Attention foreigners in Shanghai: STAY INSIDE

The weather has finally turned the corner here in Shanghai, yesterday it was around 23c (or for fahreinheit loving people, about 75f) and today it is even warmer. Since the sun was shining brightly and some of the pollution had been burned off, I felt the desire to go out for an after lunch walk. I crossed the street to People's Square to mosey on through the park. Just after crossing the street I was stopped by a couple who said hello, so as not to be rude, I said hello back which started a nice short 10 minute conversation.

Now for those of you not in Shanghai, Shanghai is a huge tourist destination for the Chinese (similar to a NYC or London) so on any given day you have a load of Chinese tourists just enjoying the city. Now People's Square is also a famous park for people to visit while here in Shanghai, it just so happens to be right across the street from my office. Mix these two things together and what you have is tourists that sometimes come from more remote parts of China or smaller towns who have never seen, let alone had a conversation with a westerner. I guess that's where I come in, most local westerners tend to ignore the hello or have their MP3 players blasting, so these tourists only get the lucky few like me to talk with. Anyway, I don't mind the conversations, most of the time they are blown away that I would like to talk with them, mostly followed by small talk (how long have you been here, what are you doing here), moving onto the people being blown away that I am 26 (yesterday I was told that I looked like a high school student, please feel free to fill in your own funny comment) and the fact that I have two kids. I have also been told that my English is better then that of the current governor of California (a good fact to know considering I was born in the US and he was born in Austria!!!). Those withstanding, I think I make their day as they leave the conversation smiling and usually talking excitedly to their travelling counterpart.

Back to the story at hand, I left that first conversation and started to stroll around the park when I was approached by another two tourists, asking the same questions, being amazed by the same things (although this group was thoroughly disappointed that I didn't know much Chinese), this conversation lasting another 10 minutes. Basically, my 10 minute walk around the park took about 30 minutes, so while I wish I could have walked around more, I am happy that people were excited to talk with me, but I guess I need to bring my Ipod out on those days when all I want to do is walk (really I am not that exciting of a guy, I'm an accountant, from Baltimore, MD......let the fun times begin).