Shanghai'd!

Two weeks ago, it was Spring Break for the Hong Kong schools, so we took advantage of Brian having the week off to explore more of China.  One of the women that I manage is Chinese, and she loves to travel.  When I asked her about places that we should visit in China, she said that we had to do a "Chinese Cultural Triangle" of Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou.  In case you have not read our India or Sri Lanka posts, it seems that there is a "cultural triangle" in every single place we go to... kind of like Springfield.  ;)  

To have a full nine days to spend with Brian after the crazy 2 months we had had with me being all over the place and him going to Tanzania was so nice!  People ask us how we manage all of this crazy work travel, and I'll tell you a secret - it actually has been okay for our marriage.  We had only been married for three months when we moved to Asia, and since then, this has been "normal", so we don't really know life any other way.  I absolutely miss my husband (and I think he misses me too, although he did just admit that he likes it when I'm gone so he can sleep in the middle of our bed ;)), but that just makes coming home that much sweeter.  I think it has made us really appreciate each other and not take each other for granted.  Our time together is really quality time, and there are always a million things that we have to tell each other.  So, it's okay.  Sustainable forever?  Probably not... but we are managing for now. 

Back to China... we arrived in Shanghai on a Friday afternoon.  For most of our other trips, for the sake of ease, we have hired a guide.  This person takes care of all of the transportation, tickets, itinerary, and, most importantly, speaking to people in the local language.  To be honest, I was starting to wonder if we could travel on our own in Asia.  I had been all over Europe on my own, and I was kind of losing my self-confidence in traveling.  So, we decided to do this whole trip on our own to test the water and see if we are really as helpless as we felt.  We arrived, figured out the super fast train to the city, and then navigated the metro system on our own.  In hindsight, taking the metro with two gigantic suitcases on a Friday afternoon was probably not the best idea, as the Metro sort of resembles a mosh pit, but, we made it.  And, the rest of the trip went just as smoothly.  So, we now have a little more confidence that we CAN travel by ourselves.  We might not get all of the cultural references we would have had if we could speak the language, but it's nice to be on your own without a guide all the time.

Shanghai is just an amazing city.  There is new.  There is old.  There is East.  There is West.  There are very rich. There are very poor.  It's a lesson in contrast, and it's all just right there in front of you.  We loved it, and can't wait to go back.

Our first impression of Shanghai was "Are we really in China??".  In the late 1800's/early 1900's (give or take a few years... Brian is the history guy!!), there was a lot of foreign influence, and many banks and businesses built their buildings on the river.  "The Bund" as it is called, is a mish-mash of French, British, and some Chinese influence.  Check it out:

If you take away the multitude of Chinese flags, you might think you are in Paris, or London!

The other side of the river is the more famous skyline of Shanghai.  It was a full moon that night, and absolutely clear.  We had a fantastic time just walking along the river, taking it all in, after our yummy dinner at M on the Bund (highly recommended!). 

East side of the HuangPu River

The next morning, we went to one of the more obscure sights in Shanghai, the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum.  There is a pretty interesting story behind this.  During the Holocaust, there came a point at which the maximum number of refugees had already been taken in by the US, UK, etc.  There were still many Jews in Europe that needed a place to go, and the Chinese Ambassador in Austria started issuing visas to Jews there.  There were about 20-30K that moved to Shanghai and set up a temporary ghetto here.  What remains is the synagogue and some of the walls of the shops.  I had no idea that some Jewish people had moved to Shanghai during the war, and found this place to be quite educational. 

Jewish Refugee Museum

Next stop, lunch.  I've been trying to do a better job about researching places before we go so we aren't desparately trying to find something at the last minute.  That normally ends up with us eating something really gross and not very memorable.  So, before this trip, I had researched vegetarian restuarants in Shanghai, and found this lovely place, Vegetarian Lifestyle.  There are many places like this in Asia, where they take tofu and other vegetable-based foods, and make them look like meat.  I find it very creative, and the food is always tasty. 

Ribs, anyone?  :)

A highlight of our trip was getting to meet up with one of Brian's friends from high school, Trevor, and his wife Carolyn.  They live in Shanghai, and we shared a few meals and lots of laughs.  It was nice to get a little more of a local flavor for Shanghai, and to meet some of their friends.  I completely forgot to take pictures while we were together - darn it!

We had one more day in Shanghai, and used it to take in some more of the city.  Our first stop was YuYuan Garden, which was not far from our hotel.  The gardens in China are just absolutely gorgeous.  It's not really about flowers... it's more about beautiful pagodas, trees, water, and these amazingly large rock structures.  Even with thousands of people scurrying about, I find a sense of calm in these places, and the gardens here in Shanghai and also in Suzhou were a highlight of the trip.

