Chuck Almost Goes Wild in Shanghai

Shanghai at night

          What happened next with Chuck was our fault.
After we almost lost the rascal cat in the Peace Hotel, we took him back to our hotel--Broadway Mansions--and fed him plenty of snacks.  

And since we were scheduled to return home to the states the very next day, we decided to take Chuck on a whirlwind tour of the city.  We wanted to show him all the points of interest--the Bund, the historic part of the City, the French Concession and then drive him around at night because we’d heard that Shanghai lit up at night looked spectacular! 
Chuck was to become King for the Day in Shanghai.
Our hope was that Chuck would fall in love with Shanghai.
Little could we guess what was about to happen.
And, Chuck, well, we lured him out of the hotel with the promise of snacks.  I had a bag of Temptations with me, Salmon flavor, and that’s all Chuckie needed to see.
We left the hotel and crossed the Garden Bridge, the first all steel bridge in China, built in 1908, to replace the wooden bridge that was there. This camel backtruss bridge is often the destination for brides dressed in red for good luck, posing after their wedding for pictures.  This is Shanghai’s landmark bridge.  Chuck seemed barely interested.

View of the Garden Bridge and our hotel Broadway Mansions.

Luckily, I had brought a small bowl with me and I filled the bowl with a few Temptations for Chuck to snack on.    
We headed past the Bund, located on the banks of the Huangpo River, noted for its buildings and structures of varied architectural styles--neoclassical, art deco--the Peace Hotel, but this too meant nothing to Chuck who barely glanced at the magnificent display as we road by.  I mentioned to Chuck that a new hotel had just been opened--the Peninsula Shanghai, very expensive and very swank, which included an entire mall of stores in the front section of the hotel. So you no longer had to leave your hotel to shop. There was also an immense food court a short distance from the hotel lobby. 
  Food? I sprinkled a few more Temptations in the bowl and the kid was happy.
Well, from the Bund, we headed toward the former foreign concession areas on Shanghai.  I wanted to show Chuck the French Concession because it was here that the First National Congress of the Communist Party met.  In other words, this is where China became a communist country.  Imagine what the world would be like if that were not the case today.  The house where that momentous event took place is now a museum.  Free admission.  No photos allowed, except in the dining room.  There are wax figures of the major players set up to illustrate who signed the agreement.  I suppose this is tantamount to our First Continental Congress meeting or the signing of our Declaration of Independence.  It kind of takes your breath away.  

In the French Concession, near where the First Continental Congress met

View of the French Concession

        The French Concession now is very upscale with shopping malls and boutiques and restaurants.  It is the chic place to live in Shanghai.  How ironic that it was here that communism got it's footing.  

A sample of the small boutiques that abound in the French Concession area today

Of course, there were more snacks for the kid.
We turned back toward the hotel and decided to revisit the historic part of Shanghai.  We passed the Yu Garden, which Chuck and I had both visited and walked and tried to find some peace.  
By this time, the sun had set, and Shanghai came to life. 
Shanghai, in case you don’t know this, is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper by population in the world with 23 million people.  It is considered a “global city,” very westernized, a major financial center and port city and the “showpiece” of China’s booming economy!  
I explained all this to Chuck, but all he seemed to care about were the lights and the continuous supply of snacks that he chomped on as we road along Shanghai’s streets.

Shanghai at night

Shanghai at night

Until . . .
I heard Chuck burp.  
And I suppose if a cat could turn pale ( as in he didn’t feel well), Chuck turned pale and had that look on his face which told me he’d eaten entirely too many snacks.  
I shook my head. “I had such plans for you tonight.  For us.  This is our last night in Shanghai.”
But the poor kid looked like he wanted to . . .
We turned the car around and headed back over the Garden Bridge, back to our temporary home at Broadway Mansions.  
Back in our hotel room, Chuck passed out, I mean fell asleep almost immediately.
And we were tuckered out, too.  

If you would like to read more about Chuck and his adventures, log onto www.katelutter.com.

My paranormal romance, Wild Point Island, is now available in paperback and ebook from amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.


   

Peace Hotel - Part II- Time Travel

(When Chuck, the rascal cat, wanders out of the lounge area of the Peace Hotel while Bob and I are sipping our Bloody Mary’s, we panic, and there’s a mad dash for the hallway.  Bob scampers off in one direction.  I go off in the other.  My heart pounds, not daring to imagine that the poor kid may be lost forever in the hotel, in Shanghai, in China.  This is PART II of that harrowing adventure . . . Part I was posted on Monday, September 17, 2012.)

