Little Adventures in Big China

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Day Three: Shanghai to Xian

(We're having some problems with the uploads and formatting...stay tuned for more!)

a.k.a. Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Bikes

We were up at the crack of dawn this morning to head to Xian. We took the MagLev train to the airport. We were on the first train of the morning, and they don't run quite as fast at that time. We only got up to around 300 km/hour (or 180-ish mph). It was a smooth ride and we rolled into the airport in about 8 minutes. The flight to Xian took about 2 hours and then there was another 1 hour bus ride.

We had lunch at Xian's famous dumpling restaurant. Our favorite dish, yet again, was the lotus root. Although the local beer on draught wasn't too bad, either!

Then we walked to the South Gate of Xian. The wall that was built to surround and protect the city still stands today. We rented bikes and took the 14 km route all the way around the wall. It was really interesting to see the city from above and also to see how it had grown outside of its boundaries.

After the long bike ride, we were quite tired and decided to take it easy. We went to the Muslim street market for dinner and had some traditional dishes. Our favorite was a beef noodle soup with pieces of bagel-like bread torn up in it and served with a side of chili sauce and pickled garlic. It was so yummy that we forgot to take a picture! We also found some nice sweets and enjoyed them back in the room, along with a Tsingtao beer from the mini-bar. Good times!

Next Stop: Terra Cotta Warriors

Anne & Juergen

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Day Two: Suzhou and Shanghai

On Monday morning, we were able to walk Paul to the school bus. They live in a rather large ex-pat community and it was interesting to see all of the foreigners in China. The community seems to be very closely knit and has a strong social back-bone of its residents - one lady asked us if we had just moved into the compound.

Shanghai is polluted, congested and noisy, but wonderful!

Frank and Cathy's driver brought us back into the city. We checked in at the Grand Hyatt Shanghai. The hotel occupies the 53rd - 87th floors of the Jin Mao Tower and is touted as the highest hotel in the world. Below are photos of the tower, the atrium and the view from our room.

By the time we were all settled and ready to go, it was about noon. We walked to the nearest Metro (Subway) station. Buying the tickets was easier than we expected; it only took two attempts to figure out the vending machine.

Our one-stop ride brought us from Pudong to the Bund. We exited the station onto a large pedestrian zone and started a walking tour recommended by our Lonely Planet Guidebook. It focused on the art-deco style architecture in the area. However, it was the time of the day where lunch was creeping up on the interest scale. After a couple of turns, we ran into a row of restaurants - some with McDonald's style picture menus (but with Chinese writing), some with purely Chinese signs, and some just like little stalls and carts at the corner. A place called "Shanghai Grandmother Restaurant" looked like a good choice to ease into Chinese dining, and they did have a menu in English. We ordered a couple of Shanghai style appetizers - Shanghai chicken, pork ribs, lotus root marinated in honey, and cucumber salad with chili sauce. Two soups rounded out the spread. The lotus root was extremely delicious, and the other choices were pretty yummy too. The spicy and sour soup was more complex in flavor than your typical US chinese restaurant hot and sour soup.

Once we continued our walk further south into the "Old Town" part, things got significantly more what we expected China to look like. There was also a large market catering mostly to tourists, which gave us a great opportunity to shop for some first nick-knacks. Our stroll continued through a food market offering vegetables, fish, seafood, chicken, and poultry - the latter four in all stages from alive to dried or cooked.

A couple of blocks further we had a to cross a crazy intersection with at least three layers of road and pedestrian bridges. On the other side was a large green oasis called the People's Square. It is a large park area with a number of museums: Shanghai Museum, Art Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai. We opted for our true passion, the contemporary art. Much to Juergen's delight, the exhibition on display (which took up the entire museum) was a tribute to Salvatore Ferragamo. As Juergen said, "A whole bunch of shoes on display and they ask you to pay to see them?" Anne was thrilled.

A quick look into the guide-book showed us that we were fairly close to the Wujang Street evening food market. Passing Porsche, Mercedes, Ferrari, and Maserati dealerships, we dove into the food stalls.

Things looked pretty clean overall, and we used lines as indicators for the better picks. Ordering was still a bit of a challenge, but using fingers to count and point combined with hand-motions to form plates and bowls, we did pretty well. Our first stop was a soup dumpling place. About a half dozen people were kneading dough, cutting it into small pieces, stretching it, filling it with minced meat, and placing the dumplings directly into a hot pan. As the filling cooked, part of it liquified, forming steaming soup inside the dumpling. We learned through gestures from fellow diners that you poke a small whole into the top of the skin, pick up the dumpling with your chop sticks, and suck out the soup, before eating the steaming dumpling.

Additional stops included stinky tofu, a stall that was very easy to find, and some pastries to round out the meal.

Oh. And if you ever hear of an energy crisis in China, just refer back to these photos from East Nanjing Road (in the Bund) and the banks of the Wasong River at night:

Nest Stop: Xian

Anne & Juergen

Day One: Shanghai and Suzhou

Ni hao!

The flight to Shanghai did take the full 16 hours. But it actually went by quickly. We both watched one movie, ate three meals and slept a lot! I did sneak in a few episodes of 30 Rock and Entourage while Juergen slept.

Here we are, right before landing in Shanghai:

The Shanghai Airport was amazingly easy to navigate. We sped through customs and immigration and had our bags within 30 minutes. Frank and Cathy, Juergen's brother and sister-in-law, sent their driver for us. With the crazy traffic, it was an 2 hour drive to their house in Suzhou.

I met Frank when he came to our wedding in November, but I had never met Cathy and their son, Paul. It was so nice to see them in person, rather than in pictures and on Skype! Juergen brought a game for Paul and we all had a hoot playing Hullabaloo.