Eventually he found the right pier. As he strolled out onto it, he had to 
shoulder his way past some slopes carrying a long bundle wrapped in cloth, who 
were trying to get onto the pier ahead of him. The view was nice here; the old 
buildings of the Bund behind him, the vertiginous neon wall of the Pudong 
Economic Zone exploding from the opposite bank and serving as backdrop for 
heavy river traffic—mostly chains of low-lying barges.