Someone taps me on the shoulder.
It’s got to be Bob holding Chuck, telling me that he didn’t go far, after all.
        I’m about to heave a welcome sigh of relief.  I turn around. 
But I’m wrong.  
The Peace Hotel is well-staffed.  A well-dressed gentleman is standing there.  He smiles and says, “Can I help you?”
I fumble with my answer, “No. I’m looking for my . . .”  I’m not stupid enough to say “cat.”  I quickly insert the correct answer, “ . . . husband. He just wandered away.  We were in the bar. Having drinks.”
The hotel attendant nods.  
“I’ll just go back there and wait for him,” I add, hoping to get rid of this smiling attendant, who nods again and finally begins to walk away. 
I almost collapse on the floor as I watch him fade into the distance.
Chuck, where are you?
Could he have returned to the bar area?
Cats are great at leaving their scent behind.  That would be the logical thing for him to do.  Follow his own scent back to where he knows we are, once he realizes he’s in a mega strange place.    
I almost run down the hall now, convinced that Chuck is in the lounge area, waiting for me, probably propped up on the chair, eating our snacks . . .  
I refuse to accept any other possibility.

And that’s when it happens.  I spot the rascal cat, slinking out of a room that leads into the hallway.  Immediately he freezes when he sees me. Guilty, no doubt.  Luckily, we’re alone in the hallway. There are things I’d like to say to this cat, but I can’t speak because my throat feels so tight it’s as if I have a noose around it, so I whisk him into my arms and shove him into my smart bag.  
At least he’s safe.  Now I have to find Bob and tell him.  
I have every intention of doing so . . . because I can only imagine the anguish Bob’s going through.  He loves Chuck as much as I love him.
Somehow I become distracted. 
The room Chuck sauntered out of seems to beckon to me.
There is a soft light flowing into the window from outside. It‘s dusk, which some overly imaginative people refer to as the witching hour.  I glance into the room, and the furnishings, even the paintings on the walls, seem to harken back to an earlier time.  
Instantly, I’m reminded of “Somewhere in Time” and the scene where Christopher Reeve visits his college professor who reluctantly tells him of a moment when he felt sure he traveled backwards into the sixteenth century.  Only for a moment when the room around him flickered and the furnishings changed.  
      Time travel.
I step into the room and walk toward the window, heavily decorated with drapes. I expect, when I gaze out, to see Nanking Road filled with pedestrian traffic and cars, part of the modern world that exists around Shanghai, China.
But even as I shift the opaque curtain aside, in my heart I know I’ll glimpse a different world. For I expect this is a very special room.  By some quirk of time and space.  
The door has been left ajar for a reason.  
Chuck wandered into it.  
I was drawn to it.  
And now . . . carefully I pull the sheer drapes aside and gaze out.
And my heart metaphorically stops.
Just for a few seconds I see the hustling and bustling Nanking Road that I’ve only glimpsed in black and white photographs.  
A Nanking Road full of color and life.  I scan the scene before me and greedily take in all the details:
      Bicycles have huge woven baskets attached to the handle bars.  A red cable car squeaks past.  Several old-fashioned looking box-shaped cars drive past with their windows down.  Large cloth signs hang from poles suspended from the buildings that line the street, advertising the storefronts, in Chinese, of course.  The large, bold lettering sways in the breeze.  Men in suits wear hats, and the ladies are all in dresses. These pedestrians are in stark contrast to the rickshaw drivers who in baggy trousers and T shirts pull their load behind them.  One rider, asleep in his conveyance, wears laced, flat leather-like shoes that resemble our modern day sneakers.  

My God.  I must be  transported back to . . . the 1930’s . . .
I hear my name and stumble away from the window.
“Bob?”
He’s standing in the doorway.  “What are you doing in here? Did you find him?”
I nod.  Should I tell him?  Should I admit that for a few seconds, I was transported back in time? No. He’ll think I’m crazy.      
“Thank God. Well, let’s go to dinner.”  That’s Bob.  Hungry.
With Chuck safely squirreled away in my smart bag, we find our way to the nearest elevator. This hotel is so posh there’s an elevator attendant waiting to push the buttons for you so you land on the right floor.  
She smiles.  “Can I help you?”
“The Dragon and the Phoenix.”
In the restaurant, we’re seated near a large picture window, but I can’t look out of that window right away.  When I do, the view of the Huangpo River is spectacular.  Boats navigate down the river.  And, yes, they are modern boats.

  My tiny foray into the past is over.  
The Peace Hotel.
Some spectacular place.
And for once, Chuck’s rascal behavior has led to a good and wonderful thing.  
The kid will get extra snacks tonight.

        To read more about Chuck, log onto www.katelutter.com

         My paranormal romance, Wild Point Island, is now available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com in paperback and ebook format.