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Published: November 17th 2010
I’m getting a little behind in documenting our experiences in Shanghai, so this is going to be somewhat of a summary blog. Badger fans are going to be especially disappointed that I haven’t even written about how we got to watch the severe beating of the Buckeyes live from Shanghai! I blame it on writer’s block… no that’s a terrible excuse, I have tons to write about! I’ve just never been much of a writer, but it’s really important to me to document our experiences here, so someday we can sit our kids down on the couch and say as Ted would in How I Met Your Mother, “So kids, this is how the story goes…” (we’ve recently fallen in love with this show!) But it’s also been a great way to share our experiences with family and friends minus the email after email recounting the same experiences to different people. BTW: I forgot to mention this previously but when I first set up this travel blog, I didn’t have access to Facebook and couldn’t find everyone’s email, so if I forgot someone or if anyone asks feel free to pass on the info for the site.
I’m going to
Night Skyline
from the boattravel waaay back in time… to October 16. It was the day that Expo broke the record for the highest attendance (over a million people)! We weren’t at Expo, but had to have been at the second busiest place in Shanghai, Yuyuan Garden. It was a beautiful day and it seemed that everyone and their mother had also come to this realization and decided to take it to the streets. I got my first real glimpse of historic Chinese architecture… curvy pointy roofs, lots of trellis work, gold accents and red lanterns everywhere. It was beautiful! We came to the area to see the gardens and ended up getting lost in the swarms of crowds filling the maze of little alley ways meandering between buildings. It was quite claustrophobic trying to dodge the many tourists and vendors selling Chinese souvenirs and food. When we made it through the maze to the other side, we thought we had discovered Yuyuan garden. It was an unimpressive park with lots of modern elements and a glimpse of the Pudong skyline with children rollerblading around in circles… not what I expected, but relaxing at least to be away from the swarms of people. Since
the metro stop was on the opposite side of the bazaar, we decided to wander back through the maze. It didn’t seem lucky at the time, because there were more people than before, but after a little research and a closer look at our pictures, we realized that we wandered right through Yuyuan garden. It just happened that the beauty was hidden among the hordes of people! Hopefully we’ll get a chance to go back, maybe early morning when there are less people, and actually see the gardens!
That same weekend was the much-anticipated Wisconsin-Ohio State football game and we decided we had to find an American sports bar that would be showing the game. It was also the much-anticipated arrival of one Mr. James Brennan (for those who don’t know, he was one of the groomsmen in our wedding and one of Blair’s good high school friends). He was on a trip with his MBA program to Beijing & Shanghai to tour companies and sightsee. Anyway, after some research on the Shanghai Expat website, we found the wonderful Big Bamboo, an authentic American sports bar, which would be showing the game live at 7:00am Shanghai time on Sunday.
Yuyuan Garden
showcasing some beautiful Chinese architecture Whew that was early, but the french toast and Tsing Tao breakfast brought me back to the wonderful autumn Saturday mornings in college when we would wake up at the crack of dawn to start pre-gaming! James & his friend Nate finally joined us as “Jump Around” began and after witnessing a glorious finish to the game, we wandered aimlessly around the city for a couple hours.
Later that afternoon, we had a double date of pool and shopping in Xintiandi planned with our friends Johnny & Niki. Johnny visited the US last spring when we were still living in Orlando and stayed with us for a few days. We had a great time introducing him to new restaurants, showing him some of the sights and helping him pick out Coach purses for his wife and friends at the outlets. Now they have taken it upon themselves, it seems, to return the favor here in China! They are super nice too… we love hanging out with them! Niki speaks English well enough that we can talk about work (she’s an architect), fashion, babies, the real estate boom, differences in culture, etc, etc. So we met them at a pool
What we thought was Yuyuan Garden
There were some super cute kids all padded up though! place in our neighborhood which we never would have found had we not followed the pictures of pool balls up the dark stairway in the corner of the building. We had a lot of fun playing a couple games of pool, then boarded the subway to Xintiandi. Xintiandi is a very upscale area in Shanghai, where Niki said you can often find Chinese movie stars. Besides the streets being filled with Mercedes & Porsches and a few newly built-up pedestrian areas lined with upscale Western shops, the area was rather unimpressive. We walked around a little lake in a park and caught a taxi to East Nanjing Road for dinner. The pedestrian area of East Nanjing Road at night is lit up like Times Square and the streets are filled with people shopping and looking for dinner. People will hassle you trying to sell “purse, bag, watch” and you’re cautioned to keep your purse close, but the street is filled with big city culture. After grabbing a coffee at Starbucks, we headed to the Coco Curry House for dinner. It was probably the best curry I’d ever had (OK, maybe the only curry I’d ever had) and we got to
eat with a fork! 😊 After dinner, we walked into a couple shops where I discovered the eclectic fashion of the Shanghainese and the high price tags. (A week later I would buy a pair of boots online at DSW and have them sent to Blair’s parent’s house in La Crosse, where they will be waiting upon my return!)
On a tangent, up until this weekend, I’ve been extremely disappointed with shopping here! When I ask people where to shop they say online! This is China, people… everything is made here, there are no export/ import taxes, why can’t I get any deals in this place?! But this weekend, I found the secret hiding place of all the best deals on shoes, scarves, purses, sunglasses, jewelry and souvenirs in Shanghai! It’s an underground market and literally located in a hole in the ground… right next to the Metro Line 2 Science & Technology Museum exit. And a HUGE hole in the ground it is! I don’t even know how to describe it… First we entered into the clothing/accessories section and got lost. Then after walking maybe a kilometer, we found ourselves in the Chinese souvenir area, then the food
section (boy were we starving by then)! After lunch we set forth on a conquest to find the lost D&G purse I had scoped out for 100 yuan. It would be easy… it was against a back wall, near a toilet, and had tons of sale signs displayed. After walking in circles (and seeing the man standing outside one of the many art shops laughing at us) and returning twice to the entrance where we walked into the market, we finally had déjà vu and followed our earlier steps right into the purse shop!
