An Urbanaut sails the cities as a sailor sails the seas. I am an Urbanaut, navigating the vast waters of Shanghai. My journey follows the waves.

 

​In the troughs, nothing is visible but the next wall — grey, forbidding. Buildings and people dissolve into the smog. The roar of traffic drowns all else, louder than any storm. Machines tear down the city one moment and rebuild it the next.

 

​On the crest of the wave, the view opens wide — vast, clear, liberating. Grand boulevards shimmer, the sky turns blue. By night, skyscrapers glow in every color. The noise softens; people sing, dance, and laugh.

 

​I sail an ocean of countless impressions — foreign and familiar, alluring and repellent, cold and hot, grey and brilliant, loud and, only rarely, silent.

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