The HuXin Ting Tea House, the oldest Tea House in Shanghai, is set in the middle of the Nine Curve Bridges, which is said to give luck to anyone who crosses it, so I did.
One of many pavilions and ponds inside the Yuyuan Garden, built in 1559 as a private garden for a local government admistrator.
Shanghai's famous skyline. The electric bill is huge and they actually kill the lights at midnight to save money and as a green measure.
The skyline at sunset, just before the lights come on, taken from a hostel above The Bund, the banking district on the banks of the Huangpu River.
Nanjing Road, a popular shopping district in the heart of Shanghai. Shanghai was the first Special Economic Zone of China and it shows.
One of the themes of the trip across China was the long train journeys. It is a huge country and the trip was similar to traveling the east coast of America by train, from Boston to Miami, with detours inland for stops in Philadelphia and Atlanta. With all that ground to cover between destinations, the overnight train rides usually stretched late into the next day. We arrived in Shanghai after 16 hours on the train and despite being tired, we were still anxious to get out and explore the new city.
Shanghai was the first Special Economic Zone in China, and the western capitalist influence is immediately noticeable. With the western architecture, influence and wealth the international business has brought to the city, it feels almost as if you are in a financial/commerce hub like San Francisco or New York, except you always seem to be on the fringe of Chinatown. You will find all the stores you would expect on Fifth Avenue, but most of the signs are still in Chinese and a wonton soup shop is always just around the corner. Nanjing road is the Fifth Avenue of Shanghai and feels like the Disneyland for shoppers. The even have a small amusement park style train to shuttle shoppers between stores. While wondering Nanjing Road, with all the western shops and fast food joints I travel to get away from, we were approached multiple times by what seemed to be helpful locals telling us, ‘Watch your bags,’ which would make one assume that pick-pockets are a problem. However, they were actually trying to sell us knock-off watches or bags.
Our hotel was just outside the city center and was nice, but it was also located on the corner of a ‘massage’ street. However, there were restaurants between every parlor as well, and since the restaurants were good, cheap and right around the corner, we tended to dine on that street often. Despite the probing eyes and catcalls from the parlors. In the evening, long after even the parlors had closed their doors; the street would be filled with local meals on wheels shops. We became regulars at one of these rolling kitchens with a wok-wheeling woman that cooked up a mean wonton soup. The mobile kitchens were much more popular with the local crowds than with tourists, so by our second and final evening, the woman knew us, and our orders, and had it cooking before we even reached her wok on wheels.
On our second day in Shanghai, we fit in a couple other sites, before returning to wok row. In the morning, we wondered the river front on both the east and west side of the river, which is interesting because the east side had all the tallest and most modern skyscrapers, while the west side is lined by the old stone banking buildings of the early twentieth century, which are dwarfed by another set of skyscrapers trying to measure up tot the east bank. After soaking in everything western, we wondered into the touristy part of town for a taste of China, the Yuyuan Gardens. The Gardens were originally built for Pan Yunduan, an government commissioner under Ming Emperor Jiajing in 1559. Now the gardens are open to the public and are an excellent example of Chinese gardens. The walls separating the various sections of the gardens are crowned with serpent-like dragon with a rolling back that stretches the length of the walls. Each section has its own theme, and the garden even includes an opera stage tucked behind walls and buildings, only accessible through a narrow passage, which opens into the grand open-air hall in front of the stage. Despite the noisy, busy streets and markets outside the walls, the garden remains a quiet escape. So quiet in fact, that a few of the girls from my group fell asleep on one of the pavilions and were only awaken by the sound of their own snoring.
Outside the gardens is HuXin Ting Teahouse, the oldest Teahouse in Shanghai. It is set in an artificial pond of fountains, marble statues and incredibly green water, on a nine-curve bridge. Beyond the teahouse, lies a tourist market filled with all things tourist might think is Chinese, but at price no local would pay. I considered trying stopping in at the teahouse for some traditional tea, but it was pretty crowded. However, it was no where near as crowded as the Starbucks around the corner. I just don’t get it. Why travel all the way to China to get coffee at Starbucks, especially when it is around the corner from the oldest teahouse in town?
