SCHINKEL COMPANY in SHANGHAI

Between 24th and 28th of October 2006 we are guests of Ishiki in Shanghai. She is member of hospitalityclub.org and she offers us open hearted her apartment as a home for 4 days.


Occasioned by the sad story of the deportation of a family to Kosovo I publish the letter of my mother, which she sent to the Minister of the Interior of Baden-Wuerttemberg. You will find the letter (in german) at the end of the newsletter.

Mobile home furnishing

Mobile home furnishing
On 23rd of Oktober I pick up Johannes at 9.00 p.m. from school! Finally back again! Next morning Wendy waves us good bye when we leave by taxi to the airport. We are going to Shangahi! Arrived there Ishiki, called Isis, welcomes us in a uncomplicated and happy way, just like we would know eachother already since a long time. On my question since when she is member of hospitalityclub.org she replies, that she just entered the day before I contacted her, so we are her first guests...Johannes discovers the piano!


A friend is interested in my experiences with hospitalityclub.org and I tell him enthusiastic about it. I cannot answer his question about the dangers of being robbed, because I only gained good experiences. And I believe, that faith is the base of individual reality. If I would be robbed nevertheless, then...well,then it should be like it is? This option is not part of my system of believe. I am not going to be robbed and I am not afraid of that. Even if it would happen...well, then it maybe should happen. I think it is a matter of attitude. Lack of or bounteousness. Sensation of the lack of something generates the lack of it, sensation of bounteousness creates bounteousness. In this moment i remember the road works of my life...and I take the decision to be even more aware of the bounteousness that is available for me.

At lunch time we meet my former collegue Daniel at the old french quarter. On the way to there I find the german Paulaner Brewhouse, the staff wears Dirndl and traditional costume, how skurril, in the middle of Shanghai...long live tourism. We take a walk through the park, around the lake. A young girl sets two goldfish adrift. And there are waterturtles. It is a calm place, the traffic honks by within a radius of 50 meters. That’s a lot and it helps lowing the decibelquote quite a lot. At this place the old baracks were located in former times. The quarter was completely deleted, instead of it they build up this recreation place surrounded by all these tower blocks. The rents now bring much more earnings to government and investors than the former rents could ever do. Relation 5:5000 maybe? Profitable anyway and enhancing the prestige. There’s no denying, it looks nice and clean, but, of course the atmosphere can not be compared with the old culture and structures. A small impression we still can get by walking through the old quarters with all the small shops, houses and restaurants.

The 'first' world cleaves...

The 'first' world cleaves...

...by hook or by crook

...by hook or by crook

gluttons

gluttons
Spitting men move through the alleys. Pots, laundry and anything else is be washed directly on the street, garbage here and there. The old tiny houses are, even if they probabely used to be beautiful in former times, supplemented by amateurish extensions of wooden or plastic buildings. Many of the around 3 meters wide fronts of row houses are already teared off, derelicted. Ruined trusses invite wind and weather into the wrecks of houses. It creates an unsteady sight, destruction is the word which is the best fitting associativity. But the street is alive, as fresh as a daisy it is! People are teeming here and there, life is going to happen outside. Here you find shops selling dried meat and fish right beside antique dealers, bakeries beside book shops, knickknack shops beside barber shops, where clients are asked to sit down on not redeveloped chairs from the century before last, Mao rummage beside huge amounts of hairy crabs displayed on tables, crabs with hair on it. It is october, season for this delicacy. Dead ducks are hanging like exhibits of Madame Tussauds aligned on long rails close to the curb. Thousands of smells are in the air.

Bargain king

Bargain king

Johannes on foto tour

Johannes on foto tour

Water front

Water front

Mother and son

Mother and son