Second trip - Day 11 - Old Shanghai

Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 12:15 AM

Subject: Asia 2007 - Day 11 

I feel better this morning.  No more chills, headache is gone as well.  I still have some congestion and a slight cough, but it seems the worst of the illness is behind me.  My stomach feels much better too, no more after effects from the noodle shop.  The hotel is quite nice; very large with a decent breakfast buffet and automatic coffee machines – the kind that grinds the beans and brews espresso style at the touch of a button.  I ate very little though, not really hungry. 

Larry and his family picked me up at 9:30 in the lobby.  Larry’s wife is very pretty, around 30, and speaks no English.  As a result, she has no English name.  Her Chinese name is pronounced xu-sha-wu (the first syllable requires you to make a sound like you are coughing up a hair ball - good luck with this).  Their daughter and only child is absolutely adorable.  She is 5, loves to sing and dance, and became my buddy instantly.  Her English name is Hahhan.  Larry has taught her a few words of English, which she enjoyed practicing on me.

We drove in Larry’s car, a Buick which was built in China from a Korean design, to what is the oldest surviving area of Shanghai.  The buildings are around 300 years old.  Like much of Shanghai, there are canals running all through the neighborhood, which gives the area the look of a tiny Venice.  It is a big tourist destination, but very few westerners were there.  It is still a real residential and commercial area, not just a tourist trap.  It was very interesting.  Larry bought me a couple of local foods to try.  The first is a bit hard to describe; it was like something between taffy and bread dough – fine sweet strands that are pulled like taffy and coated in rice flour.  This is formed into a small ball about the size of an apricot with some diced peanuts and some small unidentified black things in the center.  It is messy to eat but very addictive, I had two.  Next was a Shanghai specialty, a small piece or pork wrapped in a palm leaf and slow cooked in a sweet, dark syrup for 3 days – very good as well.  We wandered this neighborhood for a couple of hours during which, Hanna was holding my hand most of the time.   We stopped at a coffee shop for lunch, although I was the only one who drank coffee.  Larry described the food as “Chinese food, American style”.  I believe this meant because we each ordered our own dishes rather than being served family-style. 



Old Shanghai



We later drove to another area of Shanghai for some shopping.  I bought some tea to bring home and a couple of gifts.  While walking around in this area, mostly newer high-rises I ran across an old Catholic church. 

It was evening now and time for dinner.  Larry drove us to another area to, as he described it, a “famous seafood restaurant” in an old converted train station.  The restaurant was huge, hundreds of diners.  We had to park Larry’s car on the sidewalk across the street.  Shanghai was built with bicycles and busses in mind, parking is a big problem.  I have been in some really good seafood restaurants before, but this was a whole new experience.  Everything we ate, with the exception of one deep-water fish which could not survive in a shallow tank, was swimming or crawling moments before we ate it.  The fish, shrimp, and lobster were all individually picked by us (including Hanna – she had great fun playing with the shrimp) and were taken away for cleaning and preparation.  There were dozens of large tanks with a tremendous variety of fish and shellfish, and not a hint of a fishy odor.  We ate all of this, plus some mushrooms (not sure what kind, but very good), rice, some very thick but clear fish soup, braised beef with noodles, and chicken backs sliced with the bone in (of course).  I have no idea what happens to all of the good cuts of meat in China, all I see are wings, backs, and of course, knees (Yes Uncle Jack, I know it probably isn’t really chicken). 

A note about dining in China – about half of all men here smoke, and a few women as well.  All restaurants outside of hotels, in my experience anyhow, do not have separate non-smoking sections.  As a result, the place looks and feels like the inside of a tavern by the time dinner is over.  This is not helping the cough and sinus issues.  Nonetheless, I had great fun.  Hannah danced in the large aisle next to our table much of the time, no one seemed to mind.  Chinese children run free – their parents aren’t so lucky.

I got to see a lot more of Shanghai today.  My last trip, all I saw was the modern, neon, vertical face you see on postcards and in travel brochures.  Today I saw much more of the neighborhoods.  I enjoyed seeing this side of the city.  Skyscrapers are skyscrapers; one ego trying to top another.  Stand in lower Manhattan, South La Salle Street, or along the Bund in Shanghai and much of what you see is more of the same.  But a neighborhood in Shanghai looks nothing like one in Hong Kong, or Queens or Oak Park, or Merriam Park  Everything is a bit different; the houses, the people, the signs, the food, trees, everything.  If it weren’t for these differences, there would be no point in traveling at all.  This is why suburbs in America are such dead places.  All strip malls, Best Buys, and Applebee’s – boring and lifeless.

This was a great day.  Tomorrow Larry is driving me to Wuxi, an industrial city about 70 miles inland from Shanghai.