Armed with shopping malls, sky scrapers, subways and high speed trains, China is westernizing itself like a country deprived of culture for 50 years. The hustle and bustle of the 1.3 billion people who live here creates a constant hum, each day striving and coming closer to a world those of us from America are far more familiar with. But they forgot one thing – a place to sit down.
In Shanghai’s museums and shopping malls one will find elegant staircases, escalators upon escalators, spotless clean floors, and seasonal decorations, but there is not a seat to be had. Sunday I went to the great Shanghai Museum, but quickly became tired and wished to sit while admiring the ancient sculptures. Alas, there wasn’t a single seat in the gallery, so I resolved to sit in the foyer, an impressive enough space to sit, but again there were no seats! No seats in the entire museum!! The same experience happened a few weeks ago when I was visiting a high class shopping mall. Sure they had Louis Vuitton and Gucci stores, but all I wanted was a bench!
I will confess that there are enough seats outside in parks, but sometimes you just want to sit inside. While I was shocked and disappointed at the museum’s seating capacity, it was at the mall that I learned the true meaning of ‘shop ‘til you drop’.
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