Sunday morning we got up early and took the subway to the Jade Buddha Temple. It is one of the Buddhist temples in Shanghai, and it has a massive Jade Buddha, hence the name. When we got of the subway, we took a rickshaw to the temple, which is my new favorite way to see the city. You can stare out the back and see everything around you, which distracts you from the fact that you are about 500% more likely to be hit by another moving vehicle than if you had taken a taxi. As we were leaving another driver asked me where I was from and in the mindset of trying to get to the temple, I thought he was inquiring where I was going, so I answered "The temple." When Chelsea asked me what he said I told her and I told her my response, and that explained why he just walked away! We got to the temple and explored a little. It was really beautiful and the jade buddha was unlike anything I had ever seen...so much jade. We drank tea in the temple and ended up buying the best tasting tea I have tried yet in China. After we had plans to go to the art district M50 (Moganshan Art), but before we tried the temple's vegetarian restaurant, which was extremely tasty. We met Henry and our new Chinese friend Vicky at the art galleries. Vicky is an artist, so she took us through the galleries and explained a lot of her favorite pieces. I loved these galleries, because they were all local artists and the location consisted of transformed warehouses used to house the art. Afterwards Vicky invited us over for tea and we got to see her own art, which was pretty amazing. On our way home we made a detour at Whisk, a primarily dessert restaurant and had amazing hot chocolate and other treats. Because it was Chelsea's first night, we decided to end the weekend with a massage near our apartments. It was a very relaxing massage until the three masseuses started telling us about their hopes for American girlfriends and made us laugh the rest of the time. We had a dumpling dinner at the food mall and then watched movies before going to bed.
Monday, I had class early in the morning, and Chelsea slept off her jetlag. After class, Chelsea and I went with my culture class to the Chinese Propaganda Art and Poster Museum. It was interesting to see the collection of old posters that the owner had acquired over time. It was a very small museum, and extremely tricky to find, but worth it if you are at all interested in Chinese Propaganda. We left and ventured to a park across the street. There was a restaurant I had heard about, so we went to check it out. Parts of the restaurant were only accessible by Chinese Communist Party members, and the waiters/hosts were most definitely secret service. We didn't eat here, but instead ventured to Henry's apartment downtown to find street food and shelter from the rain. Chelsea and I braved the rain to go to Jing'an Temple, a Buddhist Temple smack in the middle of one of the most consumerist areas. At one point you can stand 5 feet away from the temple whilst simultaneously standing 5 feet away from a huge mall. The temple was very beautiful and parts of it were being renovated, so we made it a short visit. Because it was "Women's Day" (I'm not sure if this was international or just a Chinese observed holiday) we went to go treat ourselves to buy one get one free Coldstone :) We then walked across the street to Jing'an Park where I showed Chelsea the small lake, and we beckoned school boys to take pictures for us, so we didn't have to set up a self-timer photo off a tree! Since it was cold and rainy, we headed to dinner kind of early and met up with Henry. After dinner we crossed the river to go up to observation deck of the Shanghai Financial Building. However, the ticket desk told us it would best to hold off, because it was so foggy that evening. So what did we do instead? Obviously took advantage of being women to get Henry buy one get one free Coldstone. We made a very serendipitous discovery that there was another coldstone inside the financial towers, so we ended the night well with more treats!
When I woke up on Tuesday I looked out the window to see what I thought was snow falling. I told Chelsea it must just be horizontal rain, but when I left for class I realized it was indeed snow! I think I was the only one in my program who was happy about this snow, as they are all from the east coast and are happy to escape their cold winters. After Chinese class, Chelsea and I went to Hongqiao to go to Pearl (a cool name for the Pearl Market apparently) where we got lots of shopping done, and tailoring arranged for Chelsea. The Pearl Market has everything from every sort of pearl and non-pearl jewelry, bags, tailoring, clothing, chinese goods, dvds...etc It's definitely a good place to go if you only have a short time to shop, and we left very happy. We had a snack at Blue Frog before going home to rest for a bit before going out for the evening. We started the night at our favorite all you can eat/drink sushi restaurant that has some of the best sushi I have ever had. Also I discovered that green tea makes a great alcohol mixer, and it is something I will have to try to adapt when I go home. Henry, Nicolas, Chelsea and I left after much eating and drinking to meet up with people from my program in Xintiandi. We went to club G plus where our friends had reserved a table. I had so much fun dancing, and the music was awesome, so that made for a long night out. Luckily I didn't have class early the next day, so Chelsea and I slept in the next morning.
