Shanghai is big - REALLY big!

Just before Pam and I traveled to Inner Mongolia we spent one of our days off exploring Shanghai. Since the city is SO big we'll probably still be exploring the city six months from now! On this particular exploration, we headed over to Pudong which is a newly developed area of the city just across the Huangpu River from where we live - when I say across the river, it doesn't make it seem like it's that far but it takes about an hour to get there via very crowded public transportation.

On our way, we found some classic Chinglish in the subway. I took this picture over 3 weeks ago and it's still hilarious:

I guess because it's newer, it seems a lot cleaner over there and there's tons (at least in comparison to the rest of Shanghai) of green space. This area is known for its impressive skyscrapers and will be one of the sites of the 2010 World Expo which begins next April. At some point I'll have to write an entire post dedicated to Shanghai's excitement about hosting the Expo but I'll save that for later.

 

First stop in Pudong was the fake goods market because no trip to Shanghai or really any large city in China is complete without one. What do they sell at the fake goods markets? Just about anything that is fake (hence the name) including Swatch watches, purses, and clothes. If you ever want to hone your negotiation skills this is the place to visit. Bargaining is a strongly encouraged, if not essential, part of the experience. Oh and an added bonus of visiting the market is that if you get lost and can't find it, no worries, there's a resourceful shady Chinese business man just waiting to take a pair of foreigners down a dark set of stairs to a sketchy hallway where the market begins. Since we each left with a new purse (authentic looking Longchamp bags for around $10-15 seems like a good deal when they retail for over $200 in the US), I would consider it a successful trip! Next time I go, I'll have to take pictures because they really do sell EVERYTHING.

After the market we headed to skyscraper district of Pudong. There are three main buildings in this area: Jin Mao Tower, Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai World Financial building. There's a lot of construction happening in the area in preparation for the Expo including work on the Shanghai Tower, which won't be completed until 2014 but is expected to be the tallest building in the world when it's finished.

The Oriental Pearl Tower, also known as 东方明珠塔 or Dōngfāng Míngzhūtǎ, is 468 meters tall and was the site of China's Live Earth concert (Al Gore's climate change awareness initiative) back in 2007. There's a lot of symbolism associated with the design of the tower but I'm a little fuzzy on the details. I just know that it's sparkly at night and has been seen in several movies. Guess which one it is - hint, it looks like a pearl:

The Jin Mao Tower, also known as 金茂大厦 or Jīn Mào Dàshà, literally means the Golden Prosperity Building. At only 88 stories tall, it seems a short next to the Financial Building next door. Unfortunately, the only picture I took of it was from the Financial Building so you can only the see top (it's the closest/largest building in the pic below):

The Shanghai World Financial Center, 上海环球金融中 or Shànghǎi huánqiú jīnróng zhōngxīn, is 494 meters tall and is either the second or third tallest building in the world (depending who you ask). Since the Financial building is the tallest in China, we decided to head up to the observation deck and take a look at the city. The ride up in the elevator is very futuristic (complete with robot sounding voices and George Jetson-like music) and your ears pop like crazy. There are 101 floors and the price for admission is different depending on what observation deck you visit. The city was particularly hazy that day so we opted only for the 94th floor. But the view is still impressive:

 

My favorite part has to be the bathroom with a view - who wouldn't want to pee there?

I have no idea where Minhang (the district where Pam and I live) is located but it's out there somewhere.

After the building tour, we headed over to the French Concession to check out H&M. On the way we saw the Barbie Megacenter and how could we not stop? After all, it's 6 floors of Barbie Pink!! We got someone to take our picture just before we went in. At this point I'd only been living Shanghai for like a month but already I've adopted the Asian tradition of flashing the peace sign in pictures. Kids here as young as two will do the peace sign when their parents take their picture so I'm just trying to fit in.

Barbie tunnel of happiness heading up to the second floor - SO EXCITED!

Guess what? There are Barbies everywhere in the Barbie store. There's even a Barbie spa where I'm totally going for my 26th birthday. I was quite disappointed when I couldn't get my picture taken with the Barbie cutouts because I'm over 10 years old! It's really too bad the sign was in English so I couldn't play dumb and do it anyway.  They even had a wedding dress for Barbie designed by Vera Wang:

By the time we left the Barbie store I was already dark even though it was only 6pm. It gets dark so early here because China only has one time zone - Beijing time. I can't imagine what it's like living in far Western China or Tibet. It's probably dark when it's supposed to be light (according to the time) and vice versa.

This next picture is really random but since I took it after we left the Barbie store I thought I'd throw it in here before I forget. Since Shanghai is so big and so many people live here many of the highways are double-decker.  Not a bad idea! Maybe LA, Chicago, NYC and DC should try it.

