Out the window

Every morning the first thing I do when I get up is to walk to the windows of my room and, with two hands, throw open my shades in a most dramatic fashion. The sun rushes into my southern facing room (what a luxury!) and I look out upon the city in which I live. Honestly, with shanties and 4 of the twenty tallest buildings in the world within sight, it's a rather astonishing view.

The view unfolds in front of me, growing more and more sophisticated and grand the further into the distance you stare. Directly below me is a small hamlet of old one bedroom houses, full of character and not a place you feel safe walking in after dark. Just beyond is Suzhou Creek, the second biggest river in Shanghai - nothing that'll make you forget the Thames, Seine or Danube, but a river view apartment none the less. Rarely do I see boats on it, and if I do they're barges carrying trash. Thankfully they usually pass by under the cover of night.

Just beyond the river are more small houses, where people live simple lives it would seem, there is a great vegetable and meat market just across the river which I like to visit. The houses here are a little nicer, and a little older I think, but at least when they were built someone cared enough to give them sloping roofs and wingdings of character. The backdrop to this neighborhood is a streaming elevated freeway, common in Shanghai, moving traffic north to south through the heart of the city. The cars, buses and trucks rumble silently in the distance, the only motion in the otherwise fixed and placid cityscape.

Rising behind the highway are the housing buildings, tall for Boston, dwarfed here in Shanghai by other giants. Complex after complex of two or three 30 story buildings, its the presence of these structures that make 1.3 billion people a reality. Dotting the low horizon in every direction as far as you can see, these buildings fill in the depth, they provide the heart of the skyline. Yet when you look at the horizon, you hardly notice them, instead focusing on the uniquely special buildings towering above them.

Bursting upwards from the downtown are a cluster of buildings each with their own character and feel. One looks like a space shuttle landed on top, where as another has bright blue lights and marks the sight of my school. These two buildings would be noteworthy in Boston, landmarks with observation towers, but here they cower beneath some of the worlds tallest buildings, becoming afterthoughts.

Yet in the distance, across the river, appearing no taller than their brothers in the foreground, are the 2nd and 5th tallest buildings in the world. The second tallest building, lovingly called 'the bottle opener' by westerners, just opened officially today. Though soon to be eclipsed by the new building in Dubai (and never taller than one in Taipei), the building towers in the distance marking the farthest thing I can see. I use it to judge the weather and pollution - If I can see it clearly, it must be a sunny day. It's odd to think about how out of place these would be in Boston, then I look down at the shacks in front of my house and realize they might just be out of place here in Shanghai too...