Monday, April 26, 2010

Day 5 - April 26 - museum and rain day

Short post today, as I uploaded some pictures on previous posts which took longer than expected. I'll come back and add more detail to this post, but here are some highlights from today:

--slept in and woke up to my first day of rain--went to the metro by myself, managed not to get lost, and took the metro to People's Square
--visited the Shanghai Museum and took tons of pictures of Shanghai art
--had lunch at a noodle restaurant and even managed to order something without meat
--met some young Chinese people also on vacation, who invited me to join them at a traditional tea ceremony
--got lost on my way back from the metro and spent almost an hour wandering around before being saved by Carrie and Jeff,
--who took me out to dinner at a Xinjiang province-style restaurant (we don't know the actual name, but it was delicious!)
Pictures below, details to follow!


Sunday, April 25, 2010

Day 4 - April 25 - city from above

Today we decided to head into the city for another day of touristy sightseeing, as we had a second consecutive day of sunny weather. First we went to brunch at a place called Wagas, where I had a spinach egg and feta wrap, then split a pumpkin and chocolate muffin for dessert. We walked around Xu Jai Hui, including popping into a Best Buy to compare prices with its western counterparts.


Onward to a nearby park where we wandered among the crowds of families out enjoying the Sunday morning. We saw a bride getting her picture taken, and we ourselves posed with a large ceramic sculpture of HaiBao, the mascot of the Shanghai World Expo that's opening next week. He kind of looks like Gumbi.

Back on the metro to Century Ave, a long avenue that stretches along all of the financial towers on the PuDong (which is west of where we were walking yesterday). We decided to splurge and bought tickets to go up to the observation deck on the Shanghai World Financial Center. Our tickets took us to the 97th floor first, where we took many many pictures of the city, and also where we watched window washers strap themselves into a bucket and get lowered over the side of the 492m building. Then we headed up to the 100th level, which had a glass floor that we could walk on and see the city below us. It was freaky and cool all at the same time.

After stopping for a snack at Costa Coffee, we headed back to the Puxi (poo-shi) side of the river. Jeff went home and Carrie and I headed south to brave the Fabric Market. This is a warehouse type building with three floors devoted to various merchants selling fabric and hand-made clothing. Anything you could imagine being hand-tailored, they were selling. We admired shirts, skirts, dresses, even underclothes. But I wanted a winter coat and so we wandered around to a few stalls before finding two women that were willing to make the coat design that I wanted at a reasonable price. The coat is a chocolate brown with a round collar and assymetrical buttons - very unique and fun for my first China purchase! I'll pick it up next week and will post pictures (assuming it fits).

Now Carrie and I are back home after another long day. She's making dinner and I'm lounging around. We might go on a way around the neighborhood later tonight for a late-night snack, or I may crash early - it's been a busy few days! Tomorrow I plan to head to a park and maybe a walking tour of the French Concession...a neighborhood that has retained its roots of French colonialism for the last few centuries. And I hope to upload some pictures soon too!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Day 3 - April 24 - whirlwind tourist Shanghai

Miracle of miracles, I slept the whole night through and woke feeling quite rested around 9am. Carrie and I both cleaned up and got ready for the day while Jeff was at a volleyball tournament. First, Carrie took me to their school's security office to register me as a guest at the school for the week. Then we walked through their neighborhood for an early morning treat of a baoza - a steamed dumpling type thing filled with tofu and greens. Delicious. Next we walked by some local shops and headed to a wet market, where locals sell fruits, vegetables, and seafood. Carrie and I walked the aisles and even received free cucumbers from one of the merchants she buys from often - quite a treat! From there we headed to the Trust Mart, the Chinese version of Wal-Mart. We got a milk tea from a local cafe, then bought a sim card for my cell phone so I can call Carrie and Jeff on days when they're working.

