Shanghai
I grew up in one of the most technologically advanced cities. Shanghai is a place I would consider my home. Throughout the years of living in Shanghai, I noticed that the weather wasn’t of the ordinary. While other countries have starry nights, we would have pitch black skies with a film of grey on top. I remember watching T.V and seeing the fluffy white snow that would appear on American television programs. I remember my parents telling me that snow is rare in Shanghai and it was predicted not snow for another 10 years. I use to imagine what Shanghai would look like with a film of snow on top. I use to imagined the skyscrapers and the Huangpu river covered in snow.
When I was about 12 years old, I woke up one morning to see small particles of snow falling on the ground. Although I’ve seen snow before in different countries, it felt different to see it in Shanghai. As I got ready for school, I remember not being able to focus and kept staring out the window. During school, we would go outside and play in the snow because even the teachers found that this weather was rare. When I came back from school, I remember seeing my little sister holding out a plastic plate outside trying to collect snow. Although it didn’t snow hard enough to collect, it was still beautiful to see how parts of the rooftop garden started coating in thin layers of snow.
Interview:
My parents were living in Shanghai for a couple of years before I was born. Besides the pollution, weathers were pretty normal for them. Even though they lived in a city near water, they noticed how humid the air was when they first arrived in Shanghai. They suspect that it’s because back in Busan (Korea), there were a lot of mountains and trees to take in water particles in the air. On the other hand, Shanghai was a flat surfaced ground with little nature aspects. It was also odd for them to go through a winter without snow. Although the temperatures were similar to Korea, for some reason it was rare to see snow in Shanghai.
Reflect:
In the recent years in Shanghai, there’s been influx of snow. Heavy amounts of snow hit Shanghai around last year and citizens didn’t know how to react to it. When my parents saw the snow piling up, they were amazed and shocked that this was even possible. Not only were the citizens shocked at the sudden weather change in almost a decade, the government was too. Shanghai never encountered this much snow in such a long time that when there were problems with transportation and pipes freezing, they weren’t able to respond fast enough. Due to the snow, people would get into car accidents on the road, flights delayed and a disrupted train system. The government wasn’t ready for so much chaos to happen just because of the change of weather.
Our school that had been founded in 1912 also had problems due to the sudden change of weather. Compared to other countries and cities, I didn’t think that a little bit of snow could hurt anyone. School was cancelled for a day because the pipes of the bathrooms froze and were worried about the school buses getting into accidents. When we got back to school, our newly built 3 million dollar track was ruined. The one of a kind track was designed and built to match the environment of Shanghai. The track could hold humidity and rain but it wasn’t able to hold the icy piles of snow.
