Nightly I watch the ferries crossing the Huangpu River as they miraculously dodge the coal boats streaming up and down carrying their dirty fuel. I usually feel compelled to scream at them “RUN!” because there are so many close calls. I look in the Shanghai Daily to see if there have been any accidents but so far, I haven’t seen any reported. Still, it looked super unsafe and I swore I would never, ever, no way, no how ride these damn scary ferries…

So, today when Thom suggested we get home from our walk along The Bund via these crazy ferries, I only considered it because it is a new year and, what the hell, I moved to China to have an adventure, so off we went. Boarding the boat, the bottom level was completely filled with riders on their scooters. It’s a quick under 5 minute trip (yes, they move fast dodging boats) so the riders stay mounted on their scooters so they can scramble off the boat quickly when it slams against the pier to dock. The River traffic was light as we took off, or so I thought, but in reality it had picked up just in time for our crossing. Oh. Crap.

We narrowly avoided that barge but now we were moving fast and the dock was coming up just as fast…I braced myself and wondered how hard would we hit? Want to see?

I think I’ll limit my ferry experience to watching them dodge those boats from the safety of our apartment while I drink wine and recline on my chaise. “RUN!”