Shanghai

Stuff is different in China. HK is technically China, but really not at all. It's very different, much more western, and the Chinese government pretty much lets HK run under it's own system. We got our first taste of the less western China when we tried to get on a place at HK airport for Shanghai. It turns out that you have to have a visa to enter the country, and we didn't know this, so we had to go to the China travel agency in the HK terminal, and leave our passports for about 6 hours while they ran checks and printed a form to stick in our passports. This cost about 300 bucks, and we had to change our flights. So, we checked in our baggage, spent the afternoon walking around HK, and came back to the airport at night. The flight to Shanghai was pretty empty, and when we got off the plane, the security dudes were wearing those green and red army uniforms with the fuzzy Russian hats. We had to fill out a bunch more forms to enter, and had to sign something that said we didn't have fever, chills, rash or psychosis (really). Then, we caught a very long cab into town from a dude whose English consisted of "ok ok". As soon as he started the cab, a little video monitor in the headrest in front of me turned on and started running ads with cheesy techno music on repeat. WEIRD. The city itself is HUGE and very spread out, and seems to be perpetually shrouded in fog/smog. It was late at night, and deserted, so the scene was pretty spacey. When we got to the hotel, it was pretty empty too, but all done up in gold paint and gold colored marble... super fancy and gaudy. It was if the hotel was screaming, "THE PEOPLE HERE ARE RICH! MONEY MONEY MONEY!". We went up to our room, ordered up some beers, and went to sleep thinking "what an odd place this is".

The next day we got up late and called Ashton (another SBS MBA) to see if he wanted to hook up for lunch or whatever, but he was pretty groggy when I called, and he said he'd call back later. So, Reba and I hit the streets. What a difference between night and day in Shanghai! The streets were literally packed with people. Apparently it's about the size of New York, but it seems a lot more crowded. We walked around People's Park, went to the ancient art museum and then went to a restaurant in a mall down the street. It's sort of hard to describe how packed in and confusing and high energy everything is, there are restaurants and shops crammed into every little nook, and there are barkers on the street with microphones trying to get people to go in to their shops. To get to the restaurant, we had to go through a candy store that was literally swarming with people.

swarms!

Next we had a really tasty lunch consisting of hot pots and wacky iced tea drinks made from tea and taro milk. V Good.

the one on the left tasted like butter popcorn jellybellies

deep fried frog legs: tastes like chicken

After lunch we walked around a bit, but were just overwhelmed and went back to the hotel room. We got a call from Ashton later and met him for drinks. I now have to apologies for the fact that all of the remaining pictures up here are of food. Somehow Ashton managed to get out of being in any pictures, and we were just so blown away by the awesome food that we didn't really care about the site seeing stuff as much. Ling will understand!

Dinner With Ashton

Ashton went to SBS with me, and is living in Shanghai working for a retail bank now. He is really digging his time in China, and knows all the good spots in town. First, he took up to this Casbah style cocktail joint in the middle of people's park... this sort of gets at the heart of Shanghai for me. This is an old colonial building, built in a 1930's faux-middle eastern style for (ostensibly) Europeans to chill out and drinks swanky cocktails, but it's right in the middle of the communist's "People's Park", and instead of being all liberated for the people and being used as some ministry of culture or something, it's full of a cosmopolitan mix of wealthy people enjoying the night out! Contradictions and complications. Ashton took us to a restaurant called South Beauty, which is a high end joint in some old French colonial style mansion. Ashton is into hot and spicy, and damn was this stuff spicy! But it was GOOOOOOOD too! The best part was that the whole meal cost 800 Yuans, which is $90 USD, including a tasty Malbec and cocktails. Behold:

nice tame roast duck, not spicy

ground shrimp in mild chilies... a bit spicy

beef wrapped in thin noodles and cooked with enough chili to kill a horse! SPICY!

extreme closeup, yes that's all chili!

chinese desert, plus a little playdough doggie

After dinner, Reba went home and Ashton and I went out. We went down to an area called "The Bund" which is in part the old 1930's art deco building part of town, and also the swanky area for going out on the town. It's sort of amazing how MBAs can find the same sorts of clubs all around the world: swanky exclusive vibe, loud techno, all sorts of goofy cocktails, snobby looking chicks, and lots of dudes hitting on the chicks. I swear I've been in this club in London! :) Anyway, Ashton and I got some drinks and went out on the lanai, which had a weird nautical theme, probably because of it's view out over the Pudong river. Poooo Dong. I love that. The view was incredible, I didn't bring my camera, but here's a pretty close one:

developING world?

Apparently this area was all farms 15 years ago. Now it's covered in huge skyscrapers, one of which is not pictured here, because it's being built. I think that it's going to be another world record in height. The thing this picture doesn't really show is just how huge the city is, these kinds skyscrapers are repeated for miles around, marching off into the smog. Plus, it doesn't show the hundreds of of barges, container ships and ferries moving up and down the river 24/7. It was good to chill, catch up and talk about MBA stuff: economics, culture, business, and how hot the local chicks are. :) We got bored of this bar after a while and split for another similar bar downstairs, where we found a quiet-ish room to chat more and drink whiskey. One great thing about hanging with Americans: these people dig their whiskey. On the way out, we ran into a bunch of ex-pats who wanted us to come drinking with them, but we were too tired, and split anyway. Coming out of the building, I got into a totally weird developing world situation. Of course, I love this stuff. :)

3rd World Wackiness

There are beggars everywhere in Shanghai, and lots of them are really f-ed up looking, missing arms, burned faces, twisted feet, whatever. They also recruit their kids, some only 3 or 4 years old, to help in the begging. That really bums me out, and it seems to really piss Ashton off. I don't blame him. Anyway, on the way out to front door, some old Chinese woman with a three year old in one arm and a cup with some coins in it comes up to me and starts shaking the cup at me shouting "moneymoney, moneymoney"! Ashton just said "ignore her, dude", and I started for the cab. By the way, there are LOTS of cabs available everywhere all the time, this is very convenient, unlike in London. Next, as we move past the beggar, a (I think) Filipino prostitute comes up to us saying "you want massage in your room?" Shanghai can veer rather quickly from the 1st world to the 3rd world, and in this case, the volume of 3rd world creepiness pouring into our 1st world evening caught me off guard, and I was sort of speechless. I had my back to the cab, facing Ashton, with the beggar standing on his left shaking the cup going "moneymoney!" and the prostitute on his right going "I give you good massage!" and Ashton in the middle looking annoyed. It's times like these I wish I had a digital camera strapped to my head. We got in the cab quickly, and sped off to the my hotel.

More Food

Ashton recommended another restaurant called Tan Wai Lou at the Bund 18 building, which I think is in the same building that we had the clubby/prostitute/moneymoney experience in the night before. This place is so damn good, I seriously demand that all my foody friends go there. Really high end Cantonese style, with a bit of that modern Frenchy cooking school action. At the very least, Carl and Tim should send Stacie here!

After lunch, we went down to the river and walked around. Shanghai is not for the faint of heart, but it has a lot to offer. As with any foreign locale, it's best to go with a local, because there's just way too much to figure out on your own. So, thanks for that Ashton! Even if you don't know a local, I still recommend Shanghai, it kicks butt!

Shanghai Reebs

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