Humor is often found in the translations of directions or sayings from Chinese to English. While I was in Shanghai, the saying, ‘sell the shirt off your back’ appeared to get a little mixed up. I was wondering back to the hotel from the Yuyuan Garden, one of the many shop owners approached me to push her products. At first, she was trying to sale me a shirt, but when that failed, she tried to get me to pay her to take the shirt off my back. Offering me a ‘massage’ and she had a firm grip on my arm either to show me her strength for the massage, or to pull me in the shop. She almost had this fish in the boat, but I managed to squirm out of her grasp and convince her I had no interest in gaining a new shirt, or losing mine.
That evening, we met up at the Captain’s Hostel, which has a spectacular view of the Shanghai skyline from above the Bund. We watched the skyline transition from a golden sunset shimmer to the post-dusk neon glimmer. The electric bills must be nearly as amazing as the display, and I was told they actually shut the lights off after midnight to cut back on the electric bill. The entire riverfront side of some of the buildings turned into huge movies screens that appeared to display the screensaver of the main office computer transitioning from an aquarium scene to commercials. Meanwhile in the river below them, barges were floating by with more jumbo-tron screens blasting their own bright ads to compete with the buildings behind them. Plus the iconic Oriental Pearl radio tower, with its light covered sphere flashing like a bursting fireworks, was yet another light show competing for our attention.
Meanwhile behind us on the patio bar was the classic ‘Ugly Americans’ and would you know, they were from New Jersey. When we arrived at Captains, the group was already getting a little rowdy, and one of the guys was already beer battered, having spilt his brew down the front of his button down dress shirt. They looked like they might have money and acted as if they were friends of Tony Soprano. As the evening wore on, they continued to go down hill. Despite the music’s low volume and the quiet groups around them, they insisted on carrying on their conversation as if they were in a club, sitting in front of the main speakers. In the end, I think the loudest members of the group even became embarrassments to the group itself and, much to the appreciation of us and the restaurants staff, they finally left, allowing the rest of us to enjoy the superb view and light show across the river. Of course, since I was the only American in the group, I was left to defend Americans in general, and to explain that New Yorkers and the obnoxious people of New Jersey are a bit of an anomaly and embarrassment to all of us.
On our last day in Shanghai, I wanted to go to an internet café, and our guide had told us there was one just around the corner. It sounded like it would be simple to find but I wondered up and down the street three times until another local warning me to ‘watch my bags’ finally helped me find the place. It was in a non-descript multi-story office building, with a few storefronts on the first level. The watch and bag man took me down a service hall to an elevator that looked like it might not even be in service. He directed me to the fourth floor and when the doors opened, I was in a video game arcade. However, tucked in the back of the arcade was the speakeasy cyber-café. It was as if I had found myself in the cyber prohibition and to get a drink in the e-world you had to know a guy that knew a guy, plus the secret knock and the password to get in the door. Amazing. Yangshuo was our next stop, so it was back to the train station and I could only hope the cyber cafes would be easier to find.
Shanghai was the first Special Economic Zone in China, and the western capitalist influence is immediately noticeable. With the western architecture, influence and wealth the international business has brought to the city, it feels almost as if you are in a financial/commerce hub like San Francisco or New York, except you always seem to be on the fringe of Chinatown. You will find all the stores you would expect on Fifth Avenue, but most of the signs are still in Chinese and a wonton soup shop is always just around the corner. Nanjing road is the Fifth Avenue of Shanghai and feels like the Disneyland for shoppers. The even have a small amusement park style train to shuttle shoppers between stores. While wondering Nanjing Road, with all the western shops and fast food joints I travel to get away from, we were approached multiple times by what seemed to be helpful locals telling us, ‘Watch your bags,’ which would make one assume that pick-pockets are a problem. However, they were actually trying to sell us knock-off watches or bags.
Our hotel was just outside the city center and was nice, but it was also located on the corner of a ‘massage’ street. However, there were restaurants between every parlor as well, and since the restaurants were good, cheap and right around the corner, we tended to dine on that street often. Despite the probing eyes and catcalls from the parlors. In the evening, long after even the parlors had closed their doors; the street would be filled with local meals on wheels shops. We became regulars at one of these rolling kitchens with a wok-wheeling woman that cooked up a mean wonton soup. The mobile kitchens were much more popular with the local crowds than with tourists, so by our second and final evening, the woman knew us, and our orders, and had it cooking before we even reached her wok on wheels.
