I don't know where to begin.
I guess, because I'm sitting so comfortably on my bed in our apartment, I should probably start with the hotel
.
If you ever come to stay in Shanghai and you're looking for a serviced apartment please book yourself into the Ascot on Huia Hia road. We have a three bedroom, three bathroom apartment that's as big as our house, with views from every window on the 34th floor. It is clean, comfortable and close to many of the things visitors to Shanghai want to see. There's a full kitchen, laundry, dining room and one very large, very comfortable sofa (Steven and Mum are sleeping on either end of it as I write). There are 4 massive TV's and each room has individual climate control. And it's attached to an excellent shopping centre - Hong Kong Plaza - which is dotted with great restaurants.
My first impression of the suburbs around our hotel are of Melbourne – somewhere around Toorak, or St Kilda Road. It's flat and there's lots of money on show in the main streets, but a few blocks back you can still see what's left of the cottages of the workers who built the place
. It's also very foggy today, or perhaps smoggy. It must be very cold, even the locals are wearing thick coats and heavy hats.
Enough of the sales pitch.
---
It was a great relief to get off the ship this morning and breathe fresh air – even though it was 10 degrees. We had a day at sea yesterday and we didn't do much. We finally went to see the ice skating show, but it was too cold for me - I've been fighting off a throat infection and the ice-rink air was very dry so I skipped out and went back to the cabin to read. Mum and Steven stayed and really enjoyed the show.
Our final dinner was sweet – the waiters all sang to us (badly) in Mandarin (badly) and our two table waiters wished us good-bye and said they hoped to see us again – but they have to say that, don't they? Poor old Joseph from the Café was almost in tears as we wished him happy journeys
.
Once we were off the ship this morning we were left standing in the cold outside the Port building for about 45 minutes while we waited for our driver – we were early and he was a bit late. He was lovely, he doesn't speak English so he communicated through hand gestures and he refused a tip. He also honked his horn with extreme prejudice when a Maserati wouldn't get out of the way. I don't think he cared what sort of car it was, he just enjoyed the honk.
---
For a large part of our drive from the cruise terminal we travel on a freeway. It is suspended so high in the air, and the surrounding buildings built so close, that I can't see the ground. When we finally return to earth and drive under the freeway it is dark and quiet. Tall columns suspend the freeway many stories above our heads while quills of smog saturated light plunge through the gaps between the freeway and the surrounding buildings - like sunlight streaming through a stained glass window
. It is another world down here. Its oceanic, as if we had been flying above the freeway and now we're floating under it.
For at least 40 minutes, while still up on the freeway, we drove past nothing but high-rise apartment blocks, hundreds and hundreds, possibly thousands of them. Perhaps it wasn't that many, we weren't going very fast, hardly 30 kilometres an hour.
It feels like another 40 minutes passes in our underwater gloom before we find our hotel.
And the hotel is wonderful - oh, I said that already.
---
After marveling at our apartment we go out in search of food. A dumpling place called The Dining Room looks interesting, and it because the menu has pictures of the food with names in Mandarin and English we decide to eat there. To order food we are given a clip-board with a sheet of paper that has all of the dishes' names printed on it, and a pencil to write how many of each we wanted
. I've seen this done before and it works really well when the menu and the order-paper are printed in the same language, unfortunately today our order-paper is in Mandarin without a word of English to guide us - but we're clever and we work it out. When the food comes it is delicious and it our first proper meal in weeks.
---
Because we're here for a week we decide to find a supermarket and stock up on food and treats. There are two supermarkets nearby. One is Marks and Spencer's food hall. The other is a local chain. We choose the local one, an up market supermarket for an upmarket part of town, thinking it is better to shop locally, but there's nothing local about it. Almost all of the milk is from Australia, and priced between $4 and $10 per litre. There is also Australian beef and jam, fruit and vegetables ($25 for a mango), some Swiss milk (on sale so we buy it), French biscuits and German bread. As usual we can't decide what coffee to buy (which is a surprisingly large range) and we lose Mum among the noodles
. When we find her again she is looking tired, so we finish our shopping hurry home.
Tomorrow we’re meeting our tour guide and going on an excursion. I don't remember where to, and I don't really care because I'm sure it will be interesting, I just hope it doesn't rain.
