Well, now that it's been nearly a year since we went on this trip to Shanghai and Xi'an, we've decided to finally post about it! I apologize if the writing is long and boring, but mostly it's for our own sakes (remember, this blog is acting as our journal for our time in China). So feel free to just look at the pictures!
So the school gave us an awesome few day heads up that we had a week off of work for the (western) new year. This was clearly a situation to take advantage of! So we quickly got to planning, and by that Sunday, we were off!
We took the high-speed railway to Shanghai. It was about a 4 hour ride, and was quite scenic and lovely. And fast. Very fast. This wasn't a surprise, because we'd ridden the high-speed railway to and from Beijing a couple of times, but nifty nonetheless.
It just so happened that our American friends who had come to China with China Horizons were in Shanghai for a couple of nights on their way out of the country! So once we got there we went straight to meet up with them. They showed us around the city a bit (they'd been there before) and we had a grand old time. We wandered around the center of the city for a while, trying to make our way to the museum. We eventually found it, but, alas, it was closed by the time we got there. While walking through the park to get to the museum, they showed us the "meet market" where single twenty-something's parents and grandparents go to find potential partners for them. It was hilarious. These people had posters with pictures of their children and all of their personal information like medical background, salary, and weight. I guess that's one way to get the job done.
Fortunately, the Erbs were in Shanghai early enough to make it to church there (those righteous Erbs), and had so kindly been invited to have dinner at a member's apartment! So we, of course, joined them. This family was so very nice to us. They invited us into their home, fed us delicious American food (including home-baked goods!), and treated us as though we'd known them for years. I'll actually put a plug in for them here. When we were there (things may have changed since then), they were starting up a business out of their home selling home-baked cinnamon rolls (which I can guarantee are delicious). So, if you ever find yourself living in Shanghai and hankering for a bit of home, her website is here: http://www.cinnaswirlchina.com/
There were other church members there for dinner, and we ended up speaking to a hispanic woman who was in Shanghai on vacation from Cambodia, where she teaches Spanish. Unfortunately, I can't remember her name, but she knew my uncle and his family! My Uncle Matt and all (or at least some) of my Ellsworth cousins lived in Cambodia for a time and my uncle was the branch president there, so I suppose he was well-known in the church. Strangely enough, this was the second person I've met who knew him and his family there. Small world!
After getting nice and full of good food, we set off for The Bund. The bund is an area of Shanghai on the edge of the river that's full of old and new buildings with interesting architecture and all sorts of fancy things to see.
This nifty bull is modeled after the one in Chicago (from what I understand).
By the time we were done at the bund, we were mighty chilly and mighty tired. We made our way back toward our hotel through the vast (and quite impressive) subway system,
and by the time we were into the neighborhood, we were hungry. So we stopped at a familiar little hole-in-the-wall jiaozi shop and had ourselves some delicious dumplings. Kindly, they cleared the table for us.
This adorable girl acted as our cashier.
On Monday (New year's eve), we went to a couple of buddhist temples. The first was Jing'an Temple. It was big and beautiful and awesome. We saw monks come out and sing a song in front of an alter where they then burnt some offerings. The grounds were quite extensive for being in the middle of a huge city, and we wandered and wandered. The juxtaposition of peaceful buddhist decor with a background of towering skyscrapers looming over the courtyard was interesting, to say the least. It reminded me that no matter what chaos surrounds you, you can always find peace if you are looking for it.
After the Jing'an Temple, we went to the Jade Buddha Temple. Meaning, we took a long subway ride and walked for what seemed like miles, and then decided to just look at the outside, buy a souvenir, and then head to our next destination.
Fortunately, our friends the Cleggs had lent us a guidebook for the city of Shanghai which pretty much dictated our whole trip. It suggested a guided walk around the "Old City" - which led us to see all sorts of fun things and interesting people. The fellow in the top left corner of the picture below is a man that we met whilst we were taking a little nap in a park, soaking up some sun rays (it was mighty cold, and the sun felt oh-so-nice). He was from Singapore and spoke English excellently. We got the feeling that he spends his days finding foreigners in the park and practicing speaking with them. Super cute nice old guy.
