Monday 2 September 2013

56. Three of the most annoying things in Shanghai


3.        People crowding on to trains


I know this has been mentioned before in a previous blog '10 worst things about the subway’. But it just deserves to be extra emphasised how one will force their way on to a bus or train instead of waiting for the next one. 





This situation reached breaking point for me when for the first time ever the subway line that I use every day was down at rush hour. Within 20 minutes the platform was crowded and people were trying to get on the stationary train that I had already boarded. In the end, it got a bit chaotic as everyone was trying to get to work and there was no blatant fix for the situation but stress out.




2. Dancers in clubs


However desperate my life is, I wholeheartedly promise that I will never do a nightclub-dancing job.
In Shanghai’s club scene, I have seen some strange performances. Paid girls to mill around dancing on the stage when everyone is sitting down, horrendous Chinese sung cover performances of club tunes and then just this workout style dancing which leaves everyone watching it feel a sense of awkwardness.


The Western dancers are bizarrely dressed and often surround the main Chinese singer who is really no crowd pleaser and dressed like an idiot. What’s worse is that they are usually kicking us off the stage for their cringeworthy performance.


  1. ATM’s

I’m a patient person. But not when it comes to ATM’s.


The process involved in using an ATM should really be quick one. But for some unknown reason, the majority of people here seem to take a disproportionate amount of time doing this.

What makes it so infuriating is that the person will go about their business in a lockable compartment. Some people take this liberty to take their dear old time as the queue outside grows.


There have been many times where I’ve just been standing there waiting, wondering what these people are doing inside. Its for these minutes which have been needlessly wasted that I rate it as the thing which gets under my skin the most.

55. Adverts

The month of August was split between gallivanting around Australia and teaching reading courses upon getting back in Shanghai.

I want to write about the different Chinese people that you see abroad as I experienced a whole load when abroad.

But for now, we are back in the present and facing the reality that the summer is over. I go back to teaching to 40 odd students in each class the day after tomorrow and I feel a conflicting mix of dread and excitement. Dread as the summer work with small classes is a whole lot easier but teaching the big classes is a bit of an adrenaline rush.

Anyway the temperatures seem to have dropped recently from sweltering to coolish. We all enjoyed the sight of defined clouds in the clear blue sky yesterday.


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Adverts


The advertising business in this very consumerist city must be huge. You have the Pudong skyline which acts basically as a grand advertisment for foreign investment. But then when it gets to the posters, there are really some adverts that defy belief. Here are 5 which stood out.

1. The 'in awe of quite a mundane product' advert



2. The ' completely un natural, you just don't see this' advert


3.  The ' get a pretty lady and just flaunt it' advert


4.  The 'will always be seen with a badminton racket in every advert' advert


5. The 'Oh dear what were you thinking' advert




Oh China.