Smoke break
(Construction workers at the Peace Hotel: Shanghai, China)
The Bund is not immune to the vast swathes of construction for the forthcoming Expo, and rather than shoveling the entire shebang to the outskirts, or to an obscure area of town, the Expo will be hosted right on the banks of the river; Pudong in the east and alongside the Bund on the west. This is the famous Peace Hotel (though in my ignorance I’ve never heard of it until now) and it is being massively renovated to reopen soon. The building, like many on the Bund is stunning, and Ying and I spoke at great length how it might have been in its heyday less than a century ago. The buildings and boulevard styled street layout are reminiscent of Haussmann’s Parisian plan.
These men were taking a break outside one of the main entrances to the hotel. They looked so jaded, work worn and glad to smoke a cigarette that I had to take a photograph. Of course the man on the right noticed, even though I was pretending to look at something else, but I gave him a smile as recompense. Above them (out of shot) were the torn and faded green awnings of a once proud and luxurious hotel. The neon lettering signs spelling out the hotel name have become dirtied and yellow and I’m sure they will be torn away in the renovation too. In ten years, I am sure the Bund will have no tatty areas, no derelict, shabby edifices, just the renovated concession buildings and new modern offerings in place of those that didn’t survive.
As an aside, apparently Shanghai will become a non smoking zone this year. I expect there to be uproar as around 50% of Chinese people smoke. I thought Scotland had it bad, but here every restaurant reveals a dining smoker somewhere. There is no such thing as a ‘non smoking area’ much to our constant consternation.
