How the other half live in Shanghai Old Town

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May 20th 2006

Published: May 21st 2006

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Eggs on Legs

Chinese temple

Hello dear friends & family..... today your loving Eggs took a stroll in the basting heat through some hairy mary bike congested streets filled with communist-esque medal shops, poky tat emporiums and newsagent stalls into the 'Old Town'. Cue atmospheric music...da da DAAAAA.... We must have got a bit lost on the way, because whilst we had romanticised the idea of visiting the 'old town' into an image of us swanning around in luxury, sipping fragrant tea from delicate porcelein cups, whilst donning satin slippers embroidered with apple blossom to wander ambient walkways flagged with statues of lions & dragons, this couldn't be further from what we ended up with.

Heading out from our hotel, we took the Henan Zhonglu road all the way down for about 20 minutes towards this big Chinese Gateway. Some post walk analysis (and help from other peoples' blogs) has identified our problem. We should have turned left instead of going straight ahead at the Big Chinese Gateway thingybob. Duh uh uh!!! Nevertheless - we can amend this error another day by visiting again, and in fact we are actually really glad that we took this turn off because we got to see bits of

Man in the old town

He was playing a lovely tune on this Chinese instrument which sounded a bit like a harp or a lute.

the city that we otherwise would probably have missed.

The photos of the old town sort of speak for themselves in terms of the living conditions of the residents, although they definately don't convey the smells which boinged up our nostrils forcing us to seek refuge in a couple of wee paper hankies doused heavily with Chanel No 5. The thing about the area we found ourselves in, is that it's basically a slum. As you can see from the piccies, there is a heckovalot of outdoor activities going on such as pan washing, fish selling, dressmaking, fruit vending, soy/vinegar storing, bicycle mending and - our favourite - the cutting up of COCKROACHES for the purpose of who knows what.. Add to this a few derelict buildings heaped up with piles of rubble, junk and general waste produce, and we're starting to get a stinkaroo, reminiscent of the Bin Juice experience we had in Bangkok. The final ingredient here is of course the rows and rows of washing hanging out to dry anywhere and everywhere that a space can be found. We will say this though - everyone that we had any sort of vague communication with was very

There 12 million bicycles in Beijing (or thereabouts) according to Kitty Malloo..

But how many are there in Shanghai? Answer: Enough to knock you down if you don't pay 100% attention when crossing the road.

smiley and cheery, and would nod away - probably in complete bemusement at the two muppets snapping their way through their home streets wide eyed in amazement and bewilderment as we tried to work out what some of the things were that they were selling. This area is in such utter constrast to the sparkling marble paved ambulary of Nanjing Lu that we spent our time perusing yesterday.

As we neared the end of the small backstreets we had been walking through, we stumbled across a Chinese temple, and for the life of us we can't work out on the map or guide book what it's name or location is. All we know is that it was 5 Renmimbe each to get in ( about 75p in total) and inside it was very ornate, interesting and fun. We don't know if they were monks or just regular musicians, but there were about 8 men in a back room to the right of the temple entrance who were practicing their tunes. It sounded, if you can imagine this, like a cross between Scottish Bagpipes being played in time with Chinese Cymbals. Certainly an unusual sound - trippy at best, ear

Chinese decorations in an 'antique' market

splitting at worst. We went in and had a good look around, and saw lots of mini statues of Chinese Gods lined up on this wall setting which Alan said reminded him slightly of Santa's grotto.

Later today we headed over to Pudong for a bit of a reccie and to grab some regular food - yip you guessed it .............. Maccas! They didn't have the 'Fantastic' rice burger thing we seen in Hong Kong though so we settled for cheeseburgers and chips. We enjoyed our burgers very much as the other food we had earlier on today was absolutely m.i.n.g.i.n.g. and we - for once in our lives - couldn't eat it. The offending food, and I use the word 'food' with as much creative licence as is available in our dear language, was 4 'Spring rolls', served up from this Chinese cafe just off Nanjing Lu. Unfortunately we didn't take note of the name of the place, but if anyone is reading this who is going to Shanghai, it's on Fuzhou Lu next to all the Calligraphy shops just up from the Metropole, on the right as you face the Bund. We blame ourselves really because

A lovely bunch.

Fruit store in the Old Town.

we knew from the moment we walked in to the place that the staff didn't want us Westies in there and we had to work hard to even get served. Normally we would have turned on our heels and left, however we were starving, and needed a seat out of the sunshine. The rotten staff probably spat on the said 'Spring Rolls' before deep frying them in the lukewarm lard. But enough of that... we don't want to make you feel sick.

