A Canadian in Beijing: Floating Billboards on The Bund

by Ember Swift on

Since I’m on vacation here in Shanghai, it stands to reason that I ought to act like a tourist once in awhile. I have been snapping photos like one since I arrived, to be sure, but besides visiting The Great Wall, I haven’t yet taken in many historically significant sites. For once, I read a guide book and took the advice of the pages therein. They advised me to take in the waterfront in Shanghai, particularly on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

The Bund, also known as Zhongshan road, is an historical section of waterfront that stretches a little less than one mile on the western front of the “Pu Xi” (West City) and looks out to the eastern part of Shanghai known as “Pu Dong.” It is raised and separate from the roadway and proved to be a popular tourist destination on this sunny day. I was among them and I got the requisite photo taken across from the famous Oriental Pearl TV Tower as well as one of the tallest in the world, the Jin Mao Tower. (Hard to believe that, coming from Toronto and knowing the scale of the CN Tower!)

The Bund is part of the Huangpu River, an essential shipping route and regarded as the symbol of Shanghai for many years. There are lots of cruises available in these waterways that are flanked by huge corporate modern structures intermingled with a diversity of architecture from many different cultures across many centuries. It’s clear that this port has long been an international one, and not just because of the wide diversity of faces we can see walking along and snapping pictures just like us.

I thought it would be a great place for a romantic stroll on a warm evening and this thought warmed me into stalling and going to the edge of the walkway to peer over. I stared out into the river to see muddy waters below. My gaze followed the river’s current out and north-westward where the waters were guarded by Nikon and Nestle and other multinationals.

Between their buildings and my perch, there was a boat cruising slowly across the harbour with a giant screen and constant television advertisements flashing brightly for all to see. I could think of nothing more I’d rather NOT see than commercials at that moment. Talk about muddying the waters… A floating billboard on the Bund?!

I took that as a sign that I had seen enough. I turned and left, having walked only about halfway.

Still, I am happy and grateful to have seen an historical section of an ancient port, and this moment of its development is no less valid. It, too, will eventually become part of history.

Pic of me by Sarah Keenan

Jamestown in Virginia Turns 400

by Jamie Rhein on

Wow! Jamestown is 400 years old already? Time does fly. On May 14, 1607, folks from the Virginia Company stepped off their ships onto Jamestown Island. And so it began. The Virginia colony was established here at the banks of the James River with the idea they’d find gold for England and a way to keep heading east to Asia. The Algonquin Indians weren’t too tickled with the intruders so there was a bit of fighting which prompted the building of a fort.

Jamestown Settlement and Historic Jamestowne are established tourist spots where history has stepped out of a textbook for some interactive learning. At the recreated village, Jamestown Settlement, people dress in period costumes and demonstrate what life was like way back when. Next door, at Historic Jamestowne, archeologists excavate the original site. Replicas of the ships are also part of the things to see package.

For the 400th birthday, there’s a weekend of activities, May, 11-13 and tickets are still available. You can buy tickets on-line. Here’s a list of what’s going on for the celebration weekend. The variety and scope are impressive. For a video about the voyage from the Jamestown Web site, click here.

Free Museums!

by Neil Woodburn on

I wish more companies did promotions like this.

In honor of National Museum Month this May, Bank of America is offering its customers free admission to 85 museums across the United States.

Museums on Us is in its 10th year of existence and is still going strong. Anyone with an account or credit card issued by the bank can check here to discover which museums apply in their area.

Or, if you happen to be on vacation, consider opening an account just long enough to take advantage of the free deal–which also includes a free companion pass as well. The best location appears to be in New York City where 15 museums are included on the list (including the Bronx Zoo). That’s a lot of museum for your buck!

Cyclo Ride: A Virtual Thrill

by Jamie Rhein on

Riding a cyclo in Vietnam is a bit like riding in a baby stroller if you can remember riding in a baby stroller. Except, in a cyclo, you’re moving in traffic and not safely on a sidewalk somewhere. As more and more people have cars and motorcycles in Vietnam, it’s getting harder to find places to get a cyclo ride. Although in Hanoi, there are still places where they are everywhere. At Virtual Tourist, you can find cyclo riding tips and comments from others who’ve been there. Once I stood on a street corner taking pictures of cyclos going by and the things they carried besides people. One had a coffin. I can’t imagine that cyclos will ever go totally out, and they may just be money makers from the tourist industry like they are in Singapore.

Here’s a video posted by budlake on You Tube of a cyclo ride in Hue that did make me feel like I was on a cyclo. The person holding the camera had the right idea. Just keep the camera steady and let the movement of the cyclo do the work. The result is that the viewer gets an idea of what it’s like to move in Vietnam’s traffic at a slower pace than the other vehicles passing by.

Emotional Maps: a New Way to Navigate the City

by Jonathon Morgan on

While it may seem obvious, it’s worth noting that the best experiences I have while exploring cities around the world are never to do with what’s there — museums, important landmarks, etc — but instead revolve around how the place makes me feel.

One artist is making it easy for travelers like me, by making maps based not on an area’s geography, but rather on the emotions evoked by different areas within an urban landscape.

It works like this: volunteers agree to wander around a city while wearing both a GPS device and a sensor similar to that which is used in lie detector tests. Their thoughts on what they saw and felt when the polygraph recorded a quickened heartbeat are then recorded by the artist, who in turn uses the information to create “emotional maps.”

As you might suspect, a number of marketing and advertising companies want to use the findings to better target consumers, but the most interesting find — at least for me — is that people respond to social interactions far more than any piece of architecture. This means you’re far more likely to connect with a city full of interesting people, rather than someplace that has impressive buildings or attractive landscapes.

Might be useful information for the next time you’re planning that urban getaway, although — at least for the moment — London and San Francisco are the only cities the artist has completed.