Free Day in Shanghai
I awoke this morning to a “fantastic” weather day (according to Tucker) in Shanghai. It was low 70’s and some sunshine, which was a welcome change from the rain. I still can’t get over the breakfast buffet selection, but seeing as I was still full from the night before, I kept it light.
George met us at the hotel at 10 am, and we hopped on the subway to Yuyuan Gardens, which was our first stop of the day. Being a Saturday morning, (and because it’s also the largest city in the world!), the shopping area was crazy congested. Bikes, scooters, taxis, zooming by, people crammed in against you. I couldn’t help but to smile – it’s certainly an experience! Normally having people jostling all around you has you concerned about your personal safety, but it’s the norm here, and in all honesty, I feel safer here than I do in some parts of Charlotte. (Disclaimer: I do keep my passport and wallet and phone/camera in the inner compartment of my backpack, with the zipper immediately on my back, so all a potential thief would be able to access is my rainjacket and bottle of water).
Yuyuan gardens is made up of a shopping area, as well as a historic wealthy family home from the Ming Dynasty. The shops were totally overwhelming and busting at the seams with stuff. Many shopkeepers has very well-rehearsed lines to attempt to sell you a watch, string of pearls, you name it. They are persistent, but a hand wave and “no thanks” usually does the trick. Traveling with George made it much easier; as a local, he helped deflect much of the hawking, but it certainly it really is comical. The historical gardens/home complex was really amazing. It’s hard to wrap your mind around thousands of years of history!
After Yuyuan, we had lunch at a Taiwainese place that was really delicious. We had a mini wok with broccoli and bacon (complete with flame lit underneath), fried green beans, “boiling fish” (one of my favorite dishes so far), roast duck, (George passed on ordering pigeon and frog meat), a shrimp roll in a rice wrapper (kind like sushi but not), and crab dumplings. For fear of this sounding like a food blog, I’ll admit that I was a bit nervous about the food situation, but have been absolutely blown away by how fresh and flavorful the food is!!! I’m afraid that I’ll pack on the pounds if I keep eating this way, but there’s very little in the way of sugar or carbs, so I’m going to tell myself this is the Atkins diet ;^) Heck, I’ll take every opportunity I get when I’m here to have amazing food and deal with the consequences when I get home =) I won’t, however (although I guess it’s responsible for the good flavor), miss the pepper kernels that when you accidentally bite into one, turns your lips numb for 15 minutes!
Tucker called during lunch and we made plans to meet up at the Shanghai TV Tower (aka the “Oriental Pearl”), one of the most iconic sights in the immense Shanghai skyline. Tickets weren’t cheap and there was an awful lot of waiting, but the views were worth it. You really can’t appreciate how ming-bogglingly large Shanghai is until you’ve seen it from above. 360 degree views and as far as the eye can see, nothing but skyscrapers, and apartment buildings (it was a clear day too!). (The air quality is not as bad as I had mentally prepared for. My eyes and sinuses were bothering me a bit by the end of the day, but nothing serious.) Interesting side note, we had to pass through metal detectors before going up, but apparently setting of said metal detector isn’t enough for them to stop you from passing right through ;^) Oh well… My favorite part was the skywalk, where you could peer through the glass floor, 1500 feet straight to the ground. It was a bit disorienting, actually. We also saw what will be the tallest building in the Shanghai skyline under construction, with its cranes towering above the clouds. Truly breathtaking!
From there, we made our way to the Bund (waterfront walk with nice city views) to check out the skyline all lit up (not everything was totally lit up yet), but there was a megaton of people (compared to a mere ton elsewhere), so we turned around and headed down East Nanjing Road, which is the main shopping drag in town. The lights and stores and people watching felt almost Times Square-esque.
Tucker and George collaborated on dinner and we went to Tucker’s favorite hot pot place. We had to wait about 30 minutes to get a table and during this time, they give you a table to sit at with games and snacks (popcorn, chips/crackers, watermelon, and tea)…what a nice change from waiting for a US table! I also got to experience my first non-western toilet. You’ll know it when you see the picture! George and Tucker ordered a ton of food. We had a tomato broth and spicy broth pot that they set down in the middle of the table and turn on a burner, so it’s boiling vigorously. They then bring out all your meat and vegetables and you proceed to cook them right there in front of you. (I guess the closest thing you could equate this to is hibachi and fondue). We had thinly sliced beef, lamb, two kinds of shrimp, fish, crab rolls, ice tofu (almost bread like and takes on the taste of the broth wonderfully!), lotus root, mushrooms, lettuce greens and these corn desserts. I struggled with the larger chopsticks used to reach into the pot, but thankfully ladles are common too in order to fish out goodies you may have forgotten about in the bottom of the pot (kind of like finding $5 in your pocket that you forgot about!) Noodles are also part of the meal and a guy came around and did a ribbon dancer routine to stretch out the noodle that goes in your pot. I have a video – highly entertaining! The service there was great – it makes you feel guilty that there’s no tipping. We had hot wash clothes brought out to us three times during the meal to “freshen up” and within about 10 seconds of me loosing a chopstick on the floor, new ones were brought to me with a smile. George and Tucker talked Chinese to one another, which was really cool to see! It’s an incredibly difficult language; mad props to him for being able to carry on conversation with the locals!
