An Urbanaut cruises the cities as a sailor does the seas.

I am an Urbanaut sailing through Shanghai. My journey follows the waves.​

In the trough of the sea, nothing is in sight but the next house wall, grey and repellent. Buildings and people vanish in the smog. A hurricane could not howl louder than the traffic or the uproar of the machines which tear down the city one minute and rebuilt it the next.

​On the wave’s crest the view is vast, open, liberating. The grand boulevards sparkle, the sky is blue. At nighttime the skyscrapers glow in all colors. The noise calms down, people sing, dance and laugh.

​I sail an ocean of innumerable impressions: foreign, contradictory, attracting, repelling, cold, hot, damp, grey, colorful, noisy, and only very rarely silent.