But wait, there's more! (Marcus)

I always feel that when I come home from a place like Shanghai, I want to write pages and pages about it so I can remember it. When I think about it as I bang it out on the keyboard, more things come to me, little things that I don’t want to forget.

For example, along the Bund, all the buildings are 1920’s European. We initially walked down along the river itself, which was a nonstop parade of every conceivable type of watercraft(including floating billboards), then walked down in behind the buildings. Our first goal was lunch and we had a great Chinese meal in a place called Grandmothers Restaurant. Now I don’t know what this place is, but I’ve heard about it SOMEwhere, but damned if I can remember where. I read a fair bit of travel literature on China before coming here so I think it might have been in one. Anyhow..

We left the restaurant and walked along the street towards one of the main shopping roads, Nanjing Road. Nanjing is the name of the capital of our province, Jiangsu province. Shanghai is beside Jiangsu but isn’t actually a part of it. Shanghai is Shanghai. The street behind the Bund was the rear’s of the buildings fronting the river and not as interesting obviously as their fronts, but what struck me as super interesting was the fact that the whole area now, with old buildings on both sides of us was practically like walking through parts of Melbourne. If you squinted and blocked out the fact there were 100% Chinese people you could forget you were in China and pretend you were back home – though that little illusion was ripped clear with the blasting of the ships horns a few hundred metres away.

As Courtney said, the English language that’s present in Shanghai is hard to re-adjust to. When we sat in Grandmothers restaurant, it didn’t even occur to me initially that the menu was completely in English as well as Chinese. I was flicking through the pages reading the dishes and it didn’t occur to me how damned easy this was. All the taxi’s had a little audio greeting in Chinese and then in English. We have become so completely used to absolutely no English – or at least the bare minimum, that when we see it now, it doesn’t even register initially. Shanghai is a huge international city, Wuxi is not. Moreso, the district we live in in Wuxi is like the sticks compared to anything located in Shanghai. Where we are is practically local – in fact, one female teacher here called this area ‘the country.’ Some days it really does feel like it’s the sticks. None moreso than when you return from a place the size of Shanghai and look out the window at the what is now just a boring view of rows of high rise apartments.

So as Courtney mentioned we made a specific effort to get up very early..5:30, and head down to the Bund to experience it. We had to do it, at least once. I am really glad we did, though I was absolutely tired as hell and my neck was giving me a nasty headache. We didn’t bring the damned panadol either, so that was fun. The Bund was a different place in the morning. It was a misty(China mist: smog)morning and sunny, shedding a beautiful – actually peaceful light on everything. As expected, the Chinese were out doing Tai Chi. This is what we came to see. They were mostly concentrated around the area where the monument to the People’s heroes was. On our way to the Bund(roughly a 10-15 min walk), we could see oldies of various description heading in the same direction. As they walked they were banging their hands on their thighs, using those ball things in their hands(ben wa balls?) and various other activities. Movement seems to be a huge part of Chinese culture. It is not uncommon to see someone standing beside a tree and slapping it – getting movement into their arms. People walking backwards achieves the same goal. You see all manner of exercises, aimed at getting that rascally chi moving.

It was quite windy on the Bund, yet pleasant. Further along the main stretch were the early morning kite enthusiasts. I really like watching these guys. They seem to just simply enjoy putting a kite in the sky and letting it fly in place – I guess there’s a deeper method to it, but to me it’s similar to that peaceful relaxation that having a fishing line in a river can bring to people. There were kites of all descriptions and I think my favourite was a single kite divided into two smaller kites that resembled birds. They fluttered around in the breeze and if you didn’t see the other kites, would swear they were a pair of birds just riding the breeze. We sat down for a while just watching the world go by(and because I felt so tired and headachey it was making me feel a bit sick). Naturally as it got deeper into the morning, we got to see the first arrival of the first hawkers. Along would come some random man, plonk down his garbage bag, then out came a spinning top and he’d start spinning it enthusiastically.

Oh of course there were also people selling kites themselves – remember I said they were situational sellers? Well if there’s real kite flyers out, there’s the kite hawkers with them. These were around 20 tiny kites linked together, the most popular being stamped with the Olympic mascots. Of course we had every one of these try and catch our interest. One guy cracked me up. The first time we rejected him – he came back a short while later and had pulled out a different kite design. I could almost see his brain ticking away…hmm maybe this design, maybe this is the one they want. So over he comes with a big cheesy smile, ‘How about this one? You like? It’s very nice.” Nope we say, and give him our best PISS OFF smiles in return.