That's about it for our trip to Pudong and the French Concession. Last week Pam and I went to the Shanghai Masters 1000, a professional tennis tournament, so I'll have to write more about that next time. But here's a little preview which begins with Pam's sighting of Rafael Nadal on his way to the practice court. She ran ahead to get close!

 

Once I saw him up close and personal, with and without his shirt, I began to understand (and share!) her enthusiasm. :-)

 

 

Hope everyone is well and enjoying the fall weather back in the states - It's slowly getting cooler here and I'm enjoying the break from the humidity and awful smog, which has faded a bit with the thick summer air.

Inner Mongolia Adventures

Last Wednesday, Pam and I flew to the capital of the Inner Mongolia province, Hohhot. It was really stormy when we left because of the effects of a typhoon in the region so we were delayed several times but were easily entertained by this video that Shanghai Air kept playing about the swine flu. I took a video of the video and was going to upload it here but that would probably take about 12 hrs since the internet can be so slow that I'll just leave with a picture and short description. The video was so random and quite funny. It said that the H1N1 virus comes from America and is caused by pigs, ducks, birds and cows - after that it kind of lost it's credibility with me but at least they're trying to prevent a big outbreak through awareness. Perhaps some information (even misinformation) is better than no information? I can't decide. 

After arriving (finally) in Hohhot, we took a taxi to the city center. The taxi driver tried many times to rip us off but thankfully even though we don't speak any Chinese we're not stupid. We refused to pay 150 RMB (about $25) for a 20 min cab ride and settled (eventually) on a lower price, although still probably not as low as it should have been. After we arrived in the city center it started raining, so with no place to stay we headed to a McDonalds (typical Americans) to escape the rain for a bit and grab some lunch. We got our picture taken quite a few times while sitting there and quickly learned that being a foreigner in Hohhot was quite the novelty for most residents. We could only hang out in McD's for so long so we eventually ventured out into the pouring rain and found a suitable hotel just down the road for only $15 each a night.

After the rain stopped we spent some time exploring the city and hung out in this big park. It was such a nice change of pace compared to Shanghai's busy busy streets.

 

 

 

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon trying to find some tour to take us to the grasslands the next day. After walking into a few hotels and checking out the train station, we finally decided to ask at our hotel. Lots of broken English and Chinese (with the help of a phrase book and the Lonely Planet guide) and some really bad acting (since horseback riding is not in the phrase book we had to act that one out) later, they set up a tour for us that would leave Thursday AM, travel to the grasslands where we would get the opportunity to spend the night in a yurt. The scenery on the way to the grasslands was great - again, it was so different than Shanghai and it was nice to see some of "Real China."

 

 

 

 

Our trip to the grasslands was certainly an interesting experience - mostly it was really random so it's quite hard to describe but needless to say it was a lot of fun and we laughed so much. We went horseback riding in these ridiculous looking traditional Mongolian costumes with about 10 layers underneath because it was so chilly, making the outfits even more attractive. Horseback riding was a great way to see the area except that during the second half of our ride my horse kept stopping to eat. Giddy-up doesn't work so well on Chinese horses so I had to learn a little Chinese-horse speak which is not in the trusty phrase book.

 

 

 

 

After that Pam and I did some hiking, peed in the woods (which I'm pretty sure was more sanitary then the bathrooms at the yurt camp where we were staying), and spent the afternoon enjoying the fresh air (no smog there!), wild horses and blue sky. All along the countryside we kept finding these temple or shrine like structures made out of rocks. They typically had Tibetan prayer flags hanging off of them and on several we found the remains of animals. We had lots of fun taking pictures - although I've noticed when we go to take one of ourselves, somehow Pam always ends up looking normal and I always look ridiculous.

 

 

 

 

Thursday night we slept in a Yurt with 4 other people. Yurts are the traditional Mongolian tent/house and are set up across the countryside as they move from place to place with their herds. The yurt we slept in had a wooden platform about 6 inches off the floor that was covered with this table cloth like material.  We each had several duvets and a pillow. Across the grasslands, we saw several yurts that were solar-powered which I thought was really cool that they were using alternative energy resources all the way in the middle of no-where China - clearly, the U.S. needs to get with the program. It was so cold that Pam and I ended up sharing the 4 blankets/duvets we had between us. I wore 4 pairs of pants and about 10 shirts and a jacket to sleep and was still freezing!!! It was fun though, especially once we realized that one of our yurt-mates was an English major so she translated for us and we got to know a little bit about the people we were sharing the Yurt with, making it a little less awkward to sleep next to these strangers. As we were leaving the Yurt the next morning I accidentally broke the one glass window with my elbow (not really sure how it happened) - but luckily I still had on about 5 layers so no injuries. I quickly ran away and got on the bus!

