Kafil and I have recently returned from our week in Shanghai. We went to Shanghai to meet with friends Brad and Janine who were both keen to spend some time in mainland China.
Kafil & I really enjoy the opportunity to holiday with friends, so if in the next 2 years you are contemplating a holiday at this end of the world, we would love to catch up with you!! (somewhere in Asia).
Shanghai is about 7 hours flight from Singapore via KL for us to use a budget airline the furthest we have ventured since arriving in Singapore.
Shanghai is a veritable thriving metropolis we were shocked at the modernity of the city as it continues to reconstruct itself with the goal of Expo 2010 in mind. The mascot of Expo was a strange blue creature, which reminded me of a small limbed Gumby type figure. (We were able to resist the constant pleas to buy this ugly memento).
Approximately 14 million people reside in this huge city and the masses of roads and bridges used to connect the city and suburbs to each other was evidence of engineering marvels.
Kafil and I were keen to explore the older part of Shanghai and spent several days exploring the remnants of architecture that remain from the early 1920’s. this ranged from sprawling laneways of group housing which incorporated group courtyards and share bathrooms. Contrasting with the European style art deco places heavily influenced by French and Spanish buildings of the time.
We went to the very well set up Shanghai Museum which is a spectacular circular building with displays of Chinese art such as bronzes, ceramics,
Chinese seals and beautiful hand painted on silk delicate traditional paintings. The Museum was situated in the midst of a park where beggars pounced on us for small change when we emerged from the Museum.
We explored the market areas around Yuan Gardens which though largely new was a replica of the Asian style architecture of old. Janine Kafil and I enjoyed dim sum lunch at one of oldest and most popular dumpling eateries. We went to a tea ceremony and were enchanted by the rituals and serenity of the ceremony. I was especially impressed with the Jasmine tea, which is made with a large pod, which went immersed in water in a glass teapot emerges as a beautiful floral blossom. Janine and Kafil preferred the smoky taste of the Oolong Tea.
We took a cab out to …Xibo…which is an area where canals and picturesque bridges wound there way around some traditional Tea Houses and buildings. We went midweek, on a very wet day and were happy not be amongst the tourist throngs.
Shanghai appeared to have many visitors and tourists, mostly who were from Asia, and there were not so many westerners unless you were at the shopping enclave of Nanjing road. Nanjing Road is a mall which has hoards of peddlers, trying to lure you to buy “designer watches and handbags”. I was a little disappointed that most of the shops were those you would come across in any major city hoards of expensive designer gear and very little interesting or unique shopping to be had.
I was very impressed at the cleanliness of Shanghai, the streets were constantly being swept by employees of the city. However the smog was incredible and a dense grey cloud enveloped the city most of the time.
We ate loads of Chinese food which while unlike Chinese in the West was tasty and delicious. We favoured the Szechuan flavourings where chillies' are presented plentifully as vegetables. I loved having dumplings, there is something about the delicate flavours of dim sum which I really enjoy.
Kafil and I went to the Pearl tower at Pudong a space age tower which had loads of visitors even quite early in the morning. The views were impressive and we specially enjoyed the viewing platform with the see through floor so you could look down and across at the myriad of skyscrapers which dominate the landscape.The skyline of Shanghai was the surprise a myriad of impressive modern tower buildings with quirky sci fi features set on top. We named a few of the buildings ourselves and the names included. The Jetson building, the pineapple the bottle opener, take a look at our photos and see which was which.
At the bottom of the Pearl Tower was an extensive museum which was home to many room size replicas of life in Shanghai prior to Communism.This museum of history had wax figures portraying trades and work skills from times gone by. It also had a extensive array of photos of Shanghai prior to modernisation.
The city has a fabulous transport system which was very easy to use, Oh Melbourne you could learn so much from the rail systems available on this side of the world. Despite the huge populations the efficiency of the Metro system was fabulous, and much quicker than using taxis on the very crowded and congested motorways. We loved getting the Maglev from the airport into town a super modern Carriage which uses magnets instead of tracks and reaches a blistering 300 kilometres an hour, and you don’t feel any bumps at all.
I was very impressed with the small slice of China we saw and would be happy to return to another place “somewhere in China” at a later date.