Wednesday we slept in and took the morning to plan our day. Around lunch time we went downtown to Yu Yuan Garden, which is one of the most impressive Chinese gardens in the country. Around the garden entrance there are lots of small authentic Chinese ware shops and small eateries also amongst some starbucks and other out-of-place western joints. We ate at a small Chinese restaurant and had soup dumplings and hot and sour soup. The most famous soup dumpling place is at Yu Yuan, but the line is always so long, so we passed on it to save time. Once in the garden, we walked around all the beautiful Chinese buildings and enjoyed the Lotus pool and other ponds. Our journey continued to the river front where we took the ferry across to Pudong. The ferry cost 1 kuai for both of us together, which is probably the cheapest transportation I'll ever see again in my life. Chelsea and I were on our way to the Financial tower once more to finally see the view from above, and you would have never known it was snowing the day before, because the skies were clear and blue, and the weather was much warmer. There is a beautiful park along the river on the Pudong side of Shanghai that I never knew about, so we walked along that on our way to the tower. Once at the tower, we ascended the Shanghai World Financial Tower, which is the 3rd tallest building in the world, and tallest in China. The building is 492m tall, and it has a large gap in the top that makes it resemble a bottle cap opener. Because of the gap, you can climb to 474m and walk across a glass bridge looking down on the city. This is not exactly for those afraid of heights! We went to 3 different levels of vantage points and got some great photos. We took a taxi under the river and headed towards the Bund for a pre-dinner drink. More importantly we went to Bund 5's Glamour Bar, which has a beautiful view and trend atmosphere. Our waiter was wearing pink jeans! Even though it was somewhat early, we caught another taxi to the other side of town for dinner at Zapatas, a Mexican restaurant with Wednesday Ladies nights. They have special deals on meals and then free margaritas all night, so obviously Chelsea and I didn't object to finishing our meal and sitting around to chat for awhile. We got back early and before starting my homework, I accompanied Henry to the street food vendors down the street. I can never resist yummy street food :)
Thursday it was back to Chinese class, and then downtown again for more adventures. Henry and I took Chelsea to one of our favorite French restaurants called Lingo. After lunch, Chelsea and I went to the Shanghai Museum in People's Square and saw all of the Chinese art as well as an exhibit from the Uffizi museum in Florence. The museum was very cool, and I definitely appreciated all of the different forms of Chinese art. Next we walked down the pedestrian part of Nanjing Lu where cars are forbidden to drive. We looked around and did some window shopping before heading back in the opposite direction towards Henry's apartment. We decided to walk, which took us 45 minutes, but led us through the biggest shopping street in Shanghai. We passed all the beautiful high-end shops with their huge flagship stores. Once we met up with Henry, all three of us went to Bund 18 to see the opening of a new art showing. It was a great party with lots of beautiful art, beautiful people, and yummy drinks. I really liked the exhibit, and afterwards we went next door to Lounge 18 for dinner and drinks. Because it was ladies night, all the girls got dinner/drinks for free, but men had to pay 300 kuai (around $50). I feel like women can eat and drink free most nights of the week if they do their research. However, I never knew such a nice venue such as Lounge 18 had a weekly ladies night. The view of the river and cityscape alone is reason enough to come to the Bund restaurants and bars that overlook the scenery. We went home early, so Henry and I could study for the Chinese test we had the next day!
Friday morning, I got my test out of the way and then desperately needed a nap. Chelsea ventured to Pearl to pick up the clothing she had tailored for her then when she came back we set out towards Tianzifang. Tianzifang is one of my favorite places in Shanghai, because it reminds me of Europe with its small alleys closely connected cafes and shops. There is a lot of great stuff to purchase, and wonderful outdoor patios to sit and people watch. We spent a good part of the day here before going back home to rest before our last night out together. That night, we took Chelsea to her last meal at a Chinese restaurant specializing in Yunnan cuisine. Yunnan is the southern province in China Henry and I had just returned from so we were intrigued by the similarities in food. The restaurant, Lost Heaven, turned out to be wonderful and we all left very full. Our next stop was the opening a club/bar called Node in another area I like called Red Town. It is another artsy district that has a sculpture park and many warehouses that have been converted into art galleries. They had free drinks to commemorate the opening, and we hung around there for awhile. After the opening party we went to Barbie Bar for awhile and that is where the night ended. Chelsea and I went home and slept and prepared for her to leave the next morning. It was so great to have her here and I wish you could have stayed longer!
Chinese Word of the Day: 星巴壳：Xinbake (Sheen-ba-kuh; Starbucks)
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