Back in Kaifeng

Back in Kaifeng after a week on the road and blogspot is still inaccessible. No one knows why it is blocked. China maintains its traditional inscrutability.
My teaching partner Ms. Zhang took care of administering the final exams freeing me so I could travel. Marta accompanied me to nanjing then decided rather than return to Kaifeng for two days of classes to continue for the week. Nanjing was our favorite of the journey, Our three days there included the Massacre Memorial, a somber and well-designed tribute to the infamous World War II atrocities visited upon the city and China. Another highlight was the Presidential Palace, a reminder of the city's long history as the capital. On to Souzhou, the garden city, and Hangzhou, famous for the West Lake. These southern cities are clean and gleaming. As far as we could see, a lot of the old is gone. This appears to be true in much of China. There are many sites of interest but traditional China is rapidly disappearing. Our last stop was Shanghai, the symbol of New China. The famous Nanjing Road pedestrian area is a long strip of pricey shops. The crowds included plenty of Westerners. Whatever the state of the international economy Shanghai seems to be booming. It's a vertical city with its famous Pudong skyscrapers and forests of apartment buildings rising high both in stature and probably in rents. Shanghai wants to challenge New York for status as the world financial capital. Looking at this booming city and a China pouring money into infrastructure, I take this bid for supremacy seriously. I must mention the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel, which takes riders on a tram car under river from the Bund to Pudong. I'm not sure what it is supposed to be but can only describe it as a psychedelic fun house ride with a narration that is baffling.
We wanted to take a ride on the Wangpo River and were negotiating a price when we started interacting with a group of Westerners. It was a large class from Arizona State University in China to travel and study. One of the faculty organizers is a historian. They were also going to a boat. We chatted a bit and he invited us to join them. We hopped on their bus to the docks and enjoyed the cruise as their guests. Thanks, Sun Devils!
We returned on an overnight train to Kaifeng. Got back in time to see the last quarter of Cavs-Magic game 5. I've got to start grading my stacks of finals. This week I'll travel south and enjoy some secenery, then back to Kaifeng to prepare for my return to the USA. I hope the Cavaliers are still playing!