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Published: March 29th 2012
Snake wine in Shanghai...it's GOOD for you! , says Chinese Annie. "When in China, do as the"...well...sometimes you want to experience the full deal. We had visited 2 restaurants in Shanghai sporting a large glass jar on the front counter. Inside the clear, amber, wine-filled jar are 2 or 3 deceased venomous snakes curled around and around (any venom is denatured by the alcohol...apparently!). Our lovely, incredibly bilingual tour leader Annie (Yao Xiang-Chinese name) mentioned this wine's healing and medicinal properties including curative powers for impotence! I couldn't let the opportunity to dare my older brother Robert pass by (not because of any impotence problems he might have😉. I offered to sponsor a shot of the drink if he would be the imbiber. He paused and thought, and refused my GENEROUS offer...but a few moments later he called out to me that he was on, the challenge accepted!
Engaging Eddie, our Canadian tour leader, as an interpreter, the drink was arranged and the man behind the counter reached his ladle into the glass jar and swishing the odd floating snake bit aside, he removed a scoop of the wine and poured it carefully to the brim of a thimble-sized wine
glass. Delicately, I placed the enticing elixir on the table top in front of Robert. Cameras (led by Maureen!) at our roundtable of 10 magically appeared and after a moment of reflection, he brought the glass to his lips and gamely took a quaff. Smiling, he declared it quite tasty, and a lesser brave 3 or so of us then took our turns at the little shot glass. I sipped a small bit and found it a little sweet'ish but not too bad, although there was an aftertaste that I wouldn't describe as snakily delicious 😉 Our China journey was truly initiated!
23 million reasons to visit Shanghai. Is it possible that the entire population of Australia can fit into one city? Apparently China thinks so, and these days it seems that China is in charge. This city on the east coast of the country, at the location where the Yangtze River pours itself into the East China Sea is bright and brash and brimming with commerce and a mix of the past, present, and the future. The smoggy haze in the air is just the price one pays for all of this "progress".
Straddling the Huang Pu
River, Shanghai has one side anchored by the historic European buildings of it's colonial past and the other side that reaches upwards into the China skies with cloud-piercing skyscrapers and towers in gleaming steel and glitzy glass. This Oriental Pearl feels like it is ready to kick some major Ass!
They may go by other names but Shanghai and the nearby city of Suzhou (only 6 million here!) are what I call the "Cities of Cities within Cities". There are cities of apartment buildings...cities of greenhouses for crops... cities of scooters in parkades outside long factory buildings...cities of cranes atop buildings that make an oil boom-time Calgary skyline look anemic in comparison...cities of bright night lights on buildings and in parks and roadways...Of what do we see VERY few in these cities?? Sports fields for baseball, soccer or playing games...a hard working people such as the Chinese likely have little time for play after their jobs of schooling or employment!
Before I become accused of being a know-it-all let me say that these are all just surface observations of an interloper skimming the surface. Knowing a culture and understanding it, takes weeks, months and years...these are observations of
minutes and days only...proceed with caution!
We often have to remind ourselves that we are in China as the apparent integration with the rest of the world has happened so quickly that the Chinese-ness of China is often just not there. A superficial gaze at Shanghai, which is, admittedly the most European influenced of the major Chinese cities makes you think that you might be anywhere except China.
Back to the cities of apartments...despite hearing about the growth of China, actually seeing the pace of construction of factories and housing is stretching the bounds of believability. Sights of new 20-25 apartment building constructions of 20-25 stories height each sprouting simultaneously in a pod are SO SO common. These are horizon-long vistas of BIG buildings. But Communist-era concrete behemoths of East Berlin or Moscow they are not. These are lovely modern buildings with interesting facades with visual interest and top structures with aesthetic appeal..western-style cornices and bump outs and rounded fronts in warm colour combinations. Air conditioners are attached to all of the residential structures...even the cheapest looking tenements.
Annie, our 37 year old dynamo tour leader, who originates from northern China- what she terms Inner Mongolia- has
Tour guides for Shanghai
Eddie from Canada, Annie from Shanghai and bus drivercomments about everything Chinese- and Canadian. She makes little insider Canadiana jokes about Chinese police visiting donut shops--but she discusses Chinese history, culture, politics, and bureaucracy with a refreshing mix of frankness, some obvious pride at times, and occasionally, resignation of what is, is. She wants the best for her 6 year-old daughter and is saving the $$ (yuan, actually!)for her to go to university in Canada or the US if post-secondary schools don't improve in China.
There are so many points of interest we'd like to discuss from the architectural interest of the Suzhou Museum to the Lingering Gardens, to the moth cocoons of the silk spinning mills in Shanghai, to the man-made (centuries ago by hand) Grand Canal that stretches 1600 k from Shanghai to Beijing, to...it goes on and on but our time in Shanghai and Suzhou has ended after 4 days and it is time to wing our way inland about 1600k to Wuhan. From there we begin our 3 night cruise up the Yangtze River beyond the Three Gorges Dam and to an even larger city than Shanghai. The 32 million strong city of Chongqing sits awaiting in the west.
We still need
to discuss food and politics, internet blocking of Facebook and Twitter, McDonalds and Walmart, the joys of being herded in a tour group of 40 grown up Canadians like little school tykes to the park or bathrooms,and the billion + people that make up China...but that will all follow later, OK?
Until next time ... NIHAO! PS This poor blog entry was a rush job, so please excuse unlabelled pics and any bloopers!
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Denise and Paul
non-member comment
EEEeeeeeewwwwww!
Good for you guys for trying the wine. Have you noticed any benefits--health or otherwise? You are embarking on another trip of a lifetime. It looks incredible. Thanks for sharing. Love the Evanovitchs