Shanghai

Me on the Bund. The area along the Huangpu River in Puxi, the west side of Shanghai, that looks onto the buildings in Pudong, the east side of Shanghai. Driving in by taxi the first night, it was a pretty awe inspiring sight. Less so with the bad weather. The Oriental Pearl Tower is the famous building in the background.

Two days, barely any sightseeing
Left for Shanghai Thursday after our cooking class (I'll update about that some other time), and got there at like 10:45 p.m. We dropped our stuff off at a hostel, and then went on to this bar called C's to meet up with some people. I was traveling with Alex, who had done a year study abroad in Shanghai when he was a junior in college. He's since recently graduated, but is still doing CIEE Nanjing to study Chinese. So he had a bunch of friends in Shanghai with an apartment who were just working and living the good life. We met those four guys (One NU '07 alum) at the bar and chilled for a little bit before heading back to there place.

Their apartment was amazing. For 10,000 yuan a month (Like $300 US per person split up), they had a two story apartment with 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a kitchen with an oven, a large living room and dining area, an awesome staircase leading to the second floor, and two balconies. Not to mention it came furnished very nicely. Upon seeing this, we made the decision to just crash in their living room rather than back at the smell hostel. The hostel was nice by hostel-standards, and we had already spent 70 kuai on it. But we didn't want to sleep in a room with 10 other people and possible have bed bugs if we didn't have to. Cabbed there and back to pick up our stuff and turn in our keys. Crashed late at like 2:30 a.m.

The next day we were supposed to all wake up to go with Tom, the other guy from NU/CIEE Nanjing, to the consulate so he could see about replacing his stolen passport. Alex and I needless to say, just slept through while he went and did that. He came back around noon, and we all went out for dim sum at some world famous place with other locations in New York and San Francisco. That was hen haochi and lasted like 2 hours as we sat around and Alex caught up with 2 of his friends from the apartment.

Duck jaw, just prior to my eating it at dim sum. I don't know if you can make it out but the big thing next the the foil is the tongue. It actually tasted pretty good, but didn't have much meat on it.

We then commenced on what would become a 4+ km trek from the restaurant to the Bund. It was raining, so we stopped into this store called Hotwind, which gives out free umbrellas. It operates on the honor system that you will return them to some other location in the city. We walked first to Tomorrow's Square (I think) which is a lounge on the 38th floor of the hotel overlooking people's park. People's Park used to be a race track in like the 1920's for rich white men.

Renmin Gongyuan, or People's Park. Note the oval shape indicative of it's race track past. The building with the tower at the bottom is the old club house.

We meandered through the park to the beginning of Nanjing Road East. This part of Nanjing Road is famous for all it's retail stores. In my 20th-century Chinese history class, we read about the huge silk emporiums on this street, the jingles they wrote, and how it was all related to the New Life movement in the 1930's and 40's under Chiang Kai-shek.

Nanjing Road

We walked down that to the Bund which is where the picture of me at the top is from. As I was waiting to buy an overpriced bottle of water to quench my extreme thirst, this girl came up and asked if she could have her picture taken with me. I proceeded to have my picture taken 3 different times as each of the 3 girls individually posed with me. I figured I'd humor them, I mostly thought it was funny. It's the first time I've gotten what people call the "rockstar treatment" that westerner's sometimes get.

We went to the nearest subway station, which was during rush hour around 6 p.m. It was chaos. People were packed like sardines into cars. We watched the first train come, and people just pushing onto these trains. One women couldn't fit but kept ramming into the people trying to make room. As the doors started to close, it got stuck on her back. A subway worker came over, and started trying to push her so that the doors could close. They did this three times before finally she squeezed in. It was ridiculous because in the U.S., any reasonable person would say to wait for the next train. I wish I had taken a picture.

The four of us, Alex, Tom, NU alum guy, and I, had to split up to cram onto two different trains. It was like being at the most packed concert ever as everybody was pressed up against everybody with no personal space. Alex and I made our way to a Brazilian steak house, as the other guys were going to Hot Pots (we found out later they went and got massages instead). The steak house was 88 kuai for all you can eat, as they come around with various barbequed meat on spits and cut you off pieces. It was quite the shock to my stomach after usually skimpy meat portioning in Chinese food, but it was a welcome shock. I ate beef, lamb, duck, chicken, chicken wrapped in bacon, garlic bread, pork, and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. Totally worth the price tag.

We then went back to the apartment, finding out that nobody else had gone to dinner. We slept while they did so, and then people came over for a house warming party. I played mahjong and got my ass kicked by this Chinese girl. She actually is one of PingPing, the program assistant's friends. Small world, I know.

We then almost went to KTV, but when it was discovered that only one person wanted to sing karaoke, we just decided to go to C's again. Fun was had by all, we came back and went to sleep around 4:30 a.m.

Woke up Saturday at 11:15, to rush off to pick up Alex's laptop that he had lost in LAX, had been mailed to him, but then waylaid in Shanghai because of some import tax. We had to pick it up from his uncle at the end of some subway line. So we took a cab to the subway, 40 minute subway ride there, and then just went to the train station to buy train tickets, and came back. Pretty quick trip in all. I'll be back in 2 weeks for another couple day stint, and I'm sure with only a 2 hour train ride, I'll be back many times.