I got to China on Friday, 5/27, and took a bus from the airport (far outside the city) to a subway station downtown, where I was supposed to meet the people I was staying with (cousins of a friend of mine - thanks Qian!). The bus, as I understood was led to understand by one of the few people I could find who spoke English, would drop me off at Nan Jing Xi Lu - where I was supposed to be. I also asked a random passerby to make sure I was in the right spot. After waiting at the station for a while, I called Dong Li, the woman whom I was supposed to meet, who speaks limited English. I assured her that I was at the correct station, waiting at the service center where she said to wait. What I didn't know, however, is that Nan Jing Xi Lu is the name of a street (Lu means street), and that while there is a station called Nan Jing Xi Lu station, the street itself is very long and has several subway stops. So, I was waiting in the wrong station, convinced I was in the right place. Meanwhile, Dong Li was at the right station frantically looking for me - she even announced over the station loudspeaker "Peter Angell, I am waiting for you at the service center" and she had a sign with my name on it and everything. Finally, we talked on the phone again and I let her speak to the service center clerk at the station I was waiting in, and (in chinese) they cleared up all the confusion.
So. Dong Li and her husband, Yao Yong, found me, and we took a taxi to their house, where they fed me a delicious meal and we worked on overcoming the language barrier.
On Saturday, they took me to see the sights in Shanghai. It's a beautiful city, with an inordinate number of skyscrapers, crowded in touristy places but on the whole not so crowded as to be unpleasant, and very clean. A river runs through downtown, separating the old district of Shanghai (much of which has been restored) and the new district, where the tallest of the tall buildings reside. The first place we went was the bank of the river, where we could see the famous European district built in the 1930s (known as The Bund) across the river:
And behind us was the new district, with the tallest buildings in the city:
The building on the right, with the whole in the top (which is to reduce wind friction and keep it from blowing over) is the tallest in the city, and the one to the left is the second-tallest.
And here's the three of us with downtown in the background:
Next, we went to a popular, quaint old merchant district called Yuyuan Gardens, where the buildings were what you and I think of as traditional Chinese architecture, built before 1900 and restored more recently to serve as a tourist attraction.
Here we also had lunch at a well-known restaurant whose name escapes me at the moment (where Bill Clinton at some years ago, while he was president). They treated me to all sorts of traditional Shanghanese food, which was delectable.
The brownish stuff on the left is jellyfish (which has a strange slithery-yet-crunchy texture). The fish in the center and the stuff in the red pepper at the back (which was some sort of rice-bran hybrid made into a yeasted dough and cooked in strong sauce) were particularly excellent.
Next up, we drove across downtown to the Shanghai Museum, one of the biggest and best museums in China, with two added bonuses: first, it was free, and second, my hosts had never been there, despite living just a few minutes away. The museum had lots of cool stuff including 5,000-year-old jade carvings, 7,000-year-old pottery, lots of paintings and calligraphy, and some pretty awesome costumes from around China throughout history. There was also an ancient coin collection, which included these knife-shaped coins from a couple thousand years ago:
Imagine carrying around a pocketful of these! Makes me feel guilty that I get annoyed when I have too many ones in my wallet and it gets thick.
After leaving the museum, we walked around People's Square, a large open area right behind the museum and not far from downtown. I don't have a good picture that captures the scale of the square, but here's the closest I can get:
The building behind the square with the round middle and the arch above is the Shanghai Museum.
The 2010 World Expo was in Shanghai (I'll get to that next time) and there were adds literally everywhere in the city - every lamppost has a banner, every bus is painted for the expo, every billboard has an ad, and every store sells paraphernalia. This was on the lawn outside the Shanghai Museum:
Who knew landscaping could be even more elaborate than Wash U's???
After People's Square, we returned home, at the rest of our enormous lunch for dinner, and then went out again to see the night life. The Bund in particular was stunning at night, with lights on all the old buildings.
The newer part of downtown, across the river (the opposite direction this time), was also quite stunning:
The skewer-shaped building with two globes on it on the left is the Shanghai Television Tower; note also the blue-outlined building about 2/3 the way to the left, which is the tallest building I mentioned earlier (still has a hole in the top). Also, check out that crowd! Moving around was a bit of a trick, and we stayed just long enough to get a few pictures.
Last, we walked down Nanjing St., the main drag of downtown Shanghai, full of clothing stores (which look high-end but are infinitely cheaper than equivalent US stores), restaurants, and souvenir shops. Every shop on the street stays open (and busy) until at least ten o'clock.
Note the ever-present McDonalds and coke vending machines.
After seeing so much in one day, spending so long on my feet, and taking in so much new culture, I was exhausted, and proceeded to fall into a deep and peaceful sleep. I woke up on Sunday at 6am to go to the World Expo bright and early! And that's what you'll hear about next time! Time to get some shut-eye.
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