Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 12 | Page 331

A Taste of Life in Old Shanghai
Norwegian International School, Lai, Karina – 11
T
his is so boring!” thought James as he walked behind his best friend George in the history museum. George’s
favorite subject was history. He knew lots of things about the past because he always went to the history
museum to visit the exhibitions. But James was only interested in video games. Their class was having a field trip
in the history museum as they were learning about the history of China. James found nothing interesting during
this field trip.
“Free time!” their teacher said, “Go with your partner and come back after thirty minutes.”
James and George decided to go to a place where nobody was heading. They went into a hall named “Life in Old
Shanghai”. They saw a giant map in the middle of the hall that showed foreign settlement at Shanghai in the old
days. On the wall, there were many pictures and portraits. George noticed that an old rickshaw was placed at the
corner of the hall. He was fascinated about everything and looked at them one by one. Suddenly, he saw one of
the characters in a picture blinked! He looked at that picture again and saw two children pulling a rickshaw along
the street.
“Wow! This is so interesting.” said George excitedly. Meanwhile, James was looking for a dark corner to take a
nap and didn’t pay attention to what George said.
“I wish I could visit Old Shanghai. I want to try their food, maybe the famous dumplings,” murmured George.
Suddenly, the hall began to spin. George and James felt so dizzy that they shut their eyes.
“Ahhhhhhhhhh!” George and James cried as the place spun. Finally, the place stopped spinning. James slowly
opened his eyes.
“George! Where are you?” he cried in panic.
Luckily, George was standing beside him, rubbing his eyes.
“What’s going on?” James asked George. “Where are we?”
“I think we are in the street I saw in the picture at the museum!” replied George, as he looked at his surroundings
in puzzle. “All the people around us are speaking in a weird language, but somehow I know that they are speaking
Shanghainese. I think we are in Old Shanghai!”
“What shall we do? How do we get back?” asked James urgently.
Before George could answer, a two wheeled cart drove by them and George looked at it with great interest.
“That must be the rickshaw we saw in the exhibition hall!” George said. James had no idea what a rickshaw was.
He looked at the cart, there were two foreigners sitting on it with an old man pulling. The old man was only
wearing thin clothes and looked very tired.
“The rickshaw was introduced to Shanghai people by Japanese in 1874,” explained George. “Foreigners like
riding on it, so it became a popular way of transport in the city.”