Having a great time with my love - YuYuan Garden

Old and new

One of the street vendors selling durian.  These guys are required to have permits, and some of them don't have one.  We witnessed one vendor running down the street with his cart when the police drove by!

One of the many alleys in  Shanghai - a stranger's daily life on display

I really love traveling with Brian (did I mention that ever... oh, really?).  I love checking out the food and the people, and he always knows so many bits and pieces of the history of a place.  It's a good balance.  Actually visiting the places that he has been teaching about helps him to fill in gaps, and so I love it when he has one of his "aha moments".  We went to some pretty obscure sights and museums, but Brian had so many interesting things to tell me about things like the Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Forward, and China over the past hundred years in general, that I felt like I walked away with a  much better understanding of this country.  One of these obscure places we visited was the Propaganda Poster Art Center.  It was full of Communist Propaganda from the Cultural Revolution onwards.  Unfortunately, we were not able to take pictures inside the museum, but it was full of posters from that time period, encouraging people to do their best to produce more wheat than the US, more steel than the UK, and just beat those "terrible nations" in general.  It was eye-opening.  

This place was in the basement of an apartment building - tough to find, but worth it.

After a few days in Shanghai, it was planes, trains, and automobiles.  First stop was Suzhou.  We successfully purchased tickets at the train station (hey, we have to celebrate the small successes - this is not easy when you do not speak the same language as the person at the desk!!).  It was a 20 minute ride on the bullet train. 

Bullet train!!

We arrived to the hotel and found out that it was connected to another beautiful garden.  This was a really funny part of the trip.  There was a school field trip at this place, with about 100 kids.  The slang word for "white people" is "guelo".  I sometimes hear this when I am walking through factories, and, walking through the kids, I kept hearing them whisper it.  One group of little girls were so excited that they started screaming and pointing "Guelo! Guelo!  Guelo!".  Brian and I were cracking up at this!  Then, some of the kids got brave, and came up to us, using their best English, and asked us if we could take a picture with them.  After we took one, we took about ten.  For a group of kids from the countryside, I guess they don't see white people that often, and blue eyes are a bit of a novelty.  So, that was our "celebrity moment".  ha.  Brian said if one more person asked him his name, he was going to say "Nicholas Cage", his doppelganger.  Unfortunately, no one did.  Bummer.

Me with Nicholas

There are a lot of beautiful gardens in Suzhou, but we went to just one, the "Humble Administrator's Garden".  It was HUGE!  The scenery was peaceful, despite us being there with several hundred of our closest Chinese friends.

Humble Administrator's Garden - "Humble" must be a bad translation ;)

After the gardens, we noticed that "Wal-Mart" was marked on our map.  Both Brian and I were both interested to see what the heck a Wal-Mart in China is like.  To be honest, this was a highlight of our trip - we were fascinated.  We took a taxi out of the old city and into the new one.  The Wal-Mart was in the basement of a huge mall filled with other Western stores.  It was pretty similar in terms of what you can get there to the US... I'm not talking about products though, I'm talking about convenience - you can get your groceries, your home products, and your cleaning supplies.  But, this is all specific to China - here's what I mean:

Wal-Mart!

You can get your groceries - this was fish on ice... there was also "freshly" butchered meat on ice

More groceries - recognize the brand?  These are rice cakes. :)

You can get your home appliances - rice cooker, anyone??

All the employees wear red, instead of blue

After getting our Wal-Mart fix, we went back to the old city, where we tried to find the restaurant we wanted to go to for dinner.  No luck.  We had one of those bad travel moments when both people are tired and nothing looks good.  We ended up having terrible dim sum that had been steaming for god knows how long.  On the bright side, the area we ate was gorgeous.  Suzhou is one of the old "water cities", with canals throughout.

One of the beautiful canals

The next day, we took another bus to TongLi, which is an even smaller little water town.  It was really quaint, and the people were really nice.  We took a little cruise around the main canal, and stopped to visit the only Sex Museum in China (hey - it was there!!).  

Lunch on the canal

Cruisin'

One of the many phallic statues at the Sex Museum

Next up, a two and a half hour bus ride to Hangzhou.  This is a favorite destination for Chinese people, and a popular place to go for a honeymoon, so we were prepared to be delighted.  Unfortunately, as with a lot of China, the pollution has really gotten the best of this place, and we were a little disappointed.  There is a beautiful lake called West Lake in this city, but there is a 4-lane road that circles it, so when you are walking around it you have to cough back exhaust fumes.  Ugh.  Not what I had been hoping for.  

Bus Station at Suzhou - AKA pandemonium!

