Advertisement
Published: September 23rd 2007
Edit Blog Post
At the Bund
Watching the boats go by Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Well, we’re off the island....Sun Island Resorts, that is. On Saturday we shifted all of our worldly belongings from our one-month digs into our new-home-away-from home in the French Concession. It felt strange to leave the resort, but the few remaining islanders saw us off with a night at the Korean restaurant, followed by a game of pool and table tennis in the games room.
Saturday was the moving day, and with the help of some of our friends we managed to almost fill a good-sized bus (even in China our stuff is growing...ie. toaster oven, handmade silk duvets from the ancient town of Zhu Jia Jou, to name some of our latest ‘must-haves) and hauled everything up to our 3rd floor apartment. Actually, that’s 3rd and 4th floor, because we’ve rented a split level condominium on the edge of the concession, within walking distance of an outdoor mall called Xin Tian De. This is a very cute and cosmopolitan 3-block stretch of outdoor cafes where we treated our moving gang to breakfast, and for the first time since we arrived the coffee was delicious, hot, and plentiful! Asking for seconds of coffee here makes
Roel and the Flag
Roel surveying the 2nd largest port in the world one feel like Oliver Twist....’ ching gai woi...more?” And thirds are unheard of....hence I think my real new home - at least on weekends - is going to be Xin Tian De.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
That all being said, if the first blog entry was the Ying of our journey to China, then Blog #2 will definitely be the Yang edition. Now well into our second month and after our move to the FC (French Concession) we’re discovering - sometimes rediscovering - many challenges of living and working in Shanghai.
Starting with work: there have been a few surprise - some even pleasant :-) - but many requiring a bit of an adjustment on our parts. However, a nice surprise was hearing on Friday that a big box of Autumn Festival mooncakes was waiting for us in the canteen, and sure enough they were the more delicious variety with sweet fillings, and not the 1,000,000,000 year old eggs inside. That was one Ying of our week - the Yang was dragging my tired self to meet Roel at our end-of-the-week meeting spot - Starbucks, naturally - only to discover him waiting outside in post-typhoon rain, sitting
Expat Fair
Laden down with goodies from the fair under his umbrella with his coffee long finished (my bus was over ½ hour late) and after running to get my capuccino so we wouldn’t be walking home in the dark (dodging the bikes and scooters ON the sidewalks is definitely ‘yangy’) I sat down and glanced over to discover that he was covered in mosquito bites!! Needless to say, that was one capuccino on the rocks!
At work we’re both so busy that time is flying by. For example, the week after next is already the Autumn Festival holiday, so while we may work hard, the regular holidays rolling along allow us to play hard, too. However, the learning curve work-wise is huge, and let’s just leave it at that. So we’re still on the roller coaster, white-knuckled and going up and up and up....but love (or hate!?) to think of that ride down that’s coming!
Back to the yang of every-day life: last Sunday we trooped around downtown looking for the Flower Market promised in the Lonely Planet, only to arrive and find a 20-storey building on the site. That’s Shanghai: blink and whatever you’re looking for is torn down, and open your eyes to find
Ancient Water Town
The town of Zhujiajiao is Shanghai's most authentic water town a highrise in its place. So, to console ourselves we wandered over to Nanjang Pedestrian street where we had previously enjoyed the best glass of Chardonnay we’d had since arriving. We found the same outdoor café where you could sit, sip and watch the world pass by - literally - only to discover that on this particular day the wine tasted sour (as usual!) and a Nascar Video demonstration was going on simultaneously right beside the café, on a screen the size of a football field. With aching ear drums, hot and tired we set off again only to get lost! Finally we hailed a taxi, and arrived back at our apartment, no plants or flowers in hand - and nothing to show for all our efforts.
The Tsao was definitely working against us that day, and then on Tuesday I arrived at work only to find out from my VP that a typhoon was on its way, and he was sending us home early and giving us the next day off. So, feeling that life without English news was becoming a tad dangerous, I called a Satellite guy but found his English a little less proficient than I’d
Streets of Zhujiajiao
Well-preserved, the town is used in many films. thought when he showed up that night to install the thing, hanging from our 4th floor window in typhoon winds! But now we had BBC news, and the privilege of hearing that Typhoon Wypha was coming straight for Shanghai - RUN!! Therefore we spent a good part of our day off stocking up with water, flashlights and groceries. To have Wypha take a pass was a relief, to say the least. If she (or he??) had hit, it would not have been pretty - especially for the many migrant workers putting up those instant highrises, and the people who pitch their tents amidst the rubble. Everyday we pass two ladies having tea on their ‘front porch’ in the middle of a construction zone that looks like a bombed-out war zone. As we rushed around on Wednesday stocking up I was thinking about them, and the countless others in their situation. BBC recounted the population at 17,000,000 but I’ve heard estimates of twice that number - especially if you take the migrant workers into account. BBC also reported that Shanghai has improved the quality of its buildings since its last typhoon around 10 years ago, and I have to admit that
Venice of China
....well, not exactly. But it has a certain charm all its own, and was a great find for cookies, dried fruit, and our handmade silk duvets!! I found myself nervously wondering if our building qualified. ALL buildings here look a bit shabby, even the day after they go up - apparently it’s thanks to the air pollution. But as I said, all the typhoon worry was for naught, and now I wonder about all that BBC hysteria. Maybe ignorance really IS bliss. But for better or worse, we’re now replugged into the world media, and thanks to satellite - and Larry King - I know that Kathy Griffin and Dan Rather will both be millions richer: Kathy because of her Apple billionaire boyfriend, and Dan because of his lawsuit against NBC - which he says he’ll give a substantial amount to fighting press censorship. I’m SO glad for them both :-)
Yesterday we went to the 1st annual Shanghai Expat Fair, and were glad to discover so many services and commodities available. This is an incredibly modern city and we came home laden with bags of info, goodies, pens, stickies and frig magnets. We plan to use the info to order fresh homemade yogurt delivered to our door, take Chinese lessons, check out an art gallery that sells original Mao propaganda posters and take a tour of the last remaining inch of the real Shanghai (apparently it’s still there) For example, today we’re off to the Bund where there’s a bar in a famous hotel from where you can watch the ships in the world’s 2nd busiest port. Hopefully it’ll still be there when we arrive :-)
Oh, before I sign off...I did end up finding some plants. Running around preparing for the typhoon we passed a small store, right in our neighbourhood. Refusing to bar up against the storm, was a sweetly smiling woman beckoning us into a closet-size shop stuffed with plants. And then on another occasion, once again on my way to Starbucks, I passed a woman on a bike covered in bonsai trees! She sold me one in a recycled plastic bag, and surely enough it broke - but I caught the tree before it smashed on the sidewalk!!
So that’s life in Shanghai...many yangs, but as I’m learning, if you wait long enough the Ying arrives - and it’s almost always a surprise!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.04s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0206s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Carly & Craig
non-member comment
Sure looks like you are getting a lot of yang for your buck (yuan?)
Hey Mom and Dad! Glad to know that you are alive and well, despite the noise, heat, scooters and typhoons. Thanks for the wonderful blog entry.. Craig and I really enjoyed reading it. The pictures of Shanghai that you posted don't really add up.. It seems like you two are in the Chinese Monte Carlo or something (or have they been doctored by the comrades??). Can't wait for the next installment! Love you both, Carly and Craig