上海 Shanghai (The Last-Minute Adventure)

Again, the updates are not coming as quick as I would like, but they will come when I am able to write. The Shanghai trip originated from one Wednesday night, when I was at an artist's studio for my Chinese Arts and Culture class. I received a text message from a kid in my program who told me that there were relatively cheap tickets to Shanghai Friday afternoon. We decided to go ahead and get the tickets since our class was postponed that afternoon and we weren't going to go to Shanghai during the end of the year trip. Flash forward to the day of the trip...three of us headed out to the airport and flew a little over 2 hours to Shanghai. We arrived at about 6 and found our way to a hostel that a friend recommended. It was in the downtown area right on the Bund. The location was great and the place was clean and cheap. After checking in, we went out to grab dinner and explore the Bund area. It was a really spectacular sight at night (as you can see at the top of my blog now). Across the river I was just overtaken by a sea of lights coming from futuristic skyscrapers. Was I really in China or a different country or a different world? I still do not know. Of course on the boardwalk along the Bund there were lots of people trying to sell me stuff. I did see some interesting things, such as DJs blasting and selling their mixes, people selling kites flying in the building-lit sky, lots of plastic pigs and tomatoes being thrown into the pavement, and small metal light-up spinning tops. Immediately we were all hit with the stark contrast between new and old and China vs. the outside world. On one side of the river, the skyscrapers tower above all else, representing the future of China, while directly on the other side of the river lies European architecture. The old WWI era spheres of influence were clear everywhere I could see.

The next morning we went on a river boat tour of the Bund and got a little bit of history about the area. Going to the side of the Bund with the skyscrapers, we had to go through the "Bund Sightseeing Tunnel". This tunnel was no ordinary tunnel. It was from the future. Upon getting on a silver pod connected to tracks the doors magically closed and we were off. Soon lights began flashing all around us and we were sucked into another world, filled with magma, shooting stars, and dummies filled with air. It was perhaps the most amazing thing I've ever experienced. The special effects coupled together with the B-movie presentation put this one over the top for me. If you go to Shanghai, GO ON THE BUND SIGHTSEEING TUNNEL. We were all happy that we chose the round trip ticket, to say the least. The river tour was pretty neat but we couldn't go up to the roof since we were cheapskates and refused to pay the extra 10 kuai. After the tour, it we went up to highest bar in the world (actually this happened before the river boat tour but you don't know the difference). At the highest bar in the world, all of Shanghai looked like a scale model. Actually seeing Shanghai from above reminded me of Seoul from the Seoul Tower. Skyscrapers were literally everywhere the eye could see, except for the river. After our time in the Bund area it was onward to the French Concession. We took some time to go on the Lonely Planet communist sites walking tour and saw Sun Yat-Sen’s former residencce, Zhou Enlai’s place, where the PRC was officially signed into existence, and places where Mao crashed for a few nights. After the Communist sightseeing tour we all went to the Paulaner Brauerei! That’s right the Paulaner Brauerei! This is one of München’s finest beers, and in Shanghai there was an actual Paulaner Brauerei German restaurant. Incredible. The French Concession felt like I was being transported to Europe. The architecture showed no resemblance at all to traditional Chinese buildings. Most that we saw in the residential areas had huge gardens and ornate metal fences serving as garage doors. The shopping areas were filed with American and European expensive brand name stores and malls. We definitely had arrived in China-Europe. Well, after a great German dinner it was off to a place called ARK for some great Chinese pop, featuring pop stars in-the-making. The highlight of the night was definitely the 40-something woman wailing on the guitar with extended guitar solos. If you (the Chinese woman on guitar) are reading this, I want to tell you that you have an incredible skill and can do anything you want in life. She was that good!

The next morning we all woke up, grabbed some zaofan (breakfast), and checked out. We went off to one of best art museums in China, the Shanghai Museum. The museum was huge and we ended up seeing the calligraphy, bronze, Buddah, porcelain, traditional garmets/minority groups, painting, and other exhibits. I enjoyed the bronze exhibit the most because of the wide variety of bronze and incredible carved details. The museum as a whole was very clean and well laid-out. If you go to Shanghai, definitely stop here. They have an amazing collection. After the museum with a quick lunch break at a Uyghur restaurant, we stopped at a restaurant in the French Concession. This restaurant literally had no sign. The only way you would go there would be if you knew about it ahead of time. So, we went to the solid metal door and we saw a bunch of holes. We thought this was strange so we tried putting our hands in the holes to open the door. Suddenly a door slid open on our right and a mirror appeared. I could see the restaurant but I was looking at the restaurant’s reflection. So I turned and walked into the dark, shady restaurant laughing at the hours of thought that it would take to think of such a novel idea.