Welcome to Shanghai! So with all our nice minimalist packing a few things were forgotten, mainly some cool pants for me, shirts that will help me not burn my shoulders in the coming countries and some sort of super lightweight top for John (this all occurred to me when I started actually reading the weather for future countries, 90's from Vietnam on out...oy). After a successful day of John's very favorite activity, shopping, we moseyed to the French Concession and found some great South American food (read, not oil heavy, totally corn started cruise version of Chinese). And the rocking spinning sensation is finally gone!
Shoes!!!Day 33 -
Our Lonely Plant has been a good "guide" book. Unfortunately sometimes it is just that, a guide. As in not all the facts, locations, prices, or times are accurate. For instance if you were aiming for the 9am bus to Tongli, you would get there at say 8:30. Maybe today you were running five to ten minutes late. Not problem, plenty of time. That is until you get to the bus terminal and find out the bus departed at 8:30am.
So instead we headed to the Bund. The Bund is a stretch of land along the banks of the Huangpu River famous for its historic buildings (many built in the 1920's (in think)). The architecture was highly influenced by the Europeans living there (and controlling the money) at the time. From the Bund you can see across to Pudong. Pudong is a mass of high-rises and planned development.
View of Pudong
Bund sideSide note: China makes some really great knock offs, and often times they resemble the real thing. But sometimes quality control misses some spelling errors, which is usually fine, until the spelling error makes it into an add campaign that is literally on the side of ever little ice cream cart, yup, that's right, she shops at Abercrombie and Titch.
With the Great Leader on the BundAfter the Bund we headed to the Shanghai Museum. The museum is located in the middle of People's Square. People's Square is a large park in the middle of Shanghai. As best I can tell, there are a large number of people in China and Shanghai. So when a location has "people" in the name, there are going to be a couple of ladies and gents there. The Shanghai Museum is shaped like a "ding vessel" according to our "guide" book. And what is a ding vessel? We didn't know either until we saw one in the museum. How convenient. A ding vessel holds food or soup, and is shaped like a sauce pot with legs and two curved handles.
Day 34 -
Met up with Alissa (a friend from college) and her boyfriend Dave for lunch today. They have been living and working in Shanghai for the last 18 months and taking Mandarin classes in the evenings and weekends, very cool. After lunch, a call was placed to a guy she knows who does good bags. His shop is a room in a housing area and he does indeed do really good bags ;)
After a much needed nap, John and I hopped the subway to meet up at Alissa & Dave's apartment in the French Concession. It turned out to be this really cool place in a restored building in the heart of it all. When everyone was assembled we took off walking to a local wine bar to meet up with some other friends. Lucky for us, Alissa knew a short cut, though at one point we wondered just a little as we walked down a completely unlit alley that appeared to be a dead end, never should have feared and we got there in one piece and it took less time than walking around all the blocks would have. Met up with two other friend from college, Brent and Samantha, at the wine bar, what a treat, old friends and good red wine in the middle of China!
Brent & Samantha
Whole groupFollowed this up with a mildly debaucherous night on the town that ended with the infamous "meat on a stick" (prior to leaving Seattle this delicacy was described by Brent as one of the top things about being in China), turns out he was quite right and you can compliment your meat on a stick with all sorts of veggies on a stick! I got a little to go container for the back of the taxi on the ride home.
Trusty guide book with BBQ meat in the background.
If Alissa decides not to stick with PR there is always a spot for her in late night grillin'Day 35 -
Today we managed to get to Tongli. The bus does in fact leave at 8:30. The bus ride was a little bumpy as we were located in the last row of the bus. The one where the seat is higher than all the others so it fits over the engine. The one with no foot room. So the two tallest people on the bus are sitting in the only row with no foot room. Also, in the back of the bus you are behind the rear wheels making the ride even bouncier. Mental note: when traveling to China next time, learn the phrase "two seats in the front of the bus please" and the phrase "I'll pay extra for two seats in the front of the bus" or the phrase "Please give me two seats in the front of the bus. I just had Chinese food for breakfast, and I will probably donate it to your bus company if you put me in the back".
Tongli is a small canal town about 2.5 hrs outside of Shanghai. It houses picturesque little canal lined with Chinese shops and houses. On display are several restored and preserved estates with expansive gardens. There are a couple of museums to wander through. The oddest of these museums is the Chinese Sex Cultural Museum. Which, let me tell you, is not your normal museum. Basically two guys are showing off their collection of sex related artifacts. We are also sure they made most of it up. For instance, one caption read something like "this bowl is a sign of male virility because of the picture of the bird on the side". Or, maybe the artist just really liked birds. The best part about the whole museum; It was the only place we say rabbits in all of China.
