Shanghai Knights - Part 1

Place: Shanghai, China

Language: Mandarin Chinese

Hello: Nĭ hău (knee how)

Thank you: Xièxie (shie shie)

I wish I could say we took Shanghai by storm, but in reality Shanghai took us by storm, literally. It seems that we just can't escape the rain. As you may remember, when we first moved here, Typhoon Pabuk tried to scare us away. Since then, Hong Kong has been under an ever-present cloud. It rains most days and even when it doesn't rain, the sky is hazy and cloudy so you never know if it might rain later. My mental checklist as I head out the door goes like this: Comfy shoes? Check. Purse and keys? Check. Umbrella? Check.

About 2 days before we left, we learned that Typhoon Wipha, one of the worst typhoons to hit China in a decade, was headed straight towards Shanghai. This was also about the same time we heard about a plane crashing in Thailand and killing 67 people because it was trying to land in severe rain. But does the threat of possible death deter us? No, of course not! Well, I say us when I really mean Marc. I was pooping my pants and trying to find ways not to go, but in the end, he convinced me to go.

Luckily, the storm was passing to the south of Shanghai so we weren't in any immediate danger. I just wish someone would have told me that before I boarded the plane. Perhaps I could have spared Marc some pain, but eventually, the blood started circulating back into Marc's hand and I think he has sensation in all of his fingers now.

As soon as we got to the hotel, instead of staying in like normal tourists because it was raining outside, we decide to go to the Bund. The Huangpou River divides Shanghai into 2 regions: Puxi (where we were staying and where all the cool stuff is) and Pudong (the financial district where all the tall buildings are). The Bund the embankment next to the river on the Puxi side (more pictures of that later) and we were just 1 metro stop away from it. So, throwing all caution to the gale force winds blowing outside, we started our trek. Our umbrella blew inside out no less than 20 times and the drizzly rain was not so pleasant. If it had just been wind, not problem. Just drizzly rain, no problem. But both and we felt like those dumb newscasters on the Weather Channel that "go into the storm to bring you live coverage." Luckily, there weren't any palm trees sailing past our heads.

When we got there, guess who had to take 17 pictures with my not-so-waterproof camera? Here is the best one:

Marc has a thing for taking pictures of famous city skylines, in case you can't tell.

So, next on Sabrina's tour of Shanghai was the Bund Underwater Sightseeing Tunnel. According to my trusty Lonely Planet, "there are many ways to get across the river to Pudong but the weirdest has to be the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel where train modules convey speechless passengers through a tunnel of garish lights between the Bund and the opposite shore." I couldn't have put it better myself. Think of a Walt Disney World ride on acid, and you are about half way there. Weird electronic music accompanies your ride past bizarre colorful lights, strobe lights, strange images and even those inflatable wind-propelled skinny men in front of car dealerships with their arms flailing about. I wish I could show you a video but unfortunately we had to delete it to make way for Marc's other 200 pictures. Here is a still shot although it doesn't really do it justice:

You may want to skip this "attraction" the next time you are in Shanghai, unless you are into acid trips.

The next day, Marc went to work and I had to fend for myself. Luckily, I'm pretty adept at getting the hotel concierge to write down tourist destinations for me in Chinese so that I can give it to the taxi drivers. Off to Yuyuan Gardens and Bazaar I went. Not 2 steps out of the cab and the peddlers started in on me. I guess a lone young woman out in the middle of a bazaar is like a steak to a starving lion. Nope, I didn't want "louispradaguccichanel." A quick stop at the Mickey D's for breakfast where I skipped the green bean pie (seriously, who eats this stuff?) and it was off to the old part of town. Now, this is why I came to China:

It was like I stepped into the Epcot Chinese Village except this is where they got their inspiration. I spent the day strolling the Yuyuan Gardens, one of the last remaining examples of a Ming Chinese gardens. There were dozens of tourist groups at the gardens and if the tour guide spoke a language that I understood, I would just hang back and listen for a few minutes before moving on to the next area. That's the great thing about knowing Spanish, it's so similar to the romance languages that I can pick up the gist of what people are saying without actually knowing, for example, Italian. It's neat.

Then, the best part of the day happened right at the end of the garden tour. An older Chinese lady came up to me shaking a poster board of pictures of people in ancient Chinese costumes, big hair pieces and all. "Wanna get chur pick-ture with costume?" Um, what? "Take 5 minute!" This I had to see, so I went into her little booth where she threw a robe and head-piece on me and then shuffled me over to the rock garden. Here is the picture that she took:

I'm also on about 2 dozens tourists' cameras as they all had to take a picture of the Chinese gweilo princess. Lovely. When Marc got back to the hotel that night, he was quite impressed.

Later, I took Marc to a trendy area of town called Xintiandi, it took us about 3 hours to learn how to say it. This new development made to look like an old European town with shops and al frecso dining is in the French Concession area. Apparently, part of Shanghai's history involves the French occupying it at some point in history. We had dinner at one of those stone grill places where you order your meat and they bring it to you on a red hot stone for you to cook. It's like the Melting Pot but without the cheese. The funniest part was when we asked our waitress to take our picture and the Brit behind us decided to be in it:

Well, I'm getting the beginning stages of carpal tunnel, so I will stop for now, but stay tuned for Part 2 (and possibly 3) of our Shanghai adventure. Xie Xie!*

*Xie Xie (pronounced shie shie) means "thank you" in Mandarin Chinese.