(This is Chapter 11 from Mr. Prabhakaran’s book, An
Indian Goes Around the World – I: Capitalism Comes to Mao’s Mausoleum, which we have been serializing in this
space. Chapter 12, “A Morning Walk by the Mekong: a Restaurant Named After My
Niece,†will appear next week. Read the series every Monday. – Editor)
After spending most part of my
last day in China enjoying Pudong and the Bund in Shanghai, I headed for the
nearby Nanjing Road (Nanjing Lu, in Chinese). All my friends who had been to
Shanghai before me, and all travel guides I read, had strongly recommended that
I shouldn’t leave Shanghai without spending some time on Nanjing Road.
At the
entrance to the road from the Bund is the famous Peace Hotel. The hotel has a
storied past. Its two wings, straddling Nanjing Road, were two independent,
privately-owned hotels – Cathay Hotel, to the north, and Palace Hotel, to the
south – before Shanghai and the rest of China came under Communist rule, in
1949. Cathay was opened in 1929. It was part of the Sassoon House, built by Sir
Victor Sassoon, a British-Sephardic Jew of Iraqi origin. He had made a fortune
in Shanghai, trading in opium and weapons. After the Communist takeover, the
hotel became government-owned. It was renamed Peace Hotel in 1956.
The history of Palace Hotel goes
back to the 1850s. Built as part of the Palace Building, its original name was Central
Hotel. Among Palace Hotel’s celebrity occupants was Sun Yat-sen, who stayed
there during the 1911 Xinhai Revolution. It may be added that it was the Xinhai
Revolution that eventually ended the rule of the Qing Dynasty in China and
established the country as a republic. The hotel also boasts of having hosted
the first meeting of the World Anti-Narcotics League, in 1909. It shouldn’t
surprise anyone that such a meeting was held at Palace Hotel, not the nearby
Cathay. It would be inappropriate for a hotel built partly with the money made
through illegal opium trade to host an anti-narcotics event. During World War
Two, Palace Hotel was occupied by the invading Japanese army. It became part of
Peace Hotel in 1965.
The history of Nanjing Road dates
back to 1851. At that time, it was called Park Lane. It got the English name
because it was part of the International Settlement (discussed in Chapter 10),
administered by the British and the Americans. In 1865, the English-speaking
administrators renamed it Nanking Road. Nanking is the anglicized form of
Nanjing.
The road gets its name from the
city of Nanjing. Nanjing became known all over the world, not because it was
the capital of China for a long time, but because of the large-scale looting,
raping of women and massacre of innocent people that took place in the city in
1937. The atrocities were committed by the invading Japanese army, and have
been graphically described in a 1997 book, The
Rape of Nanking, written by Iris Chang.
Extending all the way from the
Bund to Jingian District, Nanjing Road is said to be the longest (more than
three miles long) street in Shanghai. With over one million visitors a day, it
is also reputed to be the busiest shopping area in the world.
The part of Nanjing Road that is
called Nanjing Road East is reserved exclusively for pedestrians. It reminded
me of Calle Florida (Florida Street) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with the
difference that this one is busier all through the day and most of the night
and that it is much longer. Also, while only part of Nanjing Road is reserved
for pedestrians, the entire Florida Street is kept that way.
Most of Shanghai’s oldest and
largest department stores are located on Nanjing Road. There are also small
stores, overflowing with merchandise suits varied tastes and budgets. As I
walked along, I could see in some of them glittering arrays of Chinese silk.
There were also teeny-weeny stores and kiosk-like outlets selling antiques,
handicraft, trinkets and curios. What was once the hub of European-style
restaurants and cafes, Nanjing Road is now a preferred shopping place for the
rich and poor alike. Some stores were also overflowing with saleswomen, by
which I mean that their numbers were far out of proportion to the quantity of
merchandise in them. Salesmen were rare.
Saleswomen Acting
as Matchmakers
As I was passing by a
ready-made-apparels store, a jacket that was on display on a mannequin caught
my attention. Two saleswomen from the store, who might have noticed my more-than-casual
interest in the item, came out and grabbed my hands. “Come look, no buy,†they
said and dragged me into the store.
Before I could say no, they
pulled the jacket off the mannequin and put it around my shoulders. Then they
pushed me toward a mirror and said, “Look, you good.â€
One of the women pressed some
numbers on a calculator to show me the price. By then, I had decided that I
liked the jacket and that I was going to buy it. I told her, using my ten
fingers to emphasize it, how much I was willing to pay. After a few minutes’
haggling, we decided on a price and I bought the jacket. Though they wanted me
to pay for it in American dollars, I did it in their own currency – which they
proudly call renminbi, meaning people’s currency.
I was ready to leave the store,
but the two saleswomen wouldn’t let me. They dragged me to a showcase and
pointed to a lady’s outfit – a sleeveless blouse and a matching skirt, both
made of silk. “This, your wife, good,†one of them said.
“I am single,†I told them, my
upward-raised index finger emphasizing my marital status.
“Oh, you single! Good.†They had
a solution for that problem, too. They escorted me to a corner of the store. Pointing
to a young woman sitting at a desk there, one of them said, “She manager.
Single. You two good.â€
“I am leaving Shanghai tonight,â€
I told them, gestures and signs supplementing my words. “Marriage next time. I
promise.â€
My promise made both women
giggle. The manager giggled, too. All three were twenty-something and good-looking.
I left the store, saying to
myself, “A jacket and a bride for the price of one? Not a bad deal.â€
Looking back, I am happy that I
didn’t allow myself to be shanghaied by three women, two of them buxom.
Photo: Nanjing
Road, Shanghai, China. With over a million visitors a day, it is said to be the
busiest shopping area in the world. (The picture is reproduced by courtesy
of chinapage.com.)
10:
How a Shanghai neighborhood got an Indian name
9:
Capitalist celebrations in Communist China – on May Day (Travel with MP Prabhakaran
8) Capitalism Comes to Mao’s Mausoleum – But in Its Crude Form
7) Picture of a cow on Beijing billboard confuses a Hindu (Travel with MP Prabhakaran)
6) Yoga on Copacabana, conducted by a Brazilian beauty (Travel with MP Prabhakaran)
5
Hunchback and sugar loaf: Two tourist attractions in Rio de Janeiro
4)
How Portugal failed to colonize Calicut: Chat with a Brazilian
3) Brahma and Laxmi reincarnate in Brazil? (Travel with M.P. Prabhakaran)
2) Eva Peron’s tomb is too small for her ego (Travel with M.P. Prabhakaran)
1) My Two Embarrassing Moments in Buenos Aires (Capitalism Comes to Mao’s Mausoleum-1: M. P. Prabhakaran)
http://dlatimes.com/article.php?id=40709
(about the author) An Indian Goes Around the World – I (Capitalism Comes to Mao’s Mausoleum)http://dlatimes.com/article.php?id=40126
