s common space with their kitchen.

Anyway, it’s a nice commute down a tree-lined street with small brick buildings. The pictures show how I start my day —

people walking and biking casually
a few workers eating breakfast on a low table
a guy brushing his teeth in the street
people’s laundry drying overhead
small shops like a florist and wine shop along the way.

When I turn the corner I see

a tiny two-table outdoor sushi cafÃ©/gallery/bar American zoning would never allow but adds great character
parents dropping off their kids to school
small alleys
tons of bikes parked on the sidewalk (Americans’ complaints that their cities don’t allow bikes sound ridiculous when you see eighty year olds biking here in 90+ degrees with big loads)

eventually leading to a big street — Huaihai Lu — with a fast food joint. Cars move slow enough that people cross without a traffic light and I could stop and take pictures while cars moved past.

Then I enter the compound with my school, also a small, three-story building with its little courtyard, probably once a home. It’s a lovely walk. I guess if you work from home or have a similar commute I might take back what I said yesterday about your commute being too long.