Day 9: Shanghai Days

Day 9: Shanghai Days

Hard to begin here in China when I know things are so different back home. The Missus just texted met to let me know that the closing on our house was complete. So, the chaotic move will now commence. I know she knows that I'd love to be there (I actually plied our travel service about moving my flight to join everyone else on the voyage home yesterday), but they couldn't do it with out an insane fee. For those of you keeping score at home, I have an amazing, understanding, beautiful, intelligent, cunning, lovely wife and mother. Brushstrokes aside, here I am in Shanghai having fun, enjoying the fruits of everyone else's labor!

To begin the day, I walked to one of the touristy parts of the city called "The Bund." Located right on the water, this is where the western ships (called "junks") docked themselves to do trading with Shanghai. Google Maps tried to direct me to walk through one of the underground tunnels, but with pollution and so forth, I figured that wasn't a good move on Google's part. Guess that's what happens when you outlaw their programs here.

I boarded the ferry crossing the Huangpu River, and I wished I'd arrived at this conclusion earlier; it cost a whopping 2 yuan ($0.30) to board and get to the other side, the Pudong. This neighborhood was just a bunch of random farmland like 40 years ago, and now it's home to one of the most impressive skylines in the world. My ventures with that began with some famous xiaolong bao dumplings at the Park Hyatt on the 87th floor of the World Financial Building. It cost me an arm and a leg (100 yuan for 6) of these delicious dumplings, but, when you add the price of the view (you can see the beautiful Jin Mao Tower and the love-it-or-hate-it Pearl Tower. 

It took an hour there (mostly because the service was posh and, thus, slow) before I traveled next door to the new Shanghai Tower. Holy smokes, this was an impressive building. I think I climbed to the 189th floor for the observatory of the city, and the buildings I was just at eye-level with were now dwarfed by this super-structure. The building and staff were super-clean-cut, and if you want to see the notion that the 21st Century will be China's, look no further than the 2nd tallest building in the world. More surprising to me than it only took 45 seconds to reach the top on the elevator was the utter lack of crowds. If I were at the Empire State, I'd be in line for an hour or 2. Here, I waited for one elevator car until I made it to the top. 

Next I traveled to the Pearl to view the Shanghai History Museum. Frommers and Google Maps both didn't note that this building was underneath the Pearl, so I made an entirely lap around the surrounding park until I reached the entrance to the Pearl and, thus, the Museum. It was so darn hot that I drank 2 waters just in that part of the walk (11 so far today, if you're counting), so it was nice to get inside if just for the air conditioning. The museum was fun. If you're into model buildings and recreated people in scenes, you'll love this museum. What I enjoyed is just the tale of how Shanghai was settled by the west. I noticed, and disappointingly so, that the communist recapture of the city was very absent from the museum's history. Maybe it's too taboo of a topic for Shanghainese, as they couldn't be more different than the folks in the other cities we've met.

Some of those differences are subtly noticeable to the western eye. For one, the ability to read English signs is much easier. I was greatly thankful for that! It seems to be a younger city as well. This might sound shallow, but I didn't find many of the folks attractive in the other 2 cities - in Shanghai, there are beautiful people (and by that, I mean Chinese --- like the model I snapped a pic of in mid-set) everywhere. They also dress much more professionally than the other cities. For as vast and populated a city it is here, too, I feel like it moves with more ease than Beijing or Xi'an.

My movement next took me to the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. At a clip of 50 yuan (or about $7.50), it was much pricier than the cruise. Boy do I wish I hadn't done this stupid, campy laser and sound light show that took me back to the Bund. If you ever go to China, save your money. Seriously. I thought I'd miss something. One demerit for Frommers here.

On the other side, I walked the Bund and listened to the beautiful peele of the old church bell on the Bund walkway. It was music to my ears, so I stopped to listen to it for a bit. Then I hung a right down the expansive Nanjing Rd, the shopping center of this metropolis. It's so big there were 2 different Swatch stores on both ends. Who the heck needs Swatch that much? Someone, apparently. 

All along the way, merchants selling knock-off products flocked to me like I was fresh chum. I envisioned my wife politely saying "no thank you" to each repetition of "watches, bags, jewelry." I just pushed my eyes below the brim of my white pinstriped ball cap and plodded on. One gentleman was ahead of me and earning the same attention, so I caught up to him and asked him if he spoke English (it should be no surprising that not all white people here do). His name was Marcel and he was a German engineer here on holiday. We both were looking for the same spot - the Shanghai Art Museum - so we walked and talked together. I told him the city I was looking forward to next on the bucket list was his hometown of Berlin, and we had a good discussion revolving his city and how much we hate Chinese beer. However, when we arrived there, the museum was closed, so we parted ways.

I decided to go over the the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum. At 30 yuan, it wasn't bad (but it wasn't free like the art museum). However, I would save my money and do one of the other museums. Two things that were pretty neat about the place: first, three guys sitting there and watching the welcoming museum were Chinese majors from Penn State who just arrived in Shanghai that day. They broke the ice because they saw my PSU polo. Second was the beautiful model skyline, which also included the many skyscrapers to come to Shanghai's skyline. It's got to be a bit bizarre to be a local and see that your apartment building is eventually going to be taken via eminent domain (the Chinese government does that plenty here) and have to find a new home. 

At the end of the road is the People's Park, and I went there with the intention of going to Barbarossa and getting a drink. It was closed, however, as it looked like some celebrity was arriving there. So I moved to a nearby street to find a drink and something to eat. I stumbled across a jazz and piano bar, and I saw American beer on the shelf so I plopped my tired, sweaty self down at the bar. I don't really like Goose IPA, but it never tasted better in my whole life. Complemented with a delicious lamp chop and great conversation from this fun, spunky, beautiful 19-year-old bartender named Liu Xinayng, I was replenished.

Back out on the street, I started to make my way back to the Campanile Hotel. That decision was cemented by the fact that sundown had already begun (it's dark here by 7:30p) and a slow drizzle morphed into an open pour. I also wanted to try to talk to Devin before she went off for the home closing (at 8:30a).

Tomorrow I'm back out there. I'm joining my buddy Lippy's cousin Eric, who's a business owner and has lived in Shanghai for nearly 20 years. Very much looking forward to some camaraderie again and my last full day in this foreign land.