We took a taxi to our hotel, which we were pretty excited to stay at.  We found it online, and it peaked our interest as it had been Chairman Mao's former summer residence.  This place was amazing.  It is called XiHu State Guest House, and it is still used by Party members in China as a place to have meetings and take a break.  While we were there, we tried to go to the restaurant on the lake, and we were stopped by a Chinese Army guard in full uniform.  Evidently, there was a Party-only event going on, and we were NOT invited.  :)  We ended up eating in the building just marked "Cafeteria"  (gotta love the communist names).  We saw bamboo on the menu, and decided to order it just to see what it was like.  I have no idea how they prepared this stuff, but it was like fresh bamboo, just cut into thirds.  They must have to marinate it for days to get it to soften up.  It was one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten!  My husband informed me that in his next life, he wants to be a panda.  It was THAT GOOD.

West Lake - beautiful, but smoggy

The smog didn't get us down.  We decided to do like the locals do, and rented a paddle boat.  Only, it had a very small motor, so we motored around the lake at a snail's pace.  Brian tried to get a little adventurous by doing a donut, but, alas, that was not that thrilling at the speed we were going.  ;)

KP & Brian with our very good quality life vests on...

All the trees were starting to blossom - it was gorgeous!

The area around Hangzhou is a big tea-growing area, so we went to the National Tea Museum - it was actually really well-done, and we both learned a lot.  The museum was surrounded by tea fields, and there were tons of people out there, picking the tea by hand! 

Picking the tea leaves

Brian with a fresh cup of tea at the museum

One of my favorite parts of traveling is trying out the local food.  In Hangzhou, there aren't a lot of big restaurants, so what you end up having are a lot of mom and pop type operations with just a few tables.  Brian and I ended up eating at one of these places for lunch, and it was one of the best meals we had on our trip!  A quick update on what I am eating these days.  If you remember back to August, I wanted to do a 30 day trial of not eating meat or dairy to see how I felt.  To be honest, I felt great, so I decided to continue.  I've had to make some adjustments, because with all the work travel I do, sometimes there just isn't anything I would be able to eat if I was very strict.  So, here's my plan: At home, we don't eat any meat, and when I cook, it's mostly vegan.  When I'm traveling or at a restaurant, I am mostly vegetarian, but I also eat fish if that is the only thing that is available.  This is working for me, and I was never hungry on this trip.  The fish in this part of China was absolutely delicious.  I have to say, when I first started visiting Asia, the preparation of fish freaked me out.  The whole fish is delivered to your table, complete with the head.  In fact, at business dinners, the head is often reserved for the guest of honor.  Why is that?  Well, my husband taught me how to actually eat a fish on this trip.  The head is for the guest of honor because the cheeks are the best part.  I can now say that I am an expert at getting to these tasty little bits.  ;) 

So... back to that amazing lunch.  We were walking by, and we heard a guy yelling "hello!  hello!", so we thought, "alright, we will try this place".  We sat down, and the woman asked me (in English), "Do you speak Chinesie?".  I shook my head no, and so she grabbed me by the arm and took me back to the kitchen.  I pointed to the things that looked good, and then she said "Fishie?".  I shook my head yes, and returned to the table, praying that I had actually ordered something good.  In the meantime, the guy that had greeted us came over and was practicing his English with us.  He said "no! no!", and I said "yes!  yes!".  That was pretty much the extent of us, but all of us were smiling and having  a fun time with it.  Turns out the guy didn't even work at the place, and he and his friends left the restaurant soon afterwards.  Brian caught me saying goodbye on camera, and this was such a KP shot that I thought I would share it:

Caught on camera- I didn't realize until Brian told me (actually, it was during our wedding when the officiant was reading the reasons we love each other...aw) that I always give a little wave hello or goodbye to everyone I greet.  This is the signature KP wave, saying goodbye to our new friends in Hangzhou

Amazing fish head!  Future guests be prepared - you will eat this!  And, in case you were wondering... the food was absolutely amazing - all of it!!!

Our last stop in Hangzhou was the Ling Yin Temple.  There were beautiful carvings of the Buddha, some in a more Indian style (as in, skinny, like the Buddha probably was in person), and some in the Chinese style (as in, fat and happy).  The sights were great, but the thousands of people that were enjoying the sights with us made it a little hectic.  If you go to China though, you have to be prepared that any sight you will see will be this way.  This requires some mental preparation!

Beautiful carvings

Ling Yin Temple, with a few hundred of our closest friends

We returned to Shanghai for one more day in the city before we left.  We had a lovely Chinese-western brunch, and then just enjoyed the waterfront one more time.  We absolutely loved this city, and we will definitely return to explore some more!