Bargaining is absolutely insane at these markets! Based on what I’ve read though, the experiences we had were nothing compared to other markets around the city. Apparently having 2 women grab my arm and relentlessly follow me down the halls past several stores (when I was only curious what the ballpark price was for something) is nothing to brag about! It’s funny how the price you end up paying is only a mere percentage of the original price they show you on their calculator. For example, when I asked the price of a scarf I was interested in, he said, “For two? Maybe you would
like one of these as well.” I succumbed to the sales pitch and decided to buy in bulk this time, I mean, how much could they really cost, they’re scarves (well one was 100% pure cashmere…) He showed me 280 yuan on his calculator. $40… no way! “That’s too expensive”, I told him and starting walking away. “I can give you a deal,” he says, “260”. I keep walking. “OK lady, how much will you pay?” I look at Blair and he says 50 yuan. It’s a stretch but what have I got to lose! I type it into the calculator and I get the scripted “are you serious?” look. He was such a good actor; an onlooker would think I just insulted him! He replies with, “You’re joking, give me your serious price. Show me something I can support my family with.” I stuck to 50 yuan and after following me out of the store and down the hallway, he finally gave in. I went back to the store and handed him a 100 yuan bill. He took it to his mother to get change and as I saw her reach into her fanny pack, I noticed the wad
of bills stuffed inside. No matter how guilty they make you feel, with all the tourists running through that market they are still making themselves a fine living! And I got a great deal on a couple scarves… sounds like a win-win situation to me!
Back to the long lost month of October… it was a rainy Saturday as Super Typhoon Megi was approaching the Southern China coast and Shanghai was getting hit with rain from her outer bands. We were yearning to get out of the apartment but dreaded walking through the streets with umbrellas and wet jeans from the knees down. So we decided what better place to go than a museum? And to the Shanghai Urban Planning museum we went! We spent a couple hours wandering through the museum, exploring the many exhibits including the large-scale model of central Shanghai (which consumes almost an entire floor) as well as a video of Shanghai on a 360 degree screen and ended on the top floor of the museum with a great view of People’s Square. It was remarkable to see the new twisting Shanghai Tower, which is currently under construction to be the tallest building in China,
Where's Joni?
Can you find me amongst all the people? It was very difficult to cross this bridge! show up in many of these models.
To celebrate Halloween, we treated ourselves to a Huangpu River Cruise. The best cruises are at night when everything is lit up, so we strolled down the Bund in search of the perfect neon boat! Our Lonely Planet guide said it was only a short distance south of the Bund and mislead us to expect a large terminal with many different options. After walking probably 2 kilometers, we were approached by people along the street saying “boat” and pointing to the big neon boat in the water… seemed a little sketch to us. Then we saw the Huangpu River Cruise signs! We followed the signs beyond a broken escalator, down the next concrete ramp underground, down 2 escalators, through a hall past several closed shops, up an escalator, and finally into a large room with a few chairs and a couple ticket windows. There was only one boat option… granted it was one of the nicest bright neon boats I had seen (besides the one with dragons on the front, of course)! We decided we would just walk up to street level to see if there were any other boat options nearby.
There were none… apparently the way to get on a river cruise is to just accept an offer from someone on the street. Yes, you’re supposed to just pay 100 yuan to board a boat, any boat, anchored on the side of the river, a very dirty river, which will take you who knows where! You could end up as a hostage held for ransom on a pirate ship or on the bottom of the river! Well we ended up choosing the option with the legit ticket windows and waiting room. They even had security you had to walk through before boarding the boat! Don’t get me wrong, we couldn’t understand a word they were saying after we boarded the boat, so they could have been informing us of our death sentence. Regardless, after 2 U-turns and some pretty amazing views of Pudong and Puxi, we were returned to shore safe and sound!
After we boarded the boat (about a half hour before departure), we made our way to the open-air top deck but there were no seats. Not just no seats available, there were no seats, for free anyway. Like everyone else, we staked out our share of
Blair & I
... on the zig zag bridge at Yuyuan Garden railing with a great view of Pudong. As more and more people boarded the ship, elbows moved in closer and closer and we became claustrophobic and ready to sit down and relax. We decided to splurge and pay an extra 50 yuan each for the VIP seats (seats!) on the deck below. It was wonderful! There were only 4 other people and we had waxberry drinks served to us… so worth it! There was plenty of room to capture the picturesque Shanghai skyline on camera and in our minds as we floated along on our hour long cruise. Haha… that was a little corny, but it is beautiful!
P.S. Shoot me an email if you’re out there reading this! I’d love to hear some stories from the States… I miss it and all of you and would love to hear about your lives as well!
Buh-bye for now!
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Joy Tuma
non-member comment
Hi, Thank you for another interesting look at your lives in China. Very enjoyable to see all the pictures and imagine where you are. I may have to get a book from the library and read up on China. I normally only read mysteries but could probably improve my mind. But I could be like one of the ladies I deliver library books to, she told me just bring me fiction I am past the point of trying to improve my mind. She is ninety two so I guess I can see her point. Everything fine with Grandpa and me. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving which I am sure you heard about from your mom. Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving wherever you are. Will be looking forward to hearing if you had turkey. Love, Grandma Joy