Shanghai

Wang and I arrived at the older shanghai airport because our flight was domestic from Beijing. This was great because it was only a short taxi ride to the place we were staying. Wang’s aunt has a cousin that lives in Shanghai and had a place for us to stay. Her name is Lucy and she manages a large office building complex and part of the complex has some guest rooms. We got our things moved in, took a shower and headed for a walk into town. The weather was extremely hazy so we hoped for some more favorable skies in the next two days. We walked around for a couple hours, getting some coffee and picking up a camera bag to replace the one Wang had left in Beijing. We got back around 6:30 so we could meet Lucy for dinner. We hopped in Lucy’s car (a BMW X5 4.8 V10… Awesome!) and she took us on a quick driving tour of the city on our way to dinner. Dinner was in an area called Tai Kang Lu, part of the Luwan District. It is an amazing development which started with a renovated factory and grew into a very artistic, eclectic area full of small restaurants with no more than 10 tables at each, art shops, wine bars, etc. It was extremely cool and a we walked around looking at all of the shops for about 30 minutes. We ended up choosing a restaurant called Miss Ginger which served very good drinks and a menu with “panoramic cuisine with a Japanese attitude”. It was absolutely delicious! On the way home I started to feel very sick. I was light headed and had a sore stomach. We had originally planned to go out for drinks after in the French Concession but instead I ask that we be dropped off at our place so I could hopefully feel better before we went out. That time never came and I walked to the corner convenience store to get a bottle of water and went to bed. Wang and I both forgot to ask specifically for bottled water and I think that’s how I got sick.
The next day we woke up and I was feeling a little better. We headed out to Peoples Square so we could go to the Shanghai Museum. I was feeling extremely tired so we went on a search for coffee. We settled for a Starbucks a couple of blocks over from the square and we ordered our drinks. While waiting I noticed another guy ordering who had a Nielsen badge. I thought that was kinda cool. We got our coffee and headed to the museum. In the museum, which had free admission, we viewed Buddhist sculptures, Chinese paintings, furniture, jade carvings, etc. After, we headed to the MoCa which is the Shanghai Modern art museum which pales in comparison to the MoMa but still had a few interesting pieces. We then headed to Nanjing Dong Lu which is the most famous street in Shanghai filled with shops, food, and don’t forget the ever pesky knock-off vendors. We stopped and grabbed a quick bite at a little stand in peoples square and we both got what I would describe as an Asian pizza which was just round dough with pork meat top. It was very good.
We walked up Nanjing Dong Lu which connected Peoples Square to the Bund. Nanjing Dong Lu was full of stores and was great for people watching. The Bund is the old financial district with old buildings lining the Huangpu River. This is also very touristy but had amazing views of the old and newer parts of the city separated by the river. Walking up and down the Bund we were kind of disappointed in the weather because it was again a very hazy day. After the Bund we walked back to the metro and headed to Xintiandi and went to dinner at Ding Tai Fung.
Xintiandi is a very upscale, trendy area and was also where Ding Tai Fung was, which Wang had wanted to go to since we got to Asia. Ding Tai Fung serves great food but we decided to fill up on their famous Xiao Long Bao which are a mix between a dumpling and a steamed bun. After dinner we had planned to head back and get ready for our Friday night in Shanghai. Lucy had texted Wang to see if we wanted to go to a party with her. It was a “Ferrari” party at a gay bar downtown. We thought it would at least be entertaining so we decided to meet her there around 10:15. We had been misinformed of the cross street so we were about 30 minutes late. The bar was underground and called Shanghai Studio. The music was good the crowd was fun. Lucy’s old friend Amy was hosting the little get together and we all ended up having a hilarious time.
Day 3 started in Old Town which was full of little shops with chopsticks, tea sets, and other traditional Chinese things that make for good souvenirs. We walked around old town and found some lunch in an alley full of little food stands. In Asia I have gotten very used to food stands and walking and eating at the same time. After we finished our lunch we headed to the Yu Yuan Garden which is an old, traditional Chinese Zen garden. It was beautiful and completely enclosed by large walls isolating it from the hustle and bustle of the city around it. We spent a little over an hour walking through different areas of the garden that are supposed to evoke different kinds of feelings like calmness, joyousness, or carelessness, etc. After the garden we walked around old town a little longer and caught a cab to Pudong.
Pudong is a very new area in Shanghai that was developed in the past fifteen years and is occupied by many large buildings on of which is the second tallest in the world. We first went to Jin Mao which has a bar on the 87th floor called Cloud 9. We got a coffee which was about 10 US dollars but the ticket to get to the observation level which is just as high as the bar costs more than 10 dollars so we figured it was a free cup of coffee. Then Wang got an email from Lucy saying if we wanted to, she was in the Shanghai World Financial Center at Century 100 having some tea and if we wanted to join we were more than welcome too. Since SWFC is the second tallest building in the world we jumped at the opportunity. Century 100 was on the 91st floor and we had some more coffee and tea. It was getting very close to dinner time and we left and walked near the Oriental Pearl TV Tower which is also in Pudong and is a very cool building from the outside.
After our visit to Pudong we caught a cab back to Nanjing Dong Lu so we could check out the street at night with all of the lights. It was an impressive scene and well worth the detour to dinner. We decided to head to the French Concession, another area in Shanghai, for dinner. We settled on Simple Thai for dinner and it was great. It was a Saturday night but we both decided to head back to our room and get some sleep for our early morning to Hong Kong.