On the morning of 12th July 2009, I arrived at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) for my flight FM809 to Hong Kong. I finished check-in at around 8 o’clock, and went to the gate to wait for my flight, which is departing at 9:10. Suddenly, as I walk around to check out the shops around, I found this absolutely amusing scene:

Just as I thought that sometimes weird people just show up, I then see another person doing the same thing.

Then, the same scene even happened on the day when I come back from Hong Kong in the HK International Airport.

Seriously, dude? This is a waiting lounge of the airport, not some random curbside that you can just sleep! If you don’t respect yourself, at least respect the ones around you, or the airport!

Shanghai has indeed done a good job building the airport, but scenes like these absolutely ruined the whole environment. On one side of the government, they tell the whole world how ready they are for the Expo 2010, but on the other side, they let things like these happen. Sure, they have banners all around Shanghai telling people to “be civilized”, which certainly HELP A LOT, but there are still some people who just don’t get it.

I am not pointing to Shanghai people in a whole, but people like these just bring down the whole image of Shanghai. Now, I have been living in Shanghai for about 5 years, so in a sense, I am used to these manners already. However, how will the visiting foreigners for Expo 2010 react? It will be more than a disgrace – it will be an offence and a sign of disrespect. Visitors may not remember how nice things look like in Shanghai, but they will definitely remember such disturbing scenes.

It is time to grow up. There might be an arms race in terms of modern technology, architecture and what not; but to me, and surely many others, what matters most is the ability to please others. And as clearly shown, the manners above show exactly the opposite. That is the reason why Shanghai can’t catch up with the world yet, because it has yet to discover the real problem that hinders them.  Jia you (good luck), Shanghai.

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