China, Part II: Shanghai, Days 1-2

July 30

I arrived in Shanghai on July 30. When I arrived I was completely lost. I had no idea where to go, and nobody was around as I hadn't given specific enough instructions about where to meet me. Apparently there are three train stations, all called "Shanghai station," but my ticket ambiguously read only "Shanghai station." I wandered around until I found the station police. Adopting a strategy I would employ for the remainder of my trip, I wrote my question out in Japanese using only the logographic characters, and with SVO word order, and handed it to the officer at the front desk. He left and fetched a policewoman who spoke English, who called my friend's dad. After speaking in English to the policewoman, who spoke in Chinese to the dad, who spoke to me in Japanese, we got it all figured out and I made it to the hotel.

My Chinese friend and her parents

The first day, I really didn't do anything, since I hadn't slept at all really for 3 days. As soon as I got to my hotel, I slept. All afternoon. Then I got up to have dinner with my friend and her family at their apartment. Luckily, I hadn't had to fumble through dealing with Shanghai by myself as a clueless foreigner. My friend and her dad secured most of my necessities in Shanghai for me. My friend's dad is a professor of Japanese Studies at Shanghai International Studies University. He was able to get me a place at the hotel the university uses for visiting students and professors. It was a pretty nice single room for about $20 a night, and only a stone's throw from his own home.

July 31

What to see in Shanghai? Once again, I found I didn't have to deal with any of the details that normally could screw a traveler over, because the Professor did all that. I'd merely mentioned some things I wanted to see in Shanghai, and he arranged a custom tour for me with enough to fill over two days, and which, on the first day, he himself conducted. It was a busy schedule.

The first stop was a sort of Chinese Venice - a district of Shanghai known for its old-style neighborhood with canals instead of streets. There are apparently several watery neighborhoods in this region, but I think the one I visited is Zhūjiājiǎo (朱家角). The atmosphere was tranquil - and despite the extreme humidity, I liked it.

Boat floating on a street-canal. This smaller path has sidewalks along the edge.

Bridges cross, and crowded houses and shops press up against the water

The main "avenue"

Boats cruising the main drag

Finally, after an hour or so of walking around and looking, I got a boat ride of my own.

Docked boat

My helmswoman

Charging straight for the bridge

Next we drove off to Oldtown Shanghai (Shànghăi Gùchéng, 上海古城), with its old-style architecture that looks neat and shiny like it was built brand-new yesterday, housing infinite tourist shops. We had lunch in a famous restaurant (Lu Bo Lang, I believe) where Bill Clinton is said to have dined. I ate a couple of the best things I've ever tasted that afternoon.

This looks like Van Gogh's cup of tea.

A dish of savory, gingery tofu - one of the best things I've ever eaten.

Another one of the best things I've eaten - a beef dish.

We walked across the courtyard that held the restaurant, seeing this lovely pond with a female sculpture on it...

Sculpture of a lady standing in the middle of the lake

Petrified frogs

...and into a garden that used to be the private retreat of a provincial governor during the Ming Dynasty. This garden...well, I'll let the garden speak for itself:

A picture is worth 99 words

View from inside the garden

Oh, there are Mongolian designs here, too?

Following the garden, we took a look at other parts of old Shanghai, including a section along the river marked by Western-style buildings erected by European powers during the colonial era. From there we could see more modern area across the river, with its towering steel giants. Then we drove under the river to modern side, reversing the view.

British building from the colonial era

Shanghai's modern skyscrapers, viewed from the old section across the river

Mist-powered cooling station

Going under the river

Now, the old side viewed from the modern side

That night, my friends took me out to dinner at a nearby Cantonese style restaurant, where I had yet another beautifully delicious dish, Canton duck in a citrus sauce, among other things.

Cantonese duck - not Peking duck, but it's hard to imagine that that would taste better than this