---
When you first arrive Shanghai presents itself with a crashing discordance. I'm not just talking about sounds, I'm talking about a discordance that comes from the movement of the traffic and the people. It is seen in architecture, design and style. It can be felt in the shops and restaurants. All cities and towns can clash with the newest visitors at some point but Shanghai is different - it is an old city and at the same time very new. It has adapted to history, to historical and cultural invaders, to styles, to fashion and technology. Over time the elements of this city have crumbled and been rebuilt bigger, stronger, different
. Everyone who comes here adds a little more to it, which makes it accessible and popular, but its roots go back thousands of years which means there is potential to become pleasantly distracted and lost among the ages. There are surprises too - once you feel comfortable and know the city a little you might see a new shape around a corner and suddenly you're confronted with 19th century France or modern America. You cannot stay for long in these countries within the city because it is too easy to stumble out of them, across divisions created by deeply sprawling roots that are purely Shanghai. Spending time here can be tiresome and you may feel you are constantly adapting to what appears to be the scattered shards of a broken city but if you stay long enough you will find clarity and learn that they are not shards but facets. From then on Shanghai will make sense and the discordance of this city will coalesce into a tune you find yourself humming long after you have left.
---
Today our guide takes us to the Yu Gardens
. The gardens were built on a two hectare site by a wealthy man who wanted a nice place for his parents to enjoy their retirement. Unfortunately they both passed away during the 18 years it took for the garden to be built. A lot of the garden is made from imported rocks. Shanghai is very flat and the owner wanted to build mountains for his parents to look at. Once the Rocks were brought into the garden they were assembled and cemented together with sticky rice.
The garden is, of course, spectacularly beautiful - and we visit on a cloudy day in early Spring.
We also visit the temple of the jade Buddha. The Buddha is a two metre high carved statue made from a single piece of Burmese jade. The statue is beautiful - really, really, beautiful - and lifelike, but we cannot take photos of it. All we have is the memory; I guess, as it fades, we'll have to go back to see it again.
---
We walk along the Bund for a while, the day is cloudy and not so good for photos, so I don't take many
. Finally we visit the Nanjing road mall. All of the Number One businesses in China have shops in Nanjing road. I guess Nanjing road is Shanghai's Times Square - it's the busiest street we've seen here so far.
It has been another long and tiring day, even though we've sat in the back of a van for most of it. We'd had a very late lunch so Mum is staying at home eating toast while Steven and I go out for croaker dumpling soup – we though croaker was frog, but it turns out to be a very fishy fish, and an acquired taste.
---
In the Xintandi district is a small, two story house, well kept and with a large sign carved in stone out the front. On the stone it says that this is the house where Mao and his associates met for the first time to plan creating a communist state in China. What they were doing was illegal so, as they discussed their plans they pretended to play mahjong as a cover. On the last day of their meetings they were almost exposed when a curious policeman stuck his head through the door
. Had they been caught they would have lost their lives, but their deception was successful and they survived.
Our guide tells us that if Mao was alive today he would be very disappointed because the house, which used to be in a residential area, is now surrounded by a development of shops and restaurants with brands like Wolfgang Puck, Ralph Lauren and Gap. I guess Communism, like Shanghai, has adapted to survive.
---
As we drive around our guide points out various, small apartment buildings that are scheduled for demolition and replacement by high-rise apartments. It takes me a while to realise that he is pointing out every apartment building below 6 stories, most of which were build in the 1920s. Some will be saved for history, but the city is growing so fast that preserving history seems an indulgence compared with the need for housing. There are 24 million people living in Shanghai. There are districts with the population of Sydney
. In the financial district there are over 2000 financial organisations. Our guide was born here and has never lived anywhere else. He is about the same age as me, and as a child he visited the Bund several times but he did not cross to the other side of the river until 1994 because, until then, there was no reason to cross because there was nothing there. That side of the river is now one of the busiest financial districts in the world.
---
It is a quiet day today. We sleep in, have a late breakfast then go for a walk and come across People's Square, which used to be a racetrack. It's 98 acres, so we don't see all of it, partly because we take a diversion to a department store for coffee.
---
For lunch we return to the pancake place near the hotel then drop Mum back at the apartment. She'll spend the afternoon watching movies while Steven and I head out in search of shopping bargains and fridge magnets
.
We don't find either.
---
A quiet day of walking again today. We head down the road to the French Concession this morning and look at some old houses, residential streets and parks. Desperate for coffee we pick the first place we find. Cleverly Mum has a cup of tea. Steven and I both order a small espresso with soy. I don't know what they've done to our drink, but it does not resemble coffee in any way. It is sour, the way I expect petrol might taste, it is sweet but like the sugar was extracted from bile, it is brown the way things that aren't food are brown.
Later we return the hotel for yum cha, the best meal in Shanghai so far.
---
After dropping Mum at the flat, and taking a nap, Steven and I head out to look at Nanjing Road. We buy nothing.
Finding China in Shanghai
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Shanghai, Shanghai, China
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