Friday after school and my Chinese midterm, I went home and got everything I needed to get done before my mom came. Then I went with Henry to get massages and after ate traditional Shanghainese food that was really yummy. On our way back I decided to stay in and go to sleep early so I could be rested to meet up with my mom the next day and also Amy who was visiting Shanghai for a day. I woke up on Saturday and finished a last few errands before heading downtown to People's Square. Henry, Amy, and I all met up for lunch at the Royal Meridian hotel downtown and caught up for awhile. Amy and Henry had a lot to talk about because they both have ties to the IUP language program in Beijing, so it was nice to be able to introduce them to each other. I didn't get to see Amy for very long, because her stay in Shanghai was for only a day, but it was great to see a good friend from Berkeley, and especially the person who most excited me about China before I came! I left lunch and took the subway to the maglev train that takes you to the airport. The maglev is the fastest train and it was actually pretty surreal to take. The highest speed it reaches is 431km/h and its crazy fast. All of the buildings, fields, and cars alongside speed by obviously faster than anything I have ever experienced. I arrived early at the airport, which was perfect, because my mom's plane had also come in early, but she still had customs and such to clear, so I did some planning for our week.
Finally I met up with my mama and we took a taxi back to my apartment. It was really good to see her after so long and we already had lots of plans for the evening, so we went home and got ready and relaxed a bit before heading out. This evening we were headed to the Shanghai Tang Fashion Show. Shanghai Tang is a popular brand in mostly Hong Kong, Shanghai, and London www.Shanghaitang.com, but they have some wonderful stuff that I would love to own if I had the money! Because I didn't put two and two together I had to request an invitation for my mom very last minute. I emailed the director and told her that my very artistically driven (true) fashion designer (false) mom was arriving that evening and would love to see the show. It turned out to be no problem, and when we got there, to our surprise, we were quickly escorted to the VIP room where we were given preferred seating and champagne to welcome us...all thanks to my wonderful designer mother! After the show, we collected our gift bags and walked down the Bund. It was such a beautiful, clear, warm night and Henry and I decided to show her the wonderful view from atop on of the night club terraces. Unfortunately the rest of the night was kind of depressing as I realized I didn't have my camera after I left the bar, and when we went back we concluded it must have been stolen. This is the reason I don't have any pictures for the first few events of this post. Luckily, all that was on there were a few from the fashion show and the view that night. After searching for a little we went back home and I introduced my mom to some of the late night street food that is popular around my area. We had a nice midnight snack and then went to bed!
Sunday we woke up and I introduced mom to the traditional Chinese breakfast of dumplings. We went to my favorite little restaurant that has about 6 spots to sit, and she was in love. After, we hopped in a taxi to head to Pearl, the shopping area that has the tailor I use as well as all the pearls, purses, clothing, dvds, and any other thing you could want. We spent about an hour getting clothes made or rather ordered, and in the end we had 8 men's shirts, a sports coat, 4 suits, and a gown on order. Next we met our family friend Janine for a lovely lunch at a Greek restaurant down the street and caught up before she took us to a few more of her favorite stores. Finally, we were done shopping, and I got to take my mom to one of my favorite places in Shanghai, Tianzifang. As I have written before, it is a hidden area of interconnected alleys with boutiques, art, and cafes, and I would spend most of my time here if it weren't somewhat far away. We looked around and bought a couple things all while taking lots of pictures, with my mom's camera of course! It definitely pays to have a photographer in the family, as you will see from the rest of the pictures in this post. After Tianzifang, we took the metro to Jing'an temple and ran into Henry who took us back to his apartment, so we could show my mom. We hung out there for awhile before going to my favorite Blind man massage parlour, where we enjoyed 2-hour massages that put us in a very relaxed state. We went home afterwards and ate yummy street food before watching a movie and falling asleep.
Monday morning we woke up early and went straight to the South Bund Fabric Market. This is a 3 level building with extensive aisle of purely fabric, clothing, designs, buttons, zippers, and anything else fashion wise you can think about. We got some silk pieces made and then spotted beautiful cashmere coats that we had them measure us for. This makes four deliveries of clothing that we will arrive after we returned from Beijing. After scouring only parts of the fabric market we went to Nanjing Lu Pedestrian street and walked around a little bit before stopping for my favorite dumplings. After lunch we headed to People's Square and the Shanghai Museum. We didn't have long to look around before we headed to the Jade Buddha Temple. I had already been there before but saw both the jade buddhas again and showed my mom their traditional medicinal tea ceremony. We bought some teas and then met up with Henry to walk around for a little bit. We left to go to M50 the warehouses turned art galleries on Moganshan Lu. We looked around for awhile and then caught a taxi to Jing'an Temple to see the temple and park that we didn't see yesterday after running into Henry. The park was very pretty especially after the rain early that week. Next we walked down Nanjing Xilu to a little boutique bar called Judy's and enjoyed happy hour while planning the rest of week out. At 7 we went to 1221 a Shanghainese restaurant that had amazing food. We dined in the "Party room" and enjoyed getting served tea from a 3 foot long tea spout! After dinner, we parted ways with Henry who was leaving for Beijing earlier than we were the next day, and we headed back to Fudan.
