Day 12: Good morning (again) Shanghai! (A post by Trish)

We started our Monday with a trip to People’s Park/Square which used to be a giant race track, until it was converted in 1953 . 

This park was sadly lacking in dancing or badminton, but did have a man playing “Jingle bells” on a stringed instrument. Interestingly, this was not the first time we heard someone playing Christmas music at the park: a situation that Jen is always pleased about and one that I am always annoyed at. I’m not sure if the playing of these songs is because they are easy to learn, or because they actually have Chinese origins that we are oblivious to. There was also a “dove area” with a small child and grown man feeding swarms of what we can only assume are albino pigeons. We also happened upon the Shanghai museum which is shaped like a Chinese cooking pot,

but wasn’t open on Mondays so we couldn’t check it out.  There was a nice bamboo path and a few other pretty areas, including a coi fish pond where Jen insisted that we name all the fish, and took a strong liking to the one called “Vengeance”. 

 

 

On our wander back to the apartment for a little refresh we realised where all the people in the neighbourhood were: a very busy pedestrian shopping strip (East Nanjing Rd). Along here we stopped in an M&M shop that Jen was very excited about, a giant Lego store with beautiful Shanghai building recreations, and did a little mall browsing for interesting finds (photos attached: street view, Jen + M&Ms, Lego creation, creepy/fun shopping mall art). 

 (In case you can't read the caption, it says: "Don't be fooled easily by lovely appearance, it will bring unexpected calamities" A truly accurate descriptor).

We popped into a local shopping area for lunch of delicious dumplings and a cat-shaped fried sticky rice treat.

 Jen has been very good at restraining my frivolous purchasing of items, insisting that it makes good sense to wait until we were settled back in Shanghai and not need to lug stuff onto trains …fine, Jen, fine. Since we’re now on the final lag of the trip and not moving AirBnBs again, we headed back to the tian zi fang market to spend some money. This involved taking three different subway lines, making us more or less Shanghai subway masters. First stop was to pick up a pair of the local Shanghai “Feiyue” shoes – after our last adventure to the market I became obsessed and decided I needed a pair. Plus, our friends at the dumpling making event had bought matching pairs and highly recommended them, so obviously, I had to go all in. You only live once, am I right? We spent more time being lost in the market than our last venture, and also became expert hagglers (aka, we learned that when we said we didn’t want something/needed to think about it the shop person would continuously drop the price until we agreed to buy the item). This worked well and we acquired many a souvenier (both personal and for others). Once shopped out we stopped for some more marketplace cuisine: super long fries with “cheese and milk” sauce and shanghai noodles. Jen also bought juice in a creepy blood bag (photo attached), which she was alarmingly excited about. 

More subways later, Jen and I made a bet about which side the subway doors would open on. I lost (obviously), I’m Captain Direction, not Captain Attention. So, if anyone wants some .10 yuan coin, hit me up, I’ve got LOADS.

Arriving back at our AirBnB we discovered a strangely shaped package hanging from the door. A package that looked strangely like a watermelon. This is significant because our last apartment in Hangzhou was very near to a watermelon stand/truck which Jen DAILY refused to let me purchase from. Upon seeing the package I tried to convince her that the kind people of Hangzhou had been sad for me and (somehow) got our new location and shipped us one. Jen laughed, and took the package inside, pretty convinced that it was not meant for us. Once reconnected to our apartment wifi, Jen received the following message from our host:

“Dear Jen, I couriered a watermelon to you.”

Of course she did. Shanghai is the greatest. (Watermelon photos attached)

Cat sightings: 3 – one at People’s Square which was surrounded by a group of middle aged men who were about as excited as I was, one VERY floofy baby at the market, and the same cat in carrier we saw last time at the market (plus some cats at a cat café that we didn’t go into and a giant statue of one in a noodle bowl)

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Day Eleven: Back to Shanghai

We started the day heading back to the historic Qinghefang Street from last night, in search of some breakfast. We had seen several cute cafes, and were looking forward to trying one out. Apparently we were to early though, as the only places open aside from the shops were McDonald's and Starbucks. So Starbucks it was, and I ordered the most complicated mint lemon drink that exists. The poor barista much have had to add ten different ingredients and go in the back door half of them. Tourists are the worst. 

