Fine dining all the way - Shanghai

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Day 102 - 104
Shanghai, China

We slept in on our first day in Shanghai, exhausted from the previous day. When we did eventually wonder out of our hotel, we realized we were staying behind the JW Marriot, which is perhaps one of the most beautiful skyscrapers. And one thing we have learned is that where there is a Western Hotel chain, there is Starbucks. And sure enough, we were right. So there we were with our raggedy clothes and fake Northface backpacks, sipping coffee and frappaccinos with rich business men and women in the lobby.

We then headed to the People's Park en route to the Shanghai Museum. After just a few minutes steps out in the city, we realized that we could totally live here and had actually found another place in China that was bearable. It is very cosmopolitan but yet a different kind of feel then the Hong Kong cosmo life. The fast pace of the city with its million inhabitants all going about their day in an organized civilized manner was something we hadn't seen in a major Chinese city yet.

While walking around lovely park， two young Chinese people stopped us to chat, a girl Jang Jing and a guy Alex. They invited us to have tea with them and we were a bit hesitant at first but then decided to along with them (basically we realized that is they tried anything we could easily take them on - but its okay they were harmless. But we do think this might have been a scam as we had another young couple stop us the next day and ask us to join them with tea as well).

We walked just around the corner to a little shopping plaza that was titled Champs Elysees... oddly enough. The tea prices were a bit pricey, but we both had really wanted to go to tea house while in China (or Japan), so this was our chance. We tried 3 lovely teas, a green tea, a jasmine tea and a fruit tea (aka pink lady - see photo). Alex and Jang Jing translated for us the info that the Chinese lady was telling us about traditional Chinese tea ceremony.

After tea, the two of them walked us to the Shanghai Museum and we said our goodbyes. The museum recently became free to the public which was evident by the long line to get in. But it actually moved pretty fast and while in line we met a Japanese guy - Satoshi. He had been working as an electrical engineer working for a petrol company and had been stationed in Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Vietnam and Thailand all in the recent year and he definitely couldn't have been older then 30. But he was really nice and we gushed over how much we were looking forward to coming to Japan.

The three of us spent the rest of the day there. We actually didn't have time to see all of the top floor, since the place closed at 5PM SHARP! But all the exhibits we did see were all really cool full of artifacts - sculpture, pottery, calligraphy, furniture. G actually even recognized a lot of pieces she had studied while at university taking her Chinese Art History class.We each had gone to tons of museums in the States and the UK, but the dates of some of these artifacts were mind blowing - 1500BC - kind of hard to grasp that kind of history esp. since we look back on the eighties with nostalgia.

After being kicked out of the museum, we said goodbye yet to another friend we had just met that day as he was leaving to go back to Japan the next day and had to pack.

Shanghai is foreign enough to be exciting but had lots of the amenities for westener's. The list of fast food places alone kept us gasping every five minutes in aw and lust! McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Burger King, Subway, Dunkin Donuts, Papa Johns. It was an overload from being in almost complete isolation from these places in the last 4 months (except Bangkok). Plus we hit up a lot of these places since we knew we would be roughing it out in Tibet and Nepal for the next 2 weeks. It was pizza and coffee now and yak meat & fried rice to come later in the month. We had to stock while we still had the chance....so it was McDonald's for us that night!

After dinner we went to the Bund area to see the famous skyline of Shanghai and didn't disappoint at all. The modern architecture was spectacular but just to get up to the river front for a picture was a challenge with all the tourist.

After a long day, Steph went straight to bed, but G stayed up having drinks with an Aussie - Robin - to ring in her birthday at midnight. It turns out that Robin and his wife lived in China teaching English for a while but now they live in Kobe, where his wife works and he well, hangs out for the moment, travelling around. He even invited the two of us to stay with him and his wife when we get to Kobe!!

In the morning, we started the birthday celebration with a McDonald's breakfast and Starbucks coffee. And since the day was G's day, we spent it around the M50 artist district in Shanghai. We made out way there without much effort as the subway in Shanghai is very simple to use (at least for us Londoners and New Yorkers).

