More of the same
(A busy road: Shanghai)
Umbrellas, traffic and washing lines… that pretty much sums up a fair portion of urban Shanghai. Women carry umbrellas everywhere, rain or shine – though men will only hold one if caught in a downpour. We even managed to use one whilst riding my bike, Taiyin Ma in Suzhou – I held it over both of us as Ying took care of the steering, and I have to admit that it works perfectly well and even gives us a little local credibility. To be honest, until I returned to the UK, I had forgotten how odd it is to see this many umbrellas all at once, let alone when the sun is beating down!
The laundry flitting over the traffic too is a constant feature, at least in the muggy summer. When this region reaches minus five degrees later this year, I imagine that there will be a sight less. I can’t actually imagine this heat subsiding to such depths of frostiness, but apparently the seasons will change, leaving us with an almost non-existent Autumn, taking us straight to winter. I fear the traffic however is as endless and unabating as this heat appears at present, and it is not likely to change.
laundry flitting outside windows of the high-rise HDB flats is also a
constant feature in Singapore. i thought only the singaporeans have this habit of hanging their laundry on a long bamboo pole outside their windows, i was a bit shock when i saw the same
phenomenon in a small town in Italy (of course, it was not from highrise). However, laundry flitting over seems more acceptable in a small towen than in a big city.