We hopped a cab back to the hotel, and Tucker was kind enough to take my spare suitcase back to his apartment (half filled with dirty clothes, half with goodies from America for him), so I could travel a bit lighter to Guilin. He also managed to install a VPN on my phone that will allow to me access the otherwise blocked Google applications on my phone while here in China. Tomorrow, I’m off to Guilin!
Off to Guilin
Today was an early start; I woke up on my own at 5am, had a quick breakfast at 6am with Mike and then grabbed a cab to the “smaller” airport in Shanghai. Airport security and check-in is a bit of a different process in China. First you show them your passport and you magically get a boarding pass. If you’re the lucky winner of a bag screening, they take you into a side room and search your bag, but unlike the TSA, they actually allow you to assist in the unpacking of your bag and are generally pretty careful with your belongings. You then get wanded for bomb residue and they hold you in an area until the scanner clears you. You put your carry-on’s through the x-ray and you go through the metal detector. From there you get wanded and frisked again, and turns out they don’t like large tubes of sunscreen in you bag (oh well, let’s hope I don’t get burned in Guilin).
We made it to the gate and I had a couple of little Japanese girls oogle my blonde hair and wave and giggle at me. It’s a strange feeling to be a “minority”, but I certainly don’t mind stares from little kids. We boarded a bus to the airplane and then the mad dash to the airplane steps began. I watched someone trip in the dash (take that, boarding zones). We boarded and were told there was a delay with air traffic control. They proceed to serve you a meal and drinks, which came as a surprise to me, since it’s a 2.5 hr domestic flight.
The flight was fairly smooth, with the exception of a disturbingly rough landing in Guilin. The IR driver met us at the airport and took us to our hotel, the Sheraton in Guilin. Guilin is like a lush tropical jungle compared to the concrete jungle of Shanghai.
Mike took me to Elephant Hill Park, across the street from the hotel, which is a famous rock formation that if you use your right brain enough, I guess you could say is an elephant. We climbed the steps atop the rock formation and looked at the other rock formations out in the distance as well as the river boats transporting passengers along the river below. (I’ll hopefully get to go on a river boat cruise later in the week.) There were many Chinese (and foreign) tourists, and several wanted their picture with a blonde western girl. I obliged, but it’s such a novel concept to be considered “exotic looking”.
We then wandered our way over to the market, and had some neat experiences there. We bumped into one man who heard us speaking English and was so excited to practice with us, since he was an English teacher in Guilin. He ended up taking us back to his family’s tea shop and we bought some bamboo and lychee tea to bring home. I then tried my luck at haggling with the merchants in the tent stalls and walked away with some silk scarves and baby outfits for friend’s kiddos for what I thought not to be a bad price, but I’m sure I could have done much better, since the lady in the next shop over came and grabbed me after my first transaction (she must have seen that I was easy prey).
We had dinner at the hotel; some Sezchuan noodles, beef, green beans, duck and TsingTao beer and then retired to the hotel rooms. I was tired from our early start, so decided to get some rest, but one of these nights, I’ll have to go check out the rooftop pool. Looking forward to going to the plant tomorrow!
Day 5
Back to “real” work today! We had breakfast around 7 and then got picked up by the IR driver around 8am. I’m certainly glad I’m not driving; it’s a zoo! However, it never gets old as a passenger, since there is so much bizarre and crazy stuff to see on the roads. I saw my first “iron cow” which is this old school small truck with essentially a lawn mower engine and belts hanging right off the front; essentially a replacement for the water buffalo.
When we arrived at the plant, I got to meet many of my colleagues and then went on a facility tour. The factory is broken up into many buildings nestled amongst the vegetation and granite hills that characterize Guilin. I was very impressed with the part of the plant where they actually assemble our pumps. I also got to see investment casting take place (essentially pouring molten metal into ceramic molds). For lunch we went to a nice rooftop place that serves food from Northeast China (Harbin area). We had the most delicious dumplings I’ve ever had, a flat bread similar to Nan, a beef dish with red chile peppers, pork jelly, and mushrooms that were pickled and kind of looked like squid.
After lunch, we talked some more about lab specifics (always of interest to me). Houchan and Guimin then took us to dinner at a park that only the “locals” go to. We sat outside right by the river with a nice view of the peaks and were served truly local and authentic food. There were rice cakes that looked (and almost tasted) like fried green tomatoes, duck with fried egg (my favorite dish!), bean sprouts, lotus root, and a soup that had some interesting chicken parts floating around in it. I was certainly a bit surprised when I fished out an entire chicken head, followed by a foot. I tried the foot, but couldn’t find too much actual meat to chew on, so politely picked at the rest. We also got to try a local Guilin beer. Although it’s low ABV, they serve it in big bottles and nice and cold. It was in the mid to upper 80’s all day (and there’s not too much AC here), so it was a nice treat! Looking forward to Day 2 at the plant tomorrow!
