Visiting Shanghai

Have just returned from five days in Shanghai.  Brian had a professional development course there and I tagged along as I have never been to China before.   Not what I expected at all, was looking for the ''old China" but it was really hard to find in Shanghai, a lot of the city has been modernised, with the old buildings demolished, although sometimes replaced with replicas.   Once we got over our expectations though we had a good time.

One of the more unexpected elements was how amazing some people were in helping us and making us welcome!   On the plane over I ended up talking to my neighbour who was a business man from Shanghai with very good English, when he learned that this was our first trip to Shanghai he insisted on waiting for us to get our bags, wrote down our hotel address in Mandarin (unfortunately the hotel was located miles away from the heart of the city in the very back blocks of Shanghai near to where Brian's course was) and he escorted us to where the local taxis were and ensured the driver knew where to take us before he said goodbye.  He was the first of several incredible people we met...

We needed help to get taxi drivers to understand where we wanted to go as they didn't speak or read English.   We got our destination written down for us in Mandarin by the hotel staff and even then it was sometimes a challenge.

On our first full day there we tried unsuccessfully to find the old shanghai.  We ended up doing the hop on hop off bus as we didn't have much time (this was Brian's only free day).  The part they call Old Shanghai, has actually been rebuilt in the old style about 20 years ago and is very touristy...   We were directed by

Dumpling Heaven in Old Shanghai

 a local shop owner (selling pearls - we refrained from visiting his shop) to the famous dumpling restaurant in the area, you know which one because of the huge queues to get takeaway dumplings.   We did the easier option and went upstairs into their restaurant.  Amazing choices of a range of unusual dumplings.  We ended up with fairly safe shrimp and pork and some unusual savoury / sweet ones - very good!  

The photo on the right shows the one remaining original old building in that area.  It is very beautiful and so were the replica's but somehow it wasn't the same once we realised that they were not the original buildings....  and the shops were full of tourist junk.  However, I later found some of the more original parts of Shanghai.

But if you love to shop (Steve Adams) this is the city for you, it is full of amazing malls and high end shops.

One night we met up with one of Brian's former colleagues and her partner - living and teaching in a city an hour away from Shanghai by train.  We challenged them to find us a good cocktail bar as we were missing these in Muslim Dhaka.  We ended up on the roof bar of the House of Roosevelt, a beautiful 1920/30's building on the Bund. which is a river front street full of fabulous l buildings of different architectural styles.  Across the river is the newest part of Shanghai full of stunning high rises which are lit up at night and with the colourful cruise boats on the river create a magical view.  The photo below was taken from the bar, looking across the river.   Our friends also met the challenge for great food at the Lost Heaven Restaurant - loved the name and loved the restaurant.

The next day I took the underground to the other side of the city (about 1.5 hours to visit a special garden and an old street famous for its dumplings.  The garden was lovely, although I got a bit lost trying to find it as most streets didn't have english names!   Got there eventually and it was worth it don't you think?

Unfortunately I don't think I had enough water to drink in the heat of that day and had overdone my first go at swimming that morning in the hotel pool - on level 23, cantilevered out over the city with some glass areas in the bottom of the pool so you could look down to the street!   As I went to find the old street famous for it's dumplings I was overcome with something like bad indigestion causing pain and pins and needles down one side and I had to sit down outside a local dumpling shop as I was in too much discomfort to walk.   I thought I was having a heart attack, but don't panic it wasn't and I am fine.   Even though I was in stress I couldn't help laughing at this sight next to where I was sitting...

Cat on a leash!!!

I wasn't getting any better so I asked a shop keeper to get me a Dr as I couldn't stand up.   Our phones were not working in Shanghai and I couldn't contact Brian who was going to meet me at 5.40 pm the cocktail bar from the night before...  Along comes my number two amazing person..  Andy from Singapore who has been living and working in Shanghai for a year.  Spoke English and Mandarin and asked me if he could help.  He got me a bottle of water, that didn't help so in the end he called an ambulance, off I went to hospital!  However, he came with me and stayed with me there, helping to interpret as no one spoke English.  In the end after tests and a drip they couldn't find anything wrong and so after about an hour and a half I could walk again and I told them I would go.   Andy wouldn't leave me on my own and so came with me in a taxi to meet Brian who ended up being late, so this amazing man stayed with me until about 6.30 when Brian eventually found us.  He told me this was his first day off in ten days of working 14 hour days and still he helped me out for several hours and all he got for his troubles was a beer - Stunning.

I was fine the next day and that night we met our third incredible person - Brian and I found this funky Art mall with interesting restaurants so went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant there.  Next to us was a local man eating alone as his wife was getting a hair cut, so he wanted to talk, he said we should try the prawns, next thing we know he has ordered the prawns and a steak dish for us!   He toasted our first trip to Shanghai and then left to meet his wife.  When we went to pay the bill he had paid for everything!!!  Unbelievable as we had barely talked to him except to discuss the food and to say where we were from and that this was our first time in Shanghai.

I found some beautiful old streets on my journey to visit the very interesting Shanghai Propaganda poster museum (hidden away in the basement of an apartment building so very hard to find).  Check out this link, the posters are amazing and tell the story of the cultural revolution through the posters that were created as propaganda at the time.  http://www.shanghaipropagandaart.com/for_3.asp?class=Copy_Posters#

After this I had my first bowl of street food, beef noodles on my way back to the underground through some lovely old streets (in the picture below).  By now I had really warmed to Shanghai.

My last crazy meeting with a man in Shanghai was a young korean man who met me on the way to the subway.   He said I looked just like his ChaCha teacher Annie, an Australian and he walked with me to the train, but kept shaking my hand and kissing my face.  Talk about in my personal space!   He was 19 and had been in Shanghai a week learning to dance.  Luckily he eventually said goodbye to me when we got to his stop as I was well and truly over the hand shaking and kissing from a stranger.

Well we are now back in Dhaka, it was funny to say we were coming ''home'', but it does start to feel like that now.  Loved the soft bed in our Shanghai hotel and enjoyed the easy night life, but found Shanghai too modern for my liking and like being back here in the craziness.  Couldn't get over those amazing men we met.   Next overseas adventure is Bangkok next month - tough life.