Tuesday we woke up and it was a little rainy, but we still headed out to Yu Yuan Gardens to get world famous dumplings and tea and see the pretty Chinese style gardens. It was raining, but the gardens were just as beautiful! We strolled around Old Town buying random Chinese things, and then headed home to pack for our Beijing flight that night. We packed and rested for a little while before heading to Pearl to have mom's clothes fitted. We had the fitting then ate a quick meal at an amazing Indian Restaurant before heading to the airport. Due to the rain, our flight was delayed a little bit, but we finally arrived and met Henry at our hotel "The Emperor." It was in an amazing location right outside the forbidden city walls, and we were very excited to get out and explore the next day. Our room was beautiful and we had an offical 5 minute tour around our room and all of its amenities. All the in room drinks (soda, beer, and water) were free, the bathroom floors were heated so your toes wouldn't get cold, internet, bikes, shoe-cleaning amongst other things...free. On top of it all it was a beautifully modern building with a rooftop bar overlooking the forbidden city. It couldn't get much better than that.
Wednesday, we got up and made out for Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We could walk to both from our hotel, so we set out first for Tiananmen and walked around there admiring the Mao picture and all of the security keeping watch. We next crossed the street to get to the Forbidden City, but there was a huge line! In true Chinese fashion we ignored the line and walked straight to the front. However, we realized that no one was going in and it was because a diplomacy meeting was taking place between the Afghanistan and Chinese government heads. Once the doors opened again, it was like a stampede and I had to push some people so mom didn't get trampled or pushed into the guard rail. Once we entered parts of the city were closed off due to the meeting but after a short while it all opened up. We walked around for awhile seeing a bunch of halls including the watch/clock tower that had many amazing pieces from London and Paris. We left and followed Henry's recommendation to go to a Muslim district to see the mosque and have traditional cuisine. We had an amazing hot pot meal and ordered far too much food. Next we toured the mosque quickly before heading to the Temple of Heaven to meet Sophie. It was a very cool temple and we roamed around a bit before heading back to our hotel to show Sophie and have a drink before dinner. We sat on the top floor bar and just chilled before heading to another one of Henry's old Beijing favorites Manzo. Manzo is a Japanese restaurant, and we had amazing sushi that surpassed the quality I have been used to in China and made me miss my sushi place at home! It was a lovely meal and when we left it was snowing! We dropped Sophie off to go back to her dorm and then Henry, mom, and I went back to our hotel. Even though I love the snow, I hoped it wouldn't ruin the weather the next day for our trek to the Great Wall!
Thursday morning we woke up early to catch our private car to the Great Wall. We hired a driver for the day to take us to all the sights we wanted to see that were spaced out throughout the city and beyond. Our first stop was Mutianyu on the Great Wall where we took a cable car up and hiked around the wall. We were so lucky, because it was a very clear day and blue-skied making it perfect for picture taking. There were very few people on the wall, which made it an even more surreal experience. It was truly amazing. There was definitely a lot of hiking on the wall, and our legs got super tired and sore after awhile. We decided to take the toboggan ride down, which was super fun, and an awesome way to end our visit on the great wall. Next our driver took us to the Olympic buildings: The Bird's nest and the Water Cube. It was cool to see where all the magic had taken place not to long ago, and it is very clear that Beijing transformed a bit after such an international event. In a more spontaneous move, we stopped at the hutongs to take pictures and see the old alleys and narrow streets that are characteristic of Beijing neighborhoods. We played on the state mandated exercise courses that was in the middle of the neighborhood. This is one of the things I deem most communist about China, and so you can tell there is hardly any visible communism left, unless you are following the latest Google China scandal. After visiting the hutongs we were finally dropped off at the 798 Art District. This is similar to the M50 district in Shanghai that was modeled after 798. 798 has so many warehouses filled with art, museums, shops, cafes, and restaurants. It is really fun and I could spend hours there. Unfortunately we were pretty tired, so we didn't spend hours there, but we did get to see a number of cool galleries before we went back to the hotel. We rested and ordered pizza for dinner then later when out to the night market where I ate more yummy street food and saw some crazy foods being sold such as worms, scorpions, starfish, and pig penis. It was very interesting...
Friday was our last day in Beijing and we started it by going to the Summer Palace. I never could have imagined how extensive it was, and it was another place you could spend hours without seeing everything. It is right on a lake and it was such a nice day that it was busy with a lot of visitors. We walked around for a couple hours then took a taxi to meet Sophie at her school. She took us to a Beijing duck restaurant next to her school for lunch, because it’s definitely something you have to do when you are in Beijing! Next we did another thing you have to do when you are in China: shop! We went to a 5-story market and did lots of bargaining for anything and everything. After shopping for awhile we went to a yummy Mexican restaurant for happy hour and dinner. We had a fun time and got to chat with the chef who was actually from Mexico. Afterwards we realized we needed to make a few last purchases so we went back to the market quickly before heading home. Mom and I had a very early flight the next morning so I organized for a cab to pick us up then went to bed!
Our last day was very mellow in Shanghai and we went out to dinner with Sophie's mom that night, which was great! Mimo left early the next day but not without taking my phone and keys by accident! Luckily for me, and by what way I do not know, she navigated the taxi driver back to give me them back before she took her plane home! Miss you alreadyyyy.
Chinese Word of the Day: 旅游 (lǚ yóu, pronounced lou-yo) trip, journey
Have you tried dumplings and roast ducks? They are the famous and traditional Beijing dieshes. And also bird's nest soup? Its a delicacy in China.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your days~~~
Gillion
www.geocities.jp/hongkong_bird_nest/index_e.htm