New Years in Shanghai

新年快乐！Happy New Year!

I spent my New Years weekend in Shanghai with my friend Max, who is interning at a law firm translating documents and such.  Getting to the city was annoying because not only was my plane 20 minutes delayed leaving from Qingdao because of a late arrival, but the Maglev was broken, so I had to take an airport bus into the city.  Fortunately, I was sitting next to a very nice Chinese man who helped me to figure out which subway stop to take to meet Max for Japanese teppanyaki courtesy of his German roommate, Daniel, and his parents.

Then we went to drop my stuff off and by the time we managed to catch a cab (it was a serious debacle trying to get one and I actually shoved my way into a cab before another guy could), it was about 11:30 PM.  We headed to Kangaroo Bar, grabbed a quick drink and were surrounded by fire torches at the stroke of midnight!

The Modern Shanghai

The next morning I wanted to go to The Bund, but it was closed for renovations for the Shanghai Expo.  I'm still pissed I didn't get to stroll on the famous Bund, which was the only 'must-do' in Shanghai for me.  The expo has seriously taken over the city, with pictures of the little Expo mascot (which looks like a mini-Gumby), countdown clocks, and slogans everywhere.  It's just as crazy as Beijing was about the Olympics.

We walked around on East Nanjing Road, a kind of giant pedestrian mall swarming with tourists and huge billboards.  There was a huge Sephora, Zara, and a huge Nike store with Kobe Bryant on it.

After much wandering around the area, avoiding construction sites and swarming Jan1st tourist mobs, I finally got to take a nice photo in front of the famous Shanghai/Pudong skyline!

Amidst all the development, large malls, and skyscrapers, I was amazed by Shanghai's assortment of public parks.  There are many "little" parks in the downtown area, some complete with little lakes, paddle boats and bumper cars for kids, squares for public ballroom dancing, and places to sit.

And that's about when I concluded that there was nothing that hadn't been run over by hyper-development... so the search for the "real" Shanghai began.

We went to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Museum in his old house in the French Concession.  I have a lot of respect and love for the man and think he did some really amazing things when he was President of the Republic, including being fluent in English and traveling around the world.  The house was really cool and I totally nerd-ed out looking at old photos and artifacts. 

That evening, we went out to get Korean BBQ with the Germans.  Max and I were really tired from walking around the city all day, so we tried to make it a chill night and go out to a jazz club.  We ended up being too early for the show, so we went back to Kangaroo Bar for a drink or two, and ended up leaving four hours later.  Chinese people are awesome.

In Search of Old Shanghai

The next morning, we headed out to Jade Buddha Temple which houses this GIANT statue of Buddha made out of a single chunk of jade.  It was really neat and the temple was also pretty active.

 

(Not the Jade Buddha.  No pictures allowed in that hall.)

After this, we wandered into a neighborhood not far from People's Square where people (a) didn't live in high rise buildings and (b) weren't surrounded by Western stores.  I love taking pictures of the vendors and stores here and would have taken a picture of every single one if I could. 

 

We also wandered into a pretty cool Daoist temple nearby, which had a ceremony of sorts and some really awesome statues.

 

I find East Asian religions fascinating and always feel a little sacrilegious (read: Catholic guilt) when I take photos in temples.  They are just so intricate and interesting to me that I can't help but take pictures!

Where is Shanghai?

I realize I'm being a huge China snob when I start separating what is "real" and "fake" Shanghai.  But what makes Shanghai, well, Shanghai?  Is it the skyscrapers or is it the old buildings that are being razed to make room for the high-rise buildings?  Or even the Shanghainese feeling that they are superior to the rest of the Chinese?  Maybe it's because I came to appreciate China in Beijing, but Shanghai is just so unlike what I know that it baffles me. 

So that's my "little" post about Shanghai.  I've been really busy this week because it is exam week and I have to grade 500 students!  Next post: Spring Vacation

Nanjing Weekend

This past weekend I went to Nanjing with my friends Charlie and Max.  It was a blast and such a well-needed break from teaching and Qingdao.  I miss having the university-age expat populations that Nanjing and Beijing have to offer.  The guys are applying to the Johns Hopkins- Nanjing program and had to sit for their Chinese proficiency exam on Friday so I tagged along for weekendfuntimes.

Charlie and I got in on Thursday after much "air traffic" delays for both of us.  When I waited for him I also saw a real dog in the airport -- a golden retriever from Australia with his German daddy!  I miss real dogs and get very excited when I see a dog that is not a pekinese or some sort of small drop-kick dog.  Then we checked into our hostel and had a really yummy italian dinner, complete with salad, bread, and of course, Qingdao beer.  Max got in later that night and after a reunion drink, we turned in for an eventful Friday.

We went to eat some yummy Korean food and then grabbed a cup of coffee before I left them to study for the test.  Then I headed out with my new buddy, Ryan, who was staying in our dorm room in the hostel and had my bottom bunk.  He had done a semester studying Chinese at Nanjing University so was a great buddy to run around the city with for the weekend.

First we went to Jiming Temple in the northeast portion of the city.

It was really neat and the view from the top of the pagoda was really outstanding.  The thing that always amazes me about China is how you will see an ancient temple right next to a huge skyscraper and surrounded by cars, bikes, and people that forget how amazing it all is. 

Then we went to the Ming City Wall which was also amazing!  The wall has survived 600 years and many wars and invasions.  I love seeing city walls because they are just so massive and contain so much history and culture.  The wall is the longest city wall in China and is still intact, although does not join in all the places it used to.

The bricks that make up the wall are actually fired clay and are surprisingly light and can be picked up.  They also have characters etched into both sides -- one indicating the company that made the brick, the other side the name of the person who made the brick.  If the wall crumbled or fell, whoever/the company who made the brick would be held accountable and executed.  Now that's quality control!

The wall also has lots of roots and even grows grass at the top, something I hadn't seen at the Xian wall.  They apparently have to mow it every so often and the last time Ryan climbed the wall, he said it was past his knees.

After wandering around on the top of the wall and walking near Xuanwu lake, I headed back to the hostel to meet up with Charlie and Max to have some celebratory drinks.   Then we met up with our friend Nate's girlfriend's friend and little sister for dinner at a traditional Nanjing-style restaurant in the heart of town.  It was really delicious and we had some great food, including an excellent fried fish, shrimp and my first real 臭豆腐, or stinky tofu.  We also consumed copious amounts of Qingdao beer and had a very, very funny night. 

After dinner we headed out to Castle bar to meet up with Ryan and his friends from Nanjing University who had just ended their final exams.  There were a ton of students, both from the Johns Hopkins program and from the main Nanjing programs.  It was fun to be with college and post-college kids that were doing the whole abroad thing again.

The next day we emerged from the hostel and went to the Nanjing Massacre Museum.  It is a huge complex and an interesting museum, albeit kind of boring just because of how the Chinese design their museums.  The Nanjing Massacre was when the Japanese invaded the city and killed approximately 300,000 Chinese men, women and children in six weeks in 1937.

 I just find it a shame that in America our World War II history is so Europe-centric that many are unaware of the atrocities that occurred in Asia.  There are even still problems as a result of the Japanese invasions as there are problems in Europe because of the Nazis.

So after this uplifting afternoon, we came back to eat dinner and hang out with some new friends we had met at the hostel for dinner and night out.  Overall, it was a great weekend with some good new friends and great old friends that definitely contribute to my happiness in China.

(post to be continued...)