Considering I only know how to say "Ni-how" (hello) and "shi shi" (thank you), Shanghai certainly felt much more foreign to me than Tokyo. Yet walking around the city, people kept trying to talk to me in Chinese and after repeating "sorry I don't speak Chinese" they ended up shaking their head and walking away not seeming to comprehend why I didn't - I guess this means that it at least looked like I blended in.
After a very busy week with journalists attending the Cisco Service Provider Summit and Mobile Asia Expo it was finally time for some exploring (June 17-24).
Here's the photo slide show of my trip:
First it was a ferry ride across Yangtze River to The Bund which is well known for its European building structures.
Along with Mari and Ben, I checked out Yu Yuan Garden which was built in the Ming Dynasty more than 400 years ago. We went off the beaten path to eat at a restaurant that had the most interesting translations on the menu...
Shanghai's the commercial center of China and Nanjing Road is the most popular street for shopping. I walked up and down both sides of Nanjing Road but didn't buy anything. I found most of the clothes, shoes and handbags over the top - we're talking ribbons, gemstones, sparkles - all showing great wealth and bright colors. I walked all the way from The Bund to People's Park along Nanjing Road.
Everywhere I went I either walked or took the train which were much more advanced than the train system in Tokyo. One big difference I'd never been confronted with before was the x-ray security checks you had to go through each time you entered the train station. It's mind boggling to think about all the entrances to all the train stations in Shanghai and how at each entrance they had workers staffing these x-ray security machines. And unless it was a very small handbag, they insisted you put everything on the conveyor belt for security screening. And by "more advanced", it's all the digital media signage in the train station, the digital screens on the platform and in the train where you could watch news programs. There was also a lot of commercialism - while I'm accustomed to ads in the train, it was over the top that there were these large index card sized "Subway sandwich" plastic signs above each of the hand grips throughout the train.
You'll see this FlipVideo I've entitled "Baby No Diapers". I was walking back to the hotel and noticed this little boy walking with this big rip in the seat of his pants and strangely he wasn't wearing his diaper so you could see his bare little butt. Later that day, I was on the ferry and saw a little boy with a big rip in his pants and no diaper so thought it was the same boy.
But then there was yet another little boy on the ferry, big rip in his pants, no diaper, you could see his little butt. Are you starting to see the same pattern I am? I asked and found out that folks from the country don't believe in using any form of diaper (Pampers or cloth) or even underwear with these pants that have been purposefully sewn open in the seat area.
I checked out The Jade Buddha Temple with a history of 120 years that which houses two jade Buddha statues before heading to The French Concession area which reminded me of Santana Row as it had restaurants, shops, bars and a nice fountain area. It's from the part of town where the French used to live and the buildings are European in style and many tree lined streets.
I'd heard the Shanghai Circus World show was spectacular and it exceeded expectations! Not only were there acrobats that contorted into positions that were cringe-worthy, really distributing from the standpoint that you're thinking "that's so wrong, nobody should be able to twist their neck and back so looks like they're standing on their own head".
Then there's this ferris wheel trick they did which reminded me of the phrase "jumped the shark" (you knew the TV series Happy Days was nearing its end when the Cunningham family went on Summer vacation and Fonzi's waterskiing and jumps the shark to avoid danger). Likewise, when you saw this ferris wheel go around and around you had performers running on top of the spinning ferris wheel. First they're doing it blind fold, then you can see them twirling batons of fire, but the performance "jumped the shark" when you saw them skipping rope on the outside of these fast rotating wheels at tremendous heights with no safety nets.
My other favorite performance was this samurai who twirled a heavy blue and weight ceramic vase on his head and across the back of his shoulders. I enjoyed the irony of juggling China in China.
The finale was 8 motorcycles were driving in whirling fast circles inside a metal globe. They were packed at 6 motorcycles and we couldn't believe it when 2 more drove in. And I think that's the theme of the China World Circus, they pushed all of their performances to the far limit, beyond what you believed was even possible!
