Everything from Shanghai!

The story of a trip to Shanghai I wish lasted for at least two more weeks... I travelled with the fantastic four: Andreas, Christian, Daniel and Juan and we ate, walked, talked, slept, laughed, nagged, danced, partied, and explored Shanghai together for five days that seemed like one day cause it went by so fast!

Thursday April 26th
Met up at University kcr station at 6.00 pm after dinner, took train to Shenzhen, crossed border, took taxi to airport, checked in, got on a turbulent plane ride, landed, maglev train closed, tried to take taxi, but they wouldn´t take five people, took the bus, met a Moroccan couple, got off at a stop in Pudong, got ripped off taking a taxi to the Beehome hostel, couldn´t find hostel, stood in dark back alley at three in the morning wondering what to do, met three Chinese people who wanted to help us, found hostel, but gate was closed and no one answered phone number written as contact number at night, shouted a little through the closed gate, a tired man came and opened for us, we got our fantastic room and went to sleep.

Friday April 27th
Slept till twelve and thought that this was going to be the day we would sleep long unlike other days when we were going to get up early and see everything in the city... We talked to the people at the hostel who knew English and found out that our hostel was only one month old – the reason for why the room and the bathroom, free Internet access, and bar was so incredibly nice! They told us how to get around in Shanghai and that the metro station we lived by was Dongchang Lu (Lu means road). After buying a csc travel card (resembles an Octopus card in HK), we went for our first discovery walk on the Puxi side. We lived in Pudong, which is the new grand commercial centre and skyline of Shanghai. Puxi is situated on the other side of the river which divides Shanghai into two – old Puxi and new Pudong. Traffic is horrible either you go by car, bus or walking, but the metro is superefficient. We got off at Nanjing Donglu (donglu = East road) which is an all pedestrian shopping street in Shanghai, with the exception of the tourist trains that run back and forth bugging the hell out of pedestrians…We weren´t sure of were to begin sightseeing because the city is pretty big! The government estimates that there is somewhat in between 18 and 30 million people living in Shanghai, but no one really knows.

I was recommended to see People’s square and park where you can relax and feel like you are in a small haven in the middle of a roaring machine. Beautiful lakes and trees surrounding every piece of building around you makes it a nice place for people in love, bench sleepers and everyone else who appreciates some silence and privacy. When the afternoon came we wanted to eat something and ended up in a Hawaiian restaurant in Nanjing Lu. Good food, very small dishes and not cheap. Juan was not happy. I would have preferred something a little more Chinese. We continued down to Huangpi Lu and found, close to this, a place called Xintiandi, which I was told by my Shanghaiese friend Jo (who lives in my hallway in HK) is built of old bricks from a low rise building from the early 1900’s. It has been added a modern twist and is packed with bars, restaurants and classy shops. Most of the places had a nice price tag on them too.. Anyway, we contacted Martin (friend of Peder) to hear if he could show us some restaurants or take us out somewhere in the evening. He brought us to Zapatas – a place where they have tequila hours. If you hear the music – go to the bar and open your mouth and the bartenders will pour a shot of tequila directly in your mouth.

Saturday April 28th
Got a late start on the day – started sightseeing around one.. But it started good as we went to the place that our local hostel people pointed us to. It was a tiny house where two women sat and made dumplings behind a window that covered almost all the wall. Outside they were steaming dumplings in towers of wooden baskets. Locals occupied all the tables. One basket with eight dumplings cost 3 yuen. We bought four baskets and two soups and sat down at a table in the sun outside. It tasted marvellous.

We decided to walk to Puxi instead of taking the metro. The buildings surrounding us were enormous. Everything was under construction and there are probably many, many more to come of the same type of skyscrapers – all looking like something pictured in futuristic portrayals from the 50’s. All of it is new and it seems like a prestigious area for new companies to settle. Our mission was though to go up in the tallest building in China - JinMao Tower. It was situated next to the almost erected World Finance Building, but not finished completely and seemed frighteningly close to the building we were about to climb. We took the elevators up to the 54th floor first when we had to change elevator to get to the 86th floor before we ended up on the 88th floor! It made me a little anxious that there was an air balloon flying right above the building and around it all the time, but the boys calmed me down and we stayed and took a lot of pictures of the city from our bird view.

