Exploring

The weather has been warming up, and it becomes easier to explore by foot.   The eye starts to stray from the ground and the view becomes nicer.   Everything becomes a bit nicer.  The dirt doesn't seem as dirty, the noise seems not as noisy.  The thing about here is that there are moments and glimpses of beautiful things, but you have to work your way through all the things that stand in the way that are jarring.  One of the best things is the architecture.  These amazing neighborhoods all hidden behind gates:  the Shikkumen neighborhoods.  Built during the Boxer rebellion to protect people, they became these inclusive, bustling sanctuaries in the midst of the city.  I imagine that many of the houses were single family, until they were converted to multifamily dwellings.  I walk through one on my way to work and you see so much activity:  the communal sinks and ugh bathrooms, people walking their dogs, talking neighbors, wash being put out, someone brushing their teeth, a vegetable seller set up in one alley.  They were all built with different sorts of western styles, but in a chinese sensibility.  So Shanghai.  Every part of the city I have explored has particular styles of Shikkumen.  They all exist behind gates, and are a world unto themselves.