Shanghai Nights

I have been planning to visit one of the most famous points of the Far East, Shanghai for quite a while by now. The reputation of this city is partially due to its classic casinos and cabarets and also because of its unprecedented, fast growth and development. I have got to see it, right?

My friend, Devrim (US/ Turkey) has been living here for over a year and Tee (NZ) also used to live here for three months before, which has meant lots of invitations that I have got to finally accept: with a gang of four we headed to Shanghai for some discoveries now!

Irina (Romania) and I had been counting down the days and excitedly wandered about our exploring experience in the Far East, while Lars (Germany), probably because of his prior experience in the city, seemingly calmly prepared for the trip with his girlfriend, Tiffany.

After the five-hour-long flight we had an hour or so in the immigration and finally we met Devrim and Triin (Estonia)! Jenny, a Chinese alumnus was also with them who then spent a few days relaxing in Shanghai.

It must have been around midnight when we got to taste a bit of the Devrimish night life: even though he does not do karaoke too often, as part of the real Shanghai experience he got us for a 3-hour-long singing… “nice” of him, ay ;-)? Here we met Devrim’s German flatmate, Sophie who gets his head to the right place if necessary ;-), Ben, the Austrian friend and Tobi, his German colleague.

At around