Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 12 | Page 68

The New Tales of Old Shanghai
Beacon Hill School, Law, Valerie - 10 years
I
t was the 10 th June. It was my 12 th birthday and the most ‘life - changing’ day of my life. Because that day, Ma,
Pa, my little sister (Anna) and I would be migrating from England to Shanghai! I actually haven’t been outside
Europe even once so I was completely elated but nervous to finally go to Shanghai! We woke up at 4:20 am that
morning to catch a boat to Shanghai which was leaving in 2 hours. We were in such a rush that our house was
chaotic, since we were rushing around trying to find what we needed. Ma was the quickest and most organized in
the family so she kept shouting for me, Anna, and Pa to get going. At last we were all set to go. As my family walked
out the door, I took a long, last look around the house, and then stepped out onto the streets.
The pier was incredibly crowded. Anna nearly got lost since she was so little and immature. She got attracted by
a person selling colourful balloons and went towards the man by herself. Luckily I spotted her just as she nearly
vanished into the crowd. I told Anna off afterwards,
“Why did you go running off like that?” I asked. Anna burst into tears,
“Sorry Mary, I’ll never do it ever again.” After a lot of confusion, hustle, rush and walking, our family finally got to
go on the ship to Shanghai! Everyone was so excited except that some people (like Ma) didn't show it as much.
When the ship prepared to sail away from England, I whispered to myself,
“Goodbye England, hope I’d see you soon…”and with that, the ship sailed away.
6 months later…
My family spent quite a few months on a uncomfortably swaying ship. We arrived at Shanghai on 21 st
December. As I stepped out of the ship that I have been cooped up in so long, add on the fact that I was in Shanghai,
everything just seemed so different and weird! Most of the stuff and people working in the station didn’t know how
to speak English at all. When it was me and Pa’s turn for inspection, we couldn’t communicate with the officer
because we did not know how to speak Chinese. Then an English-speaking officer came to help us. After
everything was sorted out, we stepped out of the pier and into the amazing Shanghai.
Ma and Pa first ordered a horse drawn carriage to take us to our new house while Anna and I gaped at our new
surroundings. Everything was so different to England. The people, architecture, language, and lots more were just
so Chinese! Anna asked,
“Are we going to be living here forever?” I didn’t know what to say since I also secretly wondered about that. So I
said,
“I… I… I really don’t know! ”
Then the carriage arrived and we were driven to our new house.
When we arrived at our new house, I thought it was quite ‘up to standard’ for a house (even though Anna didn’t
and started wailing and complaining!) compared to the ones I saw just now and down the street. It wasn’t beautiful
or glamorous or anything, but I thought it looked cozy and waaaay better quality than the ones that were down the
street. (Which barely even looked like a house.) Ma and Pa started planning what amazing sites were waiting for us
to go to…
1 month later…
After Pa and Ma had done everything that was needed to sort out (like buying some furniture, cleaning the house,
and finding a job for themselves plus babysitter for us) they decided to go on a family trip around Shanghai. Our first