Shanghai in One Day

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We woke around 7am, to find a wet and rainy Shanghai. We walked from the hotel to the Peoples Park only 5 minutes away, and due to the weather there was hardly anyone there, disappointing considering having seen all the travel documentaries showing lots of people doing morning Tai Chi. There were people in groups of 3 or 4 just waiting around for the weather to clear and taking a morning walk. The Shanghai skyline was very bleak and felt closed in. We realised there was not much on offer, so decided to walk to the Bund, a part of ‘old Shanghai’ which is a road that faces the Huangpu River, where numerous banks and trading houses from Western Countries operated from the 1930’s to the 1950’s. The architecture was interesting, lots of old stone buildings around 5 or 6 stories, and very ‘grand’ in a faded way.

We were hungry by now after all the walking, but there was very little to see in the way of somewhere to eat, and anywhere we did try had major communication problems. In fact, people were downright unhelpful in many ways, and just waved us away. Obviously we fell into the ‘too hard’ basket for them. We walked in an area with lots of stationary and trophy shops, and eventually succumbed to buying a Danish in a 7 Eleven, but dreaming about plump dumplings we didn’t have!

Across the river was the Pearl TV Tower, a major symbol of the ‘new’ Shanghai. A very space age building, rising into the low cloud, we thought it might be worth a look. We hailed a cab and showed him a card with the towers name written in Mandarin. We thought this would help us in getting there, but it seems that taxi drivers have less sense of direction than us, and even we knew he was going the wrong way. We did eventually make it though, only to find many tour groups milling at the entrance. The information screens were saying limited view, so we knew that we would not go up the tower today. Looking at our map, Jeff said we should catch the Metro back to Nanjing Rd.

We asked the tourist information desk where the Metro Station was, and were given what we thought was foolproof instructions, “turn left and walk 3 minutes”. Both of us felt like dumb tourists. We can understand how people can become utterly frustrated, and then take large organised tours and eat only in their hotels. After feeling lost, we took another taxi, and again showed the driver our destination written in Mandarin. Again he was hopeless. Back at the hotel we refreshed, steeling ourselves to confront Shanghai again. We walked down Nanjing Road, but were assailed by street hawkers saying “shopping, shopping, cheap, cheap copy watch”.

Our mission was to find a place to have lunch after our disappointing breakfast. One tout came up to Jeff and tried his sales pitch, but Jeff said “I actually just want lunch!” His English was quite good, so he offered to show us a typical Shanghaiese restaurant, located in a quiet side street. It was full of locals, and we were shown a menu with pictures and bad translations of what was probably yummy food. We were happy with what we ordered, but the biggest stumbling block here was ordering plain steamed rice, which was not on the menu! The meal was very good and all up only cost the equivalent of $12 Australian including a bottle of local Beer.

After lunch we headed up Nanjing Road, and stopped at the Nokia store to ask how to buy a local SIM card for our Mobile phone. We were advised to go to a local convenience store around the corner, and were just about to buy a card when the man who had showed us where to have lunch again appeared. We said to come with him and he would show us where to get one for less money.

Once we got the card, we ended up in the shop he worked for, feeling we should in some way contribute to him after his kindness. After looking at all the souveniers, we were ushered upstairs to an Aladdins Cave of fake goods.
There were designer bags on every wall, and a table of watches in the centre. After making a token purchase, we walked back to the hotel feeling tired by now. Many more westerners were on the streets by now, and lots more hawkers!

After resting in the room, and packing for tomorrow, we headed down Nanjing Rd yet again. The street was brilliantly lit up with neon signs and even more hawkers selling things to tourists. We went to a shopping plaza for dinner and we discovered a food hall. Again language proved difficult, and our result was ordinary, and we retreated to the hotel room for a well earned sleep.

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