Pudong is much much quieter than the main area across the water known as Puxi. We went through the Tourist Tunnel which runs below the river, and, once you've bought your ticket, little glass bullets speed you along through a variety of mind boggling psychadelic lights, noises and lasers. Mr McCabe said that if you ever wondered whether you were epilectic, then this would be the ideal means of testing yourself. We plan to come back through and take some pictures to put on the blog for your amusement - it really is quite quite mad..

Tonight we are taking it very easy - having had a terrible nights sleep last night, and dare we say

Food bowls in an outdoor sink, Old Town.

it, a touch of heat exhaustion from this afternoon! It was very hot and humid today, but we guess it serves us right for wishing for some good weather yesterday! Also, Alan has a bit of a cold and has been bunged up for two days now, the poor wee soul that he is!

We had a right laugh earlier on when Alan was trying to order an iron to our room. Sometimes the staff in this hotel are very good at English and other times they don't speak a word. Today we had the crew on who don't speak a word:
ALAN: (Dials number)
RECEPTIONIST: Something Chinese which we think means 'Reception'
ALAN: Hello, can I please have an iron sent up?
RECEPTIONIST: Hello?
ALAN: Hello, can I please have an iron sent up to my room?
RECEPTIONIST: Ion?
ALAN: An IRON, you know, for ironing clothes? (Shaz sniggers unhelpfully in the background at this).
Repeat 6 times.
RECEPTIONIST: Way momay..
ALAN: (After waiting about 5 mins) Hello?
RECEPTIONIST: Hello?
ALAN: I would like an iron please.. (with slight inflection at the end of the statement indicating hopefulness)
RECEPTIONIST: Ireland?
ALAN: AN IRON!!
Repeat another 3 times, then...

Storage jars

These were piled up in rows outside a shop that sold vinegar or soy - we couldnt work out which it was, although we did try to find out by signing to the woman in the shop who sold it, but she just kept saying 'jooo' and we can't find a translation for this anywhere online!

RECEPIONIST: Way momay (gets someone else)
NEW RECEPTIONIST: Good afternoon sir, of how may I be of assistance?
ALAN: I'd like an iron sent up to my room please.
NEW RECEPTIONIST: I'm terribly sorry sir, but the iron & ironing board we have is currently being used by another guest. Perhaps we could try again for you later?
ALAN: Right then, thanks.

Please note though, that we're not taking the preverbial out of the staff because they can't speak Engligh - it's just the ridiculousness of the situation that's funny. In actual fact we find the language here SO difficult; it's 'Mandarin' and the pronunciations are completely alien to us. We've been trying to learn some key words & phrases from our Lonely Planet book and we just can't get to grips with it all. Tonight we came across a Chinese tourist website offering some helpful 'speak the sights of Shanghai and learn the numbers' interactive pages, including presenter speaking the words out loud, however the way the person said the words on the webpage sounded totally different to the the way we would pronounce the words if we followed the Lonely Planet language guide. Aargh, help!!! Och well,

Organic brooms

Make mine a Nimbus 500

we'll just have to try our best - and as for the people in our hotel reception, we just think they are terrific if they can speak any English at all, because they are doing much, much better than we are!

We heard from this Canadian guy we met who lives here that apparently the taxi drivers in Beijing & Shanghai have been instructed that they have to be able to speak basic converstional English in time for the Olympics in 2008 - we think this is such a tall order. Imagine having to learn basic conversational Mandarin if like us you are no use at languages?! What a nightmare! Anyway, speaking of taxi drivers, here's a snippet of info that we found interesting the other day: When we got our taxi from the train station to the hotel the other night we noticed this sign to passengers explaning that the fare doesn't have to paid in the following circumstances:
1) If the driver uses a cellphone while driving when you are in the car.
2) If the driver is abusive to you.
3) If the driver spits or throws litter out of the car.
4) If the driver

Seamstress hard at work while having a chat with her friend

doesn't use the 'polite language of the taxi driver' such as 'good morning / afternoon' etc..
5) If the driver 'doesn't wear the proper attire of the taxi driver uniform'.
6) If the driver doesn't comply with the passengers' wishes for noise (radio) or air-conditioning preferences.

We could have saved ourselves 23 Renmimbe as our wee man used his mobile, didn't have a uniform on, kept putting our windows down (despite the fact it was raining heavily outside) and didn't greet us with a 'good evening'. Despite all this, plus the fact that he went through a big rigmaroll when we got in claiming not to know where our hotel was situated, we agreed that we would bypass acknowledgement of our driver's failures to comply with the company rules as he did get us to our destination in about 3 seconds flat. Well, it was more like 20 mins, however the traffic was dead heavy and he bobbed and weaved better than any other car on the road! T'was a trifle scary mind you!

Anyway - that'll do us for tonight. You are probably bored reading these unusual daily installments but we feel inspired here, and there is