 

 

 

 

 

The meals at the Yurt camp were certainly a unique experience. After everyone returned from horseback riding, we all sat down in this huge yurt and a waiter dressed in traditional Mongolian clothes came around and had everyone take a shot of this rice wine/liquor before the meal. That stuff has to be one of the most disgusting things that I've ever tasted (I didn't taste it again this time as I had some at a staff dinner back in Shanghai a few days earlier). They also preformed some traditional songs before and during the meal followed by a rousing rendition of the wedding march on a keyboard (even though there was no wedding).

 

We were glad to return to indoor plumbing Friday morning! After we got back to the city and checked into the hotel we spent the day exploring Hohhot. The city was so clean compared to Shanghai - the sky was so blue and the air so crisp in comparison. I loved that it felt like fall there since it's been so warm in Shanghai. There's this great park in the city center that we visited and rode on the ferris wheel.

Then we went to the historic five-storied Wutu Pagoda. It was beautiful! If I was a really good tourist I would have remembered all of the history behind it but unfortunately I don't - I just know that it's like 7 centuries old or something like that. The colors were so bright!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the pagoda they had this hanging garden of pumpkins and gourds that was really neat. Why have a pumpkin patch on the ground when you can have one hanging above you?

 

 

We also visited a traditional lamasery where the architecture was quite impressive. There was a traditional prayer ceremony going on that we stopped in to watch. After the monks noticed us, they kept turning around to take our picture! Apparently, not so many foreigners visit that spot either. The lamasery also had these sculptures and statues of a bull, elephant, monkey and rabbit. Since all of the other tourists were climbing all over them we couldn't resist as well. I also really liked all of the prayer wheels - they were all over the place. After the lamasery, we wandered around the Muslim area of town which had a mix of what architecture you would think you would find in the Middle East and traditional Asian pagoda-like architecture along with Chinese flags EVERYWHERE because of the 60th anniversary of the PRC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday we had arranged a tour to the desert which was about 3 hours away. We're quickly learning that nothing is simple in China. It took us way more steps than necessary to get to the right tour group.
Even arranging the tour was a challenge - After learning that our hotel didn't have tours to the desert, we called a hostel from the guide book. They didn't speak a lot of English but were nice enough to take down my number. They had someone from China International Travel Service (CITS) call us back and arranged a tour for us on Saturday.

At 8 on Saturday morning, the tour people called our hotel room and said that they were in the lobby and ready to go. After meeting them downstairs we got in a mini-bus with about 8 other people. We thought we were good to go at that point but then we got to another hotel just several blocks away where we were told to get out and 2 other people got in. As that mini-bus drove away I was sure we were getting scammed as we had already paid our 200 RMB ($30) but this woman who didn't speak any English took us inside the hotel restaurant and indicated that we should wait. After about 10 min, she got up, went outside and got in a van. I was about ready to start running after her (not that it would have done any good since we couldn't really communicate) but then this other guy showed up. He spoke English, said he was from CITS and told us that we had to wait 30 min and then we could go. So we waited for a while and then he told us to follow him. We got in a cab with him and after a 10 minute drive, we stopped on the side of the road in front of these 3 statues - a woolly mammoth, an elephant and something else. He got out of the cab so we followed suit. I kept asking if we were going to the desert and he promised that we would. Finally, another mini bus showed up and it was going to the desert! After all that, I'm not sure why that mini-bus didn't just pick us up in the first place.

Anyway, we finally got to the desert and found out that this older couple in our group spoke fairly good English - they were so kind as they translated for us and made sure we knew what was going on as it was a bit of a circus atmosphere with so much to do and see in the middle of nowhere. Actually, they have a daughter that works in Wisconsin and went to the University of Michigan (boo!). Once we arrived, they gave us these brightly colored booties to wear so that we wouldn't get sand in our shoes or all over our pants - it was actually a good idea and made such a great fashion statement. We took a jeep ride through the dunes, rode camels and went down this huge sand slide. The camel ride was so random! Our camels had 2 (very hairy!) humps so where was no need for a saddle but some of the camels we saw had floppy humps which were really funny looking. After riding for about half an hour, they took us (on the camels of course) to this little zoo on the top of some dune where they had some puppies, a badger, and a ram along with skeletons of each of the animals. If you ever go to Inner Mongolia, you should definitely spend some time in the desert - it's so strange but really fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday we headed back to Shanghai and even though the air here is full of smog I was relieved to return. The trip was a lot of fun and I'm really glad we did it but I was happy to return to a normal schedule and our apartment.

This week, I've been teaching/working, hanging out with my co-workers and settling back into a routine. Most days I don't have to be at work until after 1 or 2 and then I work until 7 or 8. There's time to run in the mornings and I like not having to deal with rush hour which makes everything so crowded. I work really long hours on Saturdays and Sundays but then I have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off.

On Wednesday, Pam and I are going to this professional tennis tournament since it's our day off. It's called the Shanghai Masters and I think Nadal, Andy Roddick, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic are going to be there. I'm sure like everything else in China it will be special and very random!