We saw these people on two separate occasions - just enjoying some time around the city in their pj's.
These fancy people, just getting their modeling on.
In another park, we saw this woman who came along with a shopping cart full of cat food and individual dishes for all of the cats living in these bushes. I can't be sure, but I think she was calling them by name.
We enjoyed some la mien for dinner. Yum. I love this stuff. Every time we ate on this trip we found ourselves in small restaurants, amongst natives only. I was so glad that by the time we went on this trip we were well acquainted with Chinese food and knew how to find what we like.
We did some shopping, of course. We saw many a shop with loads of little figurines. In this shop, every thing cost 10 RMB (~$1.50 USD). Below the Chinese sign, it says, in English, "Entire audience 10 yuan."
It was so cold that we bought a couple of matching scarves and added them on top of the scarves we were already wearing. I only looked slightly ridiculous.
The "Old City Walk" led us to this final destination: The Yu Gardens Bazaar. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, by the time we got there most shops were closed, but it was still so fun to see all of the lights on the buildings.
This building is in the middle of a little pond. The bridge to get to it is in a zig-zag pattern because bad spirits can't turn, so they can't cross this bridge.
Since it was New Year's Eve, everyone (particularly all of the tourists) was on their way to big parties for the evening. However, we were afraid we'd get stuck somewhere after the subway system closed for the night. So we caught the last subway back to our hotel and celebrated in our hotel room with some western treats and a noise-maker we'd bought earlier that day.
On Tuesday we followed the other guided walk in our guidebook, the "French Concession Walk." Walking around the French Concession was so much fun and I would definitely suggest it to anyone visiting Shanghai. Perhaps it was because we'd been in China for 4 months at that point, but it was just lovely to see so much western influence in the architecture and general feel of the area. It was like being in a whole different world. Shanghai is just a super diverse place.
One of the highlights was Fuxing Park. Most people had the day off of work since it was New Year's Day, so the park was full of people enjoying time with family, playing music, flying kites, and dancing.
We thought we'd try one more time to make it to the museum before leaving Shanghai. Once again, our plans were thwarted, and it closed just as we got there. But it was a beautiful (albeit a tad chilly) day, and we enjoyed being out in the courtyard in front of the museum with other people.
Another highlight of our day was meeting this fellow (shown below, with Tom) in front of the museum. He was another man from Singapore with an incredible mastery of English, who seemed to spend his time wandering the city and befriending foreigners. He was so cute, and very elderly. He told us about how he remembers when Shanghai was a flat city and you couldn't see any skyscrapers on the horizon. He told us how much had changed in China and in the world in his lifetime. He was so kind and wonderful, we just had to get a picture of him. He was a very interesting man, not only intellectually, but physically: he had some sort of moley thing growing out from under his eye that appeared to have tentacles. I won't forget him (or that growth) anytime soon.
Tired Tom.
In the park surrounding the museum, we saw this sheep. This sheep (I wish I knew its name!) is super famous in China. It's a character in a cartoon, and we saw it plastered all over everything. I'm not sure at all what was going on, but soon after we took this picture, some authorities showed up and there was some sort of confrontation involving the sheep. He was then escorted out of the park.
Here are a few other interesting things we saw in Shanghai:
This guy, selling cleaning supplies from his cart.
Gangnam style.
Even in a big gorgeous city like Shanghai, it's still easy to find piles of garbage on the sidewalks, with its aromatic juices flowing into the gutters. The smell is something I just don't miss about China.
Fancy dog took off his glasses for his meal.
A store called "hotwind."
Everywhere we went in China, we saw "skeleton buildings;" Shanghai was no exception.
Just drying some laundry...
...next to the meat.
The Chinese know how to keep their babies bundled and warm.