After our very Western breakfast, it was time to hit the rails again and head back to Shanghai for the last leg of or trip. This time, we did our homework, double checked, and then triple checked for good measure. We were not going ​to relive the Nanjing to Hangzhou fiasco. And you know what? We did alright. We went to the correct station. We found the correct attendants. We bought tickets for a train leaving in the very near future. It wasn't the fastest train, but only a half an hour longer than what we had hoped for. We were pretty proud (well, maybe grateful is a better word) of our accomplishment. 

Trish and I didn't get to sit together this time, but I did get a window and a chance to enjoy the scenery. I mean, looking at Trish is nice too, don't get me wrong. I assume she feels similarly. 

The trip into Shanghai was uneventful until we arrived at the station and exited the train. Multiple people stopped Trish to point at her, point at their phones, then point at the train. Trish caught on quick and hopped back on board to pick up her forgotten phone. The main caution I had heard about traveling in Shanghai was too watch out for pick-pocketing, and this was as close as we’ve come to anything vaguely along the lines of losing something. We have felt safe the entire time we've been here (not that we’re ever inclined to head to the seedier parts of any city). We know for the looks and occasional stares we get that we must definitely stand out a good deal of the time (partially due to our preference to walk or take public transit over taxis and to buses). Almost everyone has been gracious about our inability to speak the language, and several amused at our attempts to communicate as best we can. Smiles, head nods, and knowing how to say “Thank you” goes a long way. 

All items accounted for, we made or way to our last, and dare I say classiest, apartment. The staircase going up to the second floor was a bit stepper than we had expected, but the view once we were inside was worth it: 

Not too shabby, eh? We were also pretty happy to have a bathroom with a shower. I say this because at or last apartment, the bathroom was the shower. It's not uncommon here, but making sure nothing gets wet that shouldn't in the entire bathroom is a bit unnerving at first. And having to squeegee the room afterwards feels excessive. Or previous bathroom shower: 

After refreshing and resting, we headed out to look for sustenance, and an electronic store that our dumpling friend John had been adamant we needed to check out. We found both these things at Joy City Mall. We perused a few stores as we wandered through the mall, and enjoyed the giant inflated planets and balloons on display.

We settled on a restaurant for dinner, partially because multiple staff members sang at us in unison when we walked by. When we stopped to look at the menu and they realized we spoke English, very quickly a waiter who spoke some English appeared to flip the pages of the menu while we were trying to look at it, to show us his favourites. Often it seemed he was just reading out the English descriptors that we were already reading. He was so enthusiastic though, we had to go in. He sat us down, poured us tea, and pointed out more items on the menu. Once we'd ordered, he came back twice to tell us something wasn’t available. The amount he apologized, you would have thought he was Canadian. We tried to be as reassuring as possible. As we waited, and once we started eating, the staff were very attentive. Attentive to the point of causing mild feelings of being stalked. Our cups of tea were rarely near empty. Despite the carafe being on the table, different waiters kept topping us up. Trish did it herself one time, and a manager showed up shortly afterwards (I told Trish or waiter had probably been fired for neglecting us for 30 whole seconds). At times, our waiter was just hovering nearby, waiting to top up our drinks or clear our plates. Just waiting. And watching. Totally didn't make me uncomfortable at all while Trish ate her egg with shrimp and clams, and I ate my steamed pork chops and rice. Trish also ordered a brown sugar mochi dish, which I took one bite of and was too weirded out by the texture to take another. 