On our second day in Shanghai, we fit in a couple other sites, before returning to wok row. In the morning, we wondered the river front on both the east and west side of the river, which is interesting because the east side had all the tallest and most modern skyscrapers, while the west side is lined by the old stone banking buildings of the early twentieth century, which are dwarfed by another set of skyscrapers trying to measure up tot the east bank. After soaking in everything western, we wondered into the touristy part of town for a taste of China, the Yuyuan Gardens. The Gardens were originally built for Pan Yunduan, an government commissioner under Ming Emperor Jiajing in 1559. Now the gardens are open to the public and are an excellent example of Chinese gardens. The walls separating the various sections of the gardens are crowned with serpent-like dragon with a rolling back that stretches the length of the walls. Each section has its own theme, and the garden even includes an opera stage tucked behind walls and buildings, only accessible through a narrow passage, which opens into the grand open-air hall in front of the stage. Despite the noisy, busy streets and markets outside the walls, the garden remains a quiet escape. So quiet in fact, that a few of the girls from my group fell asleep on one of the pavilions and were only awaken by the sound of their own snoring.
Outside the gardens is HuXin Ting Teahouse, the oldest Teahouse in Shanghai. It is set in an artificial pond of fountains, marble statues and incredibly green water, on a nine-curve bridge. Beyond the teahouse, lies a tourist market filled with all things tourist might think is Chinese, but at price no local would pay. I considered trying stopping in at the teahouse for some traditional tea, but it was pretty crowded. However, it was no where near as crowded as the Starbucks around the corner. I just don’t get it. Why travel all the way to China to get coffee at Starbucks, especially when it is around the corner from the oldest teahouse in town?
Humor is often found in the translations of directions or sayings from Chinese to English. While I was in Shanghai, the saying, ‘sell the shirt off your back’ appeared to get a little mixed up. I was wondering back to the hotel from the Yuyuan Garden, one of the many shop owners approached me to push her products. At first, she was trying to sale me a shirt, but when that failed, she tried to get me to pay her to take the shirt off my back. Offering me a ‘massage’ and she had a firm grip on my arm either to show me her strength for the massage, or to pull me in the shop. She almost had this fish in the boat, but I managed to squirm out of her grasp and convince her I had no interest in gaining a new shirt, or losing mine.
That evening, we met up at the Captain’s Hostel, which has a spectacular view of the Shanghai skyline from above the Bund. We watched the skyline transition from a golden sunset shimmer to the post-dusk neon glimmer. The electric bills must be nearly as amazing as the display, and I was told they actually shut the lights off after midnight to cut back on the electric bill. The entire riverfront side of some of the buildings turned into huge movies screens that appeared to display the screensaver of the main office computer transitioning from an aquarium scene to commercials. Meanwhile in the river below them, barges were floating by with more jumbo-tron screens blasting their own bright ads to compete with the buildings behind them. Plus the iconic Oriental Pearl radio tower, with its light covered sphere flashing like a bursting fireworks, was yet another light show competing for our attention.
Meanwhile behind us on the patio bar was the classic ‘Ugly Americans’ and would you know, they were from New Jersey. When we arrived at Captains, the group was already getting a little rowdy, and one of the guys was already beer battered, having spilt his brew down the front of his button down dress shirt. They looked like they might have money and acted as if they were friends of Tony Soprano. As the evening wore on, they continued to go down hill. Despite the music’s low volume and the quiet groups around them, they insisted on carrying on their conversation as if they were in a club, sitting in front of the main speakers. In the end, I think the loudest members of the group even became embarrassments to the group itself and, much to the appreciation of us and the restaurants staff, they finally left, allowing the rest of us to enjoy the superb view and light show across the river. Of course, since I was the only American in the group, I was left to defend Americans in general, and to explain that New Yorkers and the obnoxious people of New Jersey are a bit of an anomaly and embarrassment to all of us.
On our last day in Shanghai, I wanted to go to an internet café, and our guide had told us there was one just around the corner. It sounded like it would be simple to find but I wondered up and down the street three times until another local warning me to ‘watch my bags’ finally helped me find the place. It was in a non-descript multi-story office building, with a few storefronts on the first level. The watch and bag man took me down a service hall to an elevator that looked like it might not even be in service. He directed me to the fourth floor and when the doors opened, I was in a video game arcade. However, tucked in the back of the arcade was the speakeasy cyber-café. It was as if I had found myself in the cyber prohibition and to get a drink in the e-world you had to know a guy that knew a guy, plus the secret knock and the password to get in the door. Amazing. Yangshuo was our next stop, so it was back to the train station and I could only hope the cyber cafes would be easier to find.
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