The umbrella-lined path at Shanghai’s People’s Park is a real-life Match.com. Every weekend, the Shanghai Marriage Market draws the parents of unmarried men and women looking for a suitable match for their child. In an ever-changing China, the market is one way traditional family involvement in the matchmaking process is being preserved. China is also facing a gender gap due to the so-called “one child policy.” By 2020, studies project China will have 24 million unmarried men unable to find a female partner.
At Shanghai Museum, a young artist sketches on of the Qing-era bowls on display.A dragon head watches over the collection in Shanghai Museum’s Chinese Minority Nationalities’ Art Gallery. Artifacts from Tibet, Mongolia and others show another side of China’s past.The sign for fast-food chain Real Kungfu features a very Bruce Lee-looking character. Maybe their motto should be “Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick. Eat when you have to eat.”On our first morning in Shanghai after a rough overnight train from Xi’an, I stumbled on this street market down an alley near our hotel. The narrow market sells fresh fruits and vegetables in the morning while food stalls begin to pop up later in the day. By the third day, the lady with the kung pao tofu was serving it up before I even asked.The red chili pepper is a major component of Sichuan-style cuisine. The local market had no shortage of this key ingredient.The market was the real-deal, selling live eels, frogs and turtles. Upon completion of the customer’s order, this vendor killed and cleaned the bullfrogs right in the street.
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