After the circus we went to check out the Royal Meridian which was reputed to have amazing 360 degree views of Shanghai from its bar on the 65th floor. The views were spectacular, the only disappointment was that considering it was Friday night, there was absolutely no ambiance as the bar was totally empty of patrons.
The DJ gave us the scoop so we next headed to "The Apartment" which was the BEST! My colleague from India, Shiva, joined me and we had the best time dancing. This was absolutely where all the ex-patriots hang out as you could almost forget you were in China, except all the signs were in Chinese.
The most memorable was after we exited onto the street, there were all these street vendors selling many different types of shish kabob skewers or as we later learned "chuanr" with green onions, eggplant, chicken, beef, seafood and some funky meats the pretty much covered all you could imagine. Evidently it's quite popular to sell these outside of nightclubs and taxi lines and they were delicious! Our favorite were these small, flat round white breads called "mantou" or steamed bun chuanr. The spices they put on the chuanr was so tasty!
It was like having a second dinner and the end to a super fun night (err, morning as it was closer to 3 a.m. if I'm not mistaken).
Which meant it was awfully hard to wake up for our 8 a.m. start time of our day trip to Su Zhou and Zhou Zhuang which are each a few hours drive from Shanghai. First we went to one of the oldest towns in the Yangtze basis, founded in 600 BC - Su Zhou. This city is often referred to as "Venice of the East" (although the second city I think could claim the same as it also had many, many waterways). We visited the Master of Nets Garden which were left intact after the Cultural Revolution, the Panmen Ancient City Wall and the Grand Canal.
After lunch we headed to a silk factory where I gained an appreciation for the very fine threads (8-10) that are needed to make a thread of silk and then how multiple layers are needed to be stretched to make even the most delicate of silk fabric.
Then we headed to Zhou Zhang which has been preserved for more than 900 years and were largely built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and includes 100 classic courtyards and 60 carved brick archways. This is where we enjoyed a calming boat ride with a woman who steered and serenaded us with a traditional boat song.
On my last day, I headed back to The French Concession where I took a tour of the site where the First National Congress of the Communist Part of China was held. Back on July 23, 1921, thirteen delegates met here to adopt the Party's program and proclaim the founding of the Communist Party of China. No photos were allowed, but the thing that struck me the most was the "where are they now" description of each of the 13 delegates that were portrayed in the Madame Tussauds-like recreation of the first meeting. I was "struck" by the fact that in the majority of the narratives that described what happened to each of the 13 delegates after this first meeting -it said they were either killer or murdered for treason or ill fated betrayal. Bottom line, it didn't seem to end well for most of the original 13.
After lunch at the famous Din Tai Fung for their famous Shanghai dumplings (I have to admit I much preferred Joe's Shanghai Dumplings in Flushing, NY) I took the train to People's Park as I'd heard that on the weekends that's when all the matchmakers came out to post notices about single men and women. It was so incredibly crowded, like you wouldn't believe. All of these elderly grandmothers and grandfathers had hand written on a single sheet of 8.5x11 paper the merits of their grandson/daughter and then either clipped it to their opened umbrella or fancy shopping bag. And then they sat back on the small stool they'd brought along and waited until inquiring minds came along.
Photos were discouraged so the few I took were done discreetly, but what impressed me was how many and how seriously these grandmothers and grandfathers took this matchmaking exercise. It was a warm day, muggy and crowded and I could easily see these elderly grandparents preferring to spend the time indoors playing mahjong in another part of the park. I saw lots of deep discussions taking place on the side lines with elderly grandparents making notes on their pads and looking like they were very intently asking all the "need to know" questions. By and large the demographic was elderly with very few if any of those looking for love actually in attendance.
There was an area that looked a bit more professional with bulletin boards and tarp covered tents that were set up by the various online matchmaking services - the sheer number of postings they had hanging was incredible. It lined 30 meter walkways and would have taken all day to read.
As I walked around I was mostly impressed with the serious time and commitment these elderly grandparents (and equal parts grandmothers and grandfathers) gave to the task of matching their grandchildren with the best match possible.