So we had our haircuts(as Courtney mentioned) and they were cheap and completely fine. The salon was very modern and extremely busy. The name of the place was Benson’s Hair Salon and Benson himself cut my hair. A guy named Sam, the director of the place(creative director I think) cut Courtney’s. They gave our hair a wash, gave us a head massage(they being the other workers, not the top gun hairdressers), then we sat down to have the cuts. Afterwards, they gave my hair another rinse to get the small hairs out(Christ they don’t even do that at home!), then waxed it up and it was out the door – mine only costing around 15 bucks AU, and I dare say a much better haircut to boot! That at least puts our mind to rest. If you could see some of the haircuts the young Chinese think to be fashionable – particularly the Chinese hairdressers, you would understand our concern at getting this done. It’s like finding a local dentist here – you just don’t want to be doing this kind of thing in China – I mean, going to a Chinese dentist? Sounds like a horror story – and potentially is if the quality of the hospital I was put in when I got food poisoning was any indication of local health standards – BUT we also know of a good western looking dentist, right around the corner from where we live also – so we have those nasty baskets covered.

So I think the whole theme of this mini-shanghai visit was to enjoy the Bund and the view surrounding it. The view was absolutely incredible and neither the photos or the little videos we took do it justice. Next time we want to again stay near the French quarter so we can explore it a little better, or at least somewhere in the thick of one of the busy shopping districts. The only drawback to where we did stay was it was a little ways away from these type of areas. For the Bund and the view though – and of course the old-style street beside the hotel, it was perfect. I think we’ll definitely stay there again, it’s too cheap not to. I think a weekend trip there with Abby and Matt would be a winner.

One last thing about where we stayed this time opposed to where we stayed when we came to visit Barb (near Fuxing Park) – the feel of the city was _completely_ different. It’s hard to explain but the French concession had a totally different atmosphere to the..I don’t know what you would even call it, the ‘North of the Bund’ area we were. Both definitely had their own charms. I would like to explore the city even further though I think the only place that looks average is the Pudong area. Pudong was supposedly farmland some 20-30 years ago. It’s now where the huge and iconic Pearl tower is – right on the river. It is basically a brand new chunk of modern looking city, and a favoured place for expats to live as a result. It’s also in my opinion, completely lacking in character(including the Pearl tower) and I just have no interest in going over there. We WILL at some stage be going up the Pearl tower, but this weekend the views we discovered were more than enough, going up a bit higher again really wouldn’t have had the same impact.

Sorry for the essay, adieu! - well and onto the proverbial photo gallery:

Proof that I was in a really cool place.

And Courtney also.

Our bed in relation to Super Cool View(tm). It's a pity all the main lights go out at 10pm because when they do, it's like going from holy christ it's sci-fi city, to oh, it looks like Melbourne now.

Some of the European buildings along the Bund. Note the Chinese flags all over them. It's classic East meets West, and oh so communist. I bet someone somewhere really digs the fact those flags are on those buildings. It's like payback for all those opium war shenanigans.

And proof of Courtney getting her haircut in Shanghai. How rich does that sound? In 60 years time, when she's reclining in a chair with a chardie, she can tell the grandkids, "Oh yes, that was me getting my hair cut in Shanghai." I have to admit I was kinda impressed by the whole roll and blow dry thing going on over there.

Looking over towards the Pudong district from the Bund; bathed in the beautiful light of around 6am. The Pudong was supposedly just farmland a good 20-30 years ago. If you click on the larger version, take a close look at the building third from right. It's still under construction but it's quite an amazing design. It's a combination of a classic building shape kind of emerging from the preferred straight/futuristic design which most buildings are. Shanghai has some absolutely awesomely designed buildings, it's probably the highlight in my opinion.

The European buildings look amazing when fully lit up.

A bride and groom walking to the Bund for some photographs. Of course the bride has trackie dacks and sneakers on under her dress; wouldn't be China if she didn't. She can't take all the credit though, the groom's suit was..questionable.

And yes we finally went to bloody Yu Yuan gardens, are you happy now mum?! The zigzagging bridge to the teahouse in the middle was so serene. We stopped there to contemplate life for a short while; just us and 50 gazillion other people.

Finally, finally I had a camera on hand when witnessing the glory of fully grown adults wearing their pajama's in the street in the middle of the afternoon. Don't you dare think for a second these are some kind of Chinese traditional costume - these are Target style pj's. Please do yourself a favour and click on the image to see it at it's original size and appreciate the Hello Kitty design on the woman.

And last but not least, a mother helping her two children to piss onto the street. The older child has been taught what to do and goes to work whilst the younger one still requires aiming assistance. When we say China is feeling more normal by the day, passing this kind of scene and not really batting an eyelid is what we mean - though that being said, the pleasant smell of piss puddles just never gets old.