Welcome to Shanghai. The beautiful city. The people are beautiful; the clothes are beautiful; the buildings are beautiful. But beware: if the guidebook says a street, a restaurant, a café or a bar is either trendy, hip, modern or new… you should avoid it. What they really mean is “it looks exactly like home and probably is next to a Starbucks so you don’t actually need to go there because once you get there you won’t even know you’re in China anymore.” I’ve already made the mistake twice since we got here (all of yesterday). I thought “new” and “hip” meant I’d see the cutting-edge side of Shanghai. Turns out that nothing avant-guard comes out of guidebooks. Right. Probably should have guessed that….
So… Shanghai. What can I tell you? If Beijing is Rome, Shanghai is Florence. If Beijing is London, Shanghai is Paris. That is, if 80% of the major monuments of Florence and Paris were under major construction at the same time. As it turns out, the World Expo is coming to Shanghai in 2010, and as you may remember from the last Olympics, the Chinese take their “preparing to host world events” really damn seriously. So our “romantic stroll along the Bund” (the riverside park that is lined with amazing art deco architecture … or so we’re told) became “watch out for that jack hammer! Woah, there is no sidewalk here and that dump truck is backing up! Is that a pretty building under that scaffolding? Is there a river behind that 20 foot wall?”
So… Shanghai. What can I tell you? If Beijing is Rome, Shanghai is Florence. If Beijing is London, Shanghai is Paris. That is, if 80% of the major monuments of Florence and Paris were under major construction at the same time. As it turns out, the World Expo is coming to Shanghai in 2010, and as you may remember from the last Olympics, the Chinese take their “preparing to host world events” really damn seriously. So our “romantic stroll along the Bund” (the riverside park that is lined with amazing art deco architecture … or so we’re told) became “watch out for that jack hammer! Woah, there is no sidewalk here and that dump truck is backing up! Is that a pretty building under that scaffolding? Is there a river behind that 20 foot wall?”
"Ahhhh, the Bund....."
And just as I was cursing all things Shanghai, a young Chinese couple asked me to take a picture of them (Really? In front of this crane? OK…). We started to chat. Turns out she’s an English teacher. They’re from Tsing Tao (a city of 5 million … not just a beer!). They took us to an amazing tea house for a traditional tea ceremony. I saw tea do things I never thought possible. Many of the teas we had were hand-rolled: little tiny globes that were pieces of individual tea leaves rolled with other herbs or flowers inside. One of the teas we tried was a flower that had been hand-stuffed with other flowers and then sealed shut. When you added hot water it “bloomed” and 5 other type of flowers floated out of it. Amazing. Gone are the days that I felt chic ordering peppermint tea. That’s just so … basic.
Today I strolled around the French Concession (the part of the city that the Qing Empire – the last empire of China – “conceded” to France, as the Empire was weak and corrupt and need the money from the rents). It was hot and humid. Oh, yes, and beautiful. For a minute, I felt like I was in the Village in New York. And then I saw a woman pluck, gut and butcher a chicken in about 1 minute flat on the sidewalk. Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.
(Tango lessons in a park in the French Consession, Shanghai)
Tonight we’re off to an acrobat show and Chinese dinner with our new friends. Who needs monuments?
Oh, and just for the record.... it still looks pretty great at night, despite all the construction.
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