John in a tunnel in Tongli
View of a canalAfter returning from Tongli, we were picked up by Brent in his car. That's right and he drives (please refer to my previous car riding experience descriptions). Actually, he is a much calmer driver than most in Shanghai. One of my favorite comment from Brent "I refuse to honk at the old men with canes". He does flash his brights at them.
Day 36 -
We began the day by packing for our trip to Mogan Shan. Once that as completed we deposited our belongings at Alissa and Dave's apartment and headed to the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum. This museum basically outlines the planned growth of Shanghai for the next twenty years. It is really a trip to see that someone has thought out a city plan of this scale. There are plans for the subway system, parks, housing, and ports. Actually the plan for the massive sea port is a little disturbing because they are going to put it in "an ideal location containing wetlands and small islands". All throughout our travels we have seen China repeating the same industrialization/environmental mistakes that the western world made. It is hard to watch knowing that there are better solutions that just are not being used.
A very nice diorama of a future subway station, complete with the adds on the walls.
Shanghai, someone built a ton of mini buildings.For the evening it was off to a nice dinner with Alissa, Dave, Brent, Samantha, and a collection of their friends. We went to a newly opened boutique hotel and restaurant (I can't remember the name, but I think it's name was spelled creatively to add a level of sophistication. At least that is what I tell people when I misspell words. No, it must be spelled like that for the cool factor). Next we headed to a bar on the Bund named "18" (and I even think I spelled it right). Great view across the river.
Day 37 -
We arose early to day in order to be chauffeured to Mogan Shan, a mountain retreat several hours outside of Shanghai. First sign there might be trouble, our driver did not know the way. He would, at a random intersections, run to another car and ask for directions. Which is apparently an effective means of navigation because we ended in the right place. When we got there the entire mountain was suspended in a thick cold mist. The visibility was about twenty feet, which is problematic when you are driving up a curving mountain road. In sharp contrast to the predominant Chinese driving style, our driver played it safe and took the road nice and slow. This pace suited us well and we finally reached our destination. The top of the mountain was historically used by the Shanghai elite (French, British, and American) as a place to escape the summer heat. I don't think any of them stayed at our hotel. After settling in, we opted for Chinese for for lunch (as it was the only option), during the course of the meal Dave and Alissa full on did chicken soup with only chop sticks and a knife at their disposal (see picture below).
Later we walked around through the bamboo forest, made even more surreal by the presence of the fog.
Do you see the size of this bamboo!?After our walk we ate dinner at one of three open restaurants. As an after dinner activity we taught Dave and Alissa how to play O'Hell. They promptly kicked our butts (beginner's luck I say).'
(Card winners flanking John)Day 38 - The next day was sunny and beautiful. We got to look out of our hotel rooms at the view missed yesterday. Which was quiet wonderful from our mountain perch. Again we hiked around the mountain looking at the houses and wandering through the bamboo forest.
After hiking, it was back down the twisting mountain road and on to Shanghai. For dinner we ate a wonderful Yunnan/Burmese restaurant.
Day 39 -
One of Eliza's tasks has been to see the Jewish side of Asia. Located in Shanghai is an old Jewish ghetto and the Ohel Moishe Synagogue. With Alissa as our tour guide (taxis driver translator) we located the ghetto and Synagogue. The Jewish population in Shanghai reached it peak during WWII when the city of Shanghai (with its designation of a free port within China) allowed undocumented and unregulated immigration. However, during Japanese occupation travel outside of the ghetto was highly restricted.
The nice curator of the Synagogue allowed us to walk through the accompanying museum (which was still under construction, but since it was a slow day we got a private preview tour) which looks at the role Shanghai played in allowing the Jews to escape the Nazi's by fleeing east when many other countries closed their boarders. The museum was rather small, but very well done, the English and Hebrew translations were all gramatically correct, wonder if it was a collaboration effort.
Next up was the "Old Town" section of Shanghai. This area has been restored to the original Ming Garden layout (built in the mid 1500s). There is a nice garden (gardens here mean less plants and more rock designs and water features) complete with bridge and fishes. Except where personal houses might have been there are now tourist trap shops. I am only speculating the masses of shops were not original to the garden, but I could be wrong.
Alissa getting some snacks for John in the masses of Old Town
After saying our goodbyes to Alissa, we journeyed to the train station. Along the way we unsuccessfully tried to return our subway cards (If anyone is headed to Shanghai let us know, we can save you 20 RMB). Another heads up: if you are going from Shanghai to Hong Kong via train you do not need to fight in line with the rest of the crowds. Because it is an international train ride you get your own special check in area just to the left of the regular check in (that took awhile to figure out). In order to more enjoy the train ride, we booked a Deluxe Suit (two people only) room. The cost was about halfway between regular train tickets and flying, but well worth not having to share with any one but Eliza.
Bye China (proper, as next up is Hong Kong, a Special Economic Zone of China)!