It was such a great day, walking in and out of galleries, seeing contemporary Chinese art. Most galleries were filled with really good stuff, others not so much. Some paintings and sculptures made us laugh, some made us really stop in our tracks and take second looks. G ended up buying two photos, which took her ages to decide on, if it was up to her she would have emptied her bank account for all of the amazing pictures this particular artist had taken. Steph got a photo from the same photographer and a print from one of the smaller galleries. For lunch we ate spaghetti bolognaise outside, enjoying the nice sunny weather.

Next, we headed back to city center and went to nearby internet cafe so G could get all her birthday wishes.(which she is very grateful that everyone remember and was overwhelmed by all the emails - well except Ash, who forgot).

But it was strange, we were at the cafe a good while, G checking her emails and uploading pics while S wrote the blog about Kunming. We had to have our passports on us when entering in the cafe, which was cool, even LP warned us about this. The receptionist took down all the info, scanned stuff, etc. Well after being there for about a half hour, the police show up, went straight up to us, flashed their badges and ask to see our passports. It was a bit alarming. We had looked up stuff about our trip to Tibet previously but really hadn't tried to access any restricted websites. But they just compared our passports/visa numbers to the cafe's records and then nodded, handed us our passports and left. It was very big brother and we just looked at each other in amazement over what just happened to us.

We had always planned on going out to a nice restaurant for G's birthday, but after a long time in the internet cafe and a long tiresome day in general, she decided to just go to the nearby Pizza Hut for dinner. It actually is a really nice restaurant in Shanghai, kind of reminds us of an Olive Garden. We ordered an amazing pan style pizza, played cards and drank beer. It was actually a really good time, maybe not what G had envisioned for her birthday, but guess things never are when travelling. Steph did remind G that at least they had electricity and running water for her birthday, unlike Steph's bday.

We went back to the hostel, made a pitiful attempt to play some games of pool, took us about 6 attempts to get one ball in. Met a Chinese guy that had crazy dreads and breads who challenged us to a game - him vs the 2 of us. To say, we lost is a kind way to put how things played out, but he was a really nice guy so it was all good. He took off after the game and then we played some more cards with Robin until about 2AM and then got kicked out of the lounge as they were closing up for the night.

The next morning, April 22, we woke up super late and rushed to get all of our stuff packed up in time for the noon checkout. When we finally got all of our stuff together, we put our bags in the storage room and set out to see the "Old City" in Shanghai. We first tried to change some of our money over into Nepalese money (since our Tibet tour was ending there) but the bank didn't have the currency, which we thought was strange but guess Nepal isn't important enough for China to be bothered with.

We walked for about 25 minutes to "Old City" and Yunan Gardens. It was a bit disappointing because it was really, really touristy. Packed with people and souvenir shops. We probably only spent a half an hour before heading back to our hostel. Well, we did make a detour to Subway for one last western meal before Tibet.

At 6:30PM, we got to the train station and waited for one of the dreamtravel agents to show up with our train tickets and "Tibetan visas" (quotation marks are need for the word visa - will explain in next blog). We waved good bye to civilization and boarded our 49 hour train ride to Lhasa. We had splurged a bit and got soft sleepers, which gave us more room, a bit more privacy and nicer bathrooms and wash rooms. We were nervous about who we would be sharing our ride with but it turned out not to be so bad and the two Chinese guys took good care of us for the next 2 days....
Will post our Tibet blog asap - sure you all are dying to see the photos!!

xx
S&G

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Photos

Wooden Scupture
Hand carved bust in the Shanghai Museum.

Tea Frog
We give our first cup of tea to the statue for good luck.

Pink Lady Tea
A family secret receipe filled with dried cherries, pineapple and red tea.

Porcelain Detail
Detail from a VAse in the Shanghai Museum collection.

Chinese Food
It is sold in China - therefore it is Chinese food!

Crowds
watching the subway employees make sandwichs.

Grafitti
On the way to the galleries the wlls are covered.

G
taking a break from the gallery overload.

Comments

[Mamma Jean]

smile
Glad you liked M50, one of our favorite spots in Shanghai, along with the museum! Good close up shots.

[Aunt Chickie]

Loved Shanghai too
Glad that you are finally having some fun in China ~ loved the hustle and bustle of 20M people Shanghai, wild sensory overload of the Forbidden City/Great Wall and the ancient artifacts of the many museums. M50 a favorite too! And, yes, we had interesting Internet warehouse experiences too! We'll miss you on Saturday! Hugs