Two weekends ago we finally were able to visit Shanghai. Chris has obviously been there before but it was my first time so I was very excited. Overall, my impression of Shanghai was that it is somewhat similar to NYC -- it is very modern, almost more modern I'd say than NYC, but more spread out. I liked it, but I think it is safe to say I like Beijing more. Shanghai was very expensive and there were tons of foreigners there. It didn't feel as much like we were in "China", more like just in an international Asian city.
As usual, I will let my photos tell most of the story of our trip and use captions to explain what we were doing.
We took the fast train Friday afternoon with our friend, Wun. It was a great ride -- I love the train and I was able to do lots of work so it was very productive. When we arrived we checked into our hostel which was in a cute little courtyard right behind a giant JW Marriott, walking distance from most places in the city center.
We then went out to dinner with Wun and a couple of her friends to a restaurant nearby our hotel. Then, we went to a club but it was very early so the ratio of people working at the club to people attending the club was like 8:1. Here is a sign that was on the wall at the club. I'm pretty sure the person who owns the rights to Biggie's music didn't see any money from this…
We went home early so that we could get up and walk around and sightsee. Here is a photo I took while on the way to meet our friend (Irene) from NYU for lunch.
This was the area where we had lunch, Xintiandi, which was a high end shopping area.
Walking through the French Concession we went through Fuxing Park which was full of locals. We saw a couple guys playing with a che ling which is a Chinese yo-yo that makes a strange sound. Here is the guy doing it…
Next, we kept walking and found Tianzifang, which is an old area of traditional housing and architecture that has been converted to a shopping district. It was super touristy and crowded so we did not last very long there.
We kept walking and walking all day long, through the French Concession. I'm surprised I don't have many good photos of the French Concession. I do have a couple and will add them later this week...
While we were eating dinner in the French Concession, we saw humanity's sad future at the table next to us…
After dinner we headed to The Bund to check out the skyline. En route we crossed underneath the futuristic overpass that had insane black lights.
On the way we walked through East Nanjing Road, which is a famous pedestrian walkway. There seemed to be a strange obsession with selling wheels that turn ordinary shoes into roller skates. I think we saw about 20 different people selling them.
Finally we got to The Bund. On the side of the river where we were standing the bank is lined with old European buildings, while across the river is Pudong, the recently developed business district of Shanghai. We took a million pictures so here are just a fraction of them:
Here is one with a fun setting on my camera that only picks up a couple of the colors..
On the way back to the hostel we met up with Wun (who was staying at the same place as us) and her friend, Andy. We sat in the courtyard of our hostel and drank beers and ate ice cream =)
The next morning we got up (sort of) early to take a day trip to Suzhou. We had heard a lot about Suzhou -- I remember having seen my friend Ethan's photos on his computer from his visit there and it looked like a very beautiful city: lots of canals, sort of like Venice. It is only a 30 minute train ride from Shanghai so we decided to check it out.
Here we are on the train…
First stop was the Suzhou Museum, designed by IM Pei (also designed the pyramid at The Louvre in Paris).
With a pretty pond in the middle that had so many lily pads.
This sculpture is made from an elephant tusk…
After the museum we walked to the most famous street in Suzhou, Pingliang Lu, which was very beautiful. On our way to Pingliang Lu, we passed these guys who had just killed and were in the process of skinning a DOG. We took pictures but honestly it's so terrible to look at so I do not want to include them on here. The images haunted me all during lunch and I almost lost my appetite.
We walked along Pingliang Lu for about 30 minutes, had lunch, then walked back up to visit the garden near the museum.
Here I am at the tea place we stopped for lunch
Despite being so touristy, Pingliang Lu had many locals and Chris was able to take quite a few photos of everyday life. Here are some good ones:
Suzhou is very famous for its many gardens but we did not have much time and had to choose only one garden to visit. We decided on Lion's Grove Garden at the suggestion of one of my students.
Words and pictures both do not really do this garden justice. It is unlike anything I have ever experienced. The garden is made up of rocks, plants, ponds, and pagodas, all connected in a maze. The leaflet at the garden described the rocks as "grotesque" and the name just stuck. All afternoon we were commenting on which of the rocks seemed the most utterly grotesque. We planned to spend about an hour there but found ourselves staying for over two hours. It was just such a strange place.
These first photos show the lion shaped rock that gave the garden its name.
After the garden we caught a cab to the train station to go back to Shanghai. We held off on getting our return tickets since we didn't know how late we would want to stay in Suzhou. Unfortunately, when we got to the train station at like 5:30pm, the first tickets available were not until after 8pm. We had to stay in the station and eat dinner there with absolutely NOTHING to eat except KFC. I kid you not, there were no other food options, plus, the train station was not near to anything else. I ate KFC for the first time in China. Those of you in America are probably thinking, what, who cares, KFC is whatever. But Chinese people love KFC and it is EVERYWHERE in China, literally like think Starbucks in America. That I have been able to successfully avoid it this long is quite remarkable, I'd say. I'm still bummed we had to waste a travel meal on that garbage though.
When we got back to Shanghai we headed back to the Bund for one last night of amazing photo opportunities. The night was a little bit clearer so I think these pictures turned out better.
On our last day we went to an art museum near our hotel in the morning. The art was only so-so, but the building was really cool.
Around lunchtime we got on the train where we met up with our friends who were coming to Beijing for a week!
To Be Continued...
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