After saying goodbye several times to our attentive waiter, we tracked down the electronics store, bought nothing there, then headed home. Along the way, some LED lights in the sky caught our attention… 

If the video doesn't load, it's of the lights in the sky with my narration that we have no clue what the majestic and creepy lights are – perhaps some kind of LED kite? Although I could have sworn there were no strings attached to it, that is exactly what it turned out to be, as we eventually came across the man flying it, an impressive distance away. 

Our evening ended with ice-cream and beer at the apartment while we spent way too much time trying to turn on the TV, and were then unable to find either of our favourite shows to dub. 

Day 10: Green dreams (A trish post)

We started our day early, in the sense that we were both awake and wide-eyed early, not that we actually got up and out the door early. Today we had planned to go check out a bamboo forest outside of Hangzhou, however in consulting many maps, it seemed the place we had in mind was quite far and difficult to get to. We finally settled on Yunqi bamboo forest walk, a cloud-inspired area established in 967, which was conveniently right next to the Meijiawu tea plantation town. Win-win. The downside was that we had to take TWO buses to get to the area. This was only a problem because all the travel guides I read warned against taking buses if you wanted to actually get where you wanted to go (due to lack of English and confusing stops). But Jen and I are adventurers, so we packed our rain gear (it was set to thunderstorm in the afternoon) and headed out. 

Once we finally made it to the bus stop (lots of confusing pedestrian underpasses in this area – in which we found some interesting advertisements, see attached photo):

 the bus portion of the trip went surprisingly smoothly. Turns out travelling in a moving vehicle while sitting and not carrying all your luggage is pretty rad :) 

The entrance to the bamboo forest path was crowded with many tourist groups but once we got a bit further in the area cleared out and we were able to wander quite a few portions with no one else around. Considering we were just a few kilometers outside of a city with a population of 5-8 million (sources are unclear on population), it was pretty surreal to be somewhere so peaceful and beautiful (see 4 photos). 

The trail included over 1000 meters of walking path, winding through to little temples and pavilions, highlighting different plant life and 280+ year-old trees. We also met a couple super duper floofy caterpillars, so cute. Words don’t do justice to this place, it was truly magical.

We wandered the walkways for about an hour, and then headed over to the tea town (after grabbing some ice cream, obviously). The walk over provided many awesome views of the sprawling tea fields. 

Once in the town area we decided that we should get back into the habit of eating meals – the excessive heat here has put a damper on our appetites (a very unfortunate fact because the food here is SO CHEAP and so delicious). We headed to the first restaurant we saw and once someone approached asked if they had an English menu, after this obvious fail, we asked if they had any sort of menu since we know how to use google translate like champs. Once seated, instead of even trying to translate anything we asked our server (who had quite good English skills) what he’d recommend and went with the local specialty of “chicken soup” and BEERS. (this is to be emphasized because when he asked what we wanted to drink and suggested beers I nearly jumped out of my seat and hugged him, turns out a cold beer on a hot day is totally my jam). 

After wrapping up the meal I wandered over to pet the family dog, Simba, a lovely floofy german shepard type who was a big suck for tummy rubs, it was a really nice way to end lunch. Wandering down the street we found a suspicious looking vehicle labelled “B.P.R.D.” (Bureau of Paranormal Research & Defense) and “N.N.H.R.C.” (Non Normal Human Research Center) however no one was around for us to inquire as to how to join the cause. :p After a quick pop into a store for some local tea (dragonwell tea is very famous here) we hopped back on the bus(es) to the apartment for a refresh.

The great part of being on holiday is that you can do whatever you want – for us, this often means naps, reading, trying to understand non-subtitled Chinese dramas and looking at random city maps for kicks. After taking some time to recharge, we headed over to Qinghefang street, a local historical shopping district. 

Here we tried to hunt down our elusive matching pajamas (we found a few nice silk pairs, but nothing that inspired twinsie status), did some more tea shopping, visited a cat themed shop, and Jen maybe made a cameo on a weird iphone recorded TV show. 

Tomorrow, we head back to Shanghai for the last leg of our trip!!

Cat sightings: 2