Everyone knows the real reason we moved to Shanghai--or at least the real reason I convinced Peter to move with me to this great Panda of a country--is for the SMP skatepark.
The SMP skatepark is the largest in the world and no one really knows why it's here. It's in a new part of town called "New Jianwan Town" and according to the billboards the new development is a "Eeological [sic] Dream of New Shanghai." The skatepark is about a twenty minute bike ride from where we live, but Shanghai sort of ends about five minutes into the ride. After that, the road widens and is immaculately landscaped with mature trees and a rubber jogging trail, but there is literally nothing out there. Except for billboards touting the future glories of New Jianwan Town. And then, dreamily, there it is. Over 13,700 square meters of fun. And it's a ghost town. The skatepark is literally the only thing concrete about Shanghai's new dream.
We went yesterday. Peter had the place to himself, which is like taking your T-ball kid to play catch at Wrigley Field. It was dreamy alright, but like everything in China that was once shiny and new (last year), the skatepark is already falling apart. The bowls were full of cigarette butts and coke bottles, weeds were growing tall between the seats in the stands, and the ramps were already rusty and buckling. Black dust coated everything.
Eventually some workers appeared and started hand-mixing concrete to patch some cracks and also two other skaters showed up who turned out to be professionals from Australia. One guy, Renton Millar, is on the Billabong team and he told us that he had helped design the vert ramp. Peter borrowed a broom from the workers and they swept out the ramp so Renton could show us how easy it was to drop-in. It was a terrifying view from the top and he wasn't bothering himself with doing too many tricks (he showed us the bloodstain from where he smashed his head in last time he was in Shanghai).
No one knows why the world's largest skatepark was built an hour outside of one of the world's largest cities, where virtually no one skates. No one knows who paid for its concrete mass or its locally-quarried granite coping. As far as we can tell, it's only purpose is to make Peter feel like a badass, skating the vert ramp with nationally ranked skaters when he's not in class.
The SMP skatepark is the largest in the world and no one really knows why it's here. It's in a new part of town called "New Jianwan Town" and according to the billboards the new development is a "Eeological [sic] Dream of New Shanghai." The skatepark is about a twenty minute bike ride from where we live, but Shanghai sort of ends about five minutes into the ride. After that, the road widens and is immaculately landscaped with mature trees and a rubber jogging trail, but there is literally nothing out there. Except for billboards touting the future glories of New Jianwan Town. And then, dreamily, there it is. Over 13,700 square meters of fun. And it's a ghost town. The skatepark is literally the only thing concrete about Shanghai's new dream. 
We went yesterday. Peter had the place to himself, which is like taking your T-ball kid to play catch at Wrigley Field. It was dreamy alright, but like everything in China that was once shiny and new (last year), the skatepark is already falling apart. The bowls were full of cigarette butts and coke bottles, weeds were growing tall between the seats in the stands, and the ramps were already rusty and buckling. Black dust coated everything. 
Eventually some workers appeared and started hand-mixing concrete to patch some cracks and also two other skaters showed up who turned out to be professionals from Australia. One guy, Renton Millar, is on the Billabong team and he told us that he had helped design the vert ramp. Peter borrowed a broom from the workers and they swept out the ramp so Renton could show us how easy it was to drop-in. It was a terrifying view from the top and he wasn't bothering himself with doing too many tricks (he showed us the bloodstain from where he smashed his head in last time he was in Shanghai). 
No one knows why the world's largest skatepark was built an hour outside of one of the world's largest cities, where virtually no one skates. No one knows who paid for its concrete mass or its locally-quarried granite coping. As far as we can tell, it's only purpose is to make Peter feel like a badass, skating the vert ramp with nationally ranked skaters when he's not in class.
2 comments:
It reminds me of the Miyazaki movie "Spirited Away" where they discover an abandoned amusement park and everything is empty and overgrown with grass... kind of eerie.
and then your parents turned into pigs....
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