We headed back to the school to meet Jeff. We decided to head out again for lunch at a noodle shop around the corner from their campus. Carrie and I shared a noodle dish and watched them make the noodles right in front of us - very cool. From there we hopped on the metro and rode to People's square. We headed immediately to Nanjing Road and walked along this famous shopping street, stopping to watch a full choir and orchestra sing songs about the World Expo, which starts here in Shanghai on May 1. We bought ice cream cones as we walked toward the Bund, a stretch of road that parallels the Huang Pu river with classic and colonial style buildings. The sidewalk along the river was open after having been under construction the last few months, and since it was a gorgeous day there were tons of people out taking pictures of the skyline in PuDong, where all the tall skyscrapers are.

We walked along the riverwalk to Yuyuan, or Old Town. The streets are narrow and all the shops have roofs like pagodas. We walked through the famous tea house and stopped for another snack. From here we took a taxi to a neighborhood called Tai Kang Lu, another area with winding narrow streets and many unique shops. We had dinner in TaiKang Lu, including a local Chinese beer, Tsingtao.


From Tai Kang Lu we walked to Xintiandi street, which was another shopping district. We admired the fancier boutiques and people dressed for the evening, and stopped at a French patisserie for sweet snacks before catching a cab back to school. Public transportation is widespread and very cheap here, but the cabs are also very reasonable and since we had been walking all day we decided to splurge on the ride home.

Now we are settling in for the evening so we can be ready for another busy day tomorrow! I'll try to post some pictures soon. In the meantime you can check Carrie and Jeff's blog for updates: http://hsinchina.blogspot.com.

Days 1 & 2 - April 22 & 23 - travel to Shanghai!

3:10pm Thursday April 22nd - my trip to Shanghai has begun! I left the Minneapolis/St Paul airport at 3pm on a plane to Tokyo, Japan. I had a seat on the aisle and was lucky that there was no one in the middle seat. The woman who sat in the window seat in our row, Alyssa (or Alexis?) was very friendly and we talked while waiting for the delayed flight to finally get in the air. The flight was very uneventful - we watched four movies, ate three meals, and napped off and on during the thirteen hour flight.

Our plane landed in Tokyo 30 minutes late and Alyssa and I said goodbye hurriedly as she headed to her connecting flight to Hong Kong and I went to my gate to catch my connecting flight to Shanghai. We got another meal on this flight - dinner of noodles and veggies along with some sort of cake for dessert. Despite more turbulence on this flight everything went well and we landed in Shanghai about 10pm local time on Friday evening, April 23rd. (This is 9am Minnesota time.) I was worried about getting through customs (having my visa denied was a recurring dream in the weeks leading up to my vacation), but everything went well and I when I passed through the international gates, I saw my friends Carrie & Jeff waiting for me! It was a relief to see them and to know that the long travel was finally over.

We took a cab to their campus. Because it was late we went straight to their apartment. I am staying in the room next door to theirs - I have my own bedroom, living space and bathroom, which is very luxurious. I gave Carrie & Jeff the presents I brought for them - ibuprofen and batteries (which they had requested), and a pound of coffee and a bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Delicious! We all went to bed pretty soon after that. I unpacked my clothes into the dresser and settled into bed with a Shanghai travel book to read up on some of my "must sees" for the weekend...and promptly fell asleep! I was so tired from travel I slept the whole night - it was perfect. Tomorrow: see Shanghai as a tourist!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Getting ready

I'm headed to China! Good friends Carrie and Jeff Henning-Smith are spending the year in Shanghai and I decided to take the plunge and visit for two weeks. I'm spending most of my time in Shanghai, but we're planning a side trip to Beijing and potentially some day trips by train.

I'm not sure how often I'll have time to post, but I hope to keep updated on my adventures on this blog, and will eventually sift through all the pictures I'll take on my trip, and post the best of those on my Photo of the Day blog.

Carrie & Jeff are pretty good about posting to their blog, too, so you can always check out what we've been up to over there: http://hsinchina.blogspot.com/.

I've been making lists for weeks, and now it's less than a day until I leave and I'm still not packed. Luckily I have everything I need (and probably way more than I need) laid out on my bed, ready for my trip! T-minus 21 hours until departure!