Our walked continued to the famous TV and radio tower (that looks like a spaceship), but we never went inside as we thought it cost too much. However, we found out that there was an under the river sightseeing tunnel which seemed interesting. Unfortunately we got ripped off badly as it turned out to be a tunnel filled with changing lights that you crossed in a wagon. It got us to the Bund in Puxi and so we got to see this old and majestic harbour area of Shanghai, which was the heart of the former international settlements. Tailor of silk products and expensive restaurants and banks were what we saw in addition to the actual architecture. We headed back to our hostel and found out that we would eat at the restaurant that Martin had recommended to us for great Chinese food- South Beauty. Only thing is that it took us 1,5 hours to find it.. Cause the five tourist forgot to bring the map.. and had to guess what direction to go in. It did not help that locals couldn’t speak English and kept pointing us in different directions. BUT we found it and had a HUGE and fantastic gourmet dinner for five people for 900 yuen (6-700kroner?). Not insanely cheap, but very, very affordable considering how much food we got! After that we went to BonBon – a nightclub with 120 yuen cover and open bar till five in the morning.

Sunday April 29th
Late start again! Daniel was always the first one to get up and kept us on the right track so that we actually got to see anything this trip. This day however, was not spent getting up early. Around three all of us where still exhausted and just wanted some simple cheap food. Ashamed to say so – we went for pizza right across from our hostel, walked a little around in Pudong and went home again to have an early night.. Had a good time with the group though as we only talked and joked all day long.

Monday April 30th
Wanted to get the most out of the day, so we got up relatively early and went to the dumpling place to have breakfast again. It was raining this day so we sat inside. The dumplings were still amazing. On this day we wanted to see the French Concessions and the famous neo classical buildings and art deco – supposedly the best architecture in Shanghai. We strolled the area for a couple of hours just to look at the contrasts of old, new, small and huge buildings. it was a good walk and it took us to some nice back alleys where we could really smell and feel the atmosphere of this place. I will agree with Lonely Planet when they say it is one of the most interesting places in Shanghai. Walking back towards Huaihai Lu we passed by a restaurant recommended by the book just mentioned. When we finally found it turned out that the chef had gone home and they weren´t open until another two hours. Still, when we said it was too bad and we had been looking for this particular place he called the chef and made him come back so that they could serve us! Once again, we ate good traditional Chinese food at a low price.

Tuesday May 1st
We saw the old town of Shanghai as the last thing we really wanted to do before we left. My flight to HK was at six thirty pm and the boys’ flight to Beijing was at eight pm so we had the whole afternoon to go sightseeing. Old town is a remarkable place that collides completely with the new identity of the biggest city in China. Here, people are poor, they live in filthy, smelly back alleys, have nothing, live in the oldest buildings in the city and still seemed so happy. Food and handmade artefacts were being sold side by side in the streets. Traffic was roaming through the main street and wedding dresses from the numerous wedding shops in the wedding street were hanging down from the electric wires to dry together with people’s laundry in general. Whenever we talked to someone (or the guys tried to talk to them, I just watched) people just smiled and seemed so cheerful. It is also a charming part of Shanghai and the hours flew by as we realised we had to leave again. It is a part of the city you can walk in for hours I think, always something to look at and always something to take in and include as a part of the Shanghai atmosphere. That is what I did in general I think. Seeing absolutely all of the sights isn’t necessary here, but catching the essence of the city through looking at it, breathing it (so much pollution!!), smelling it, walking through it and dining in it is what paints the full picture. It is a city that needs to be explored and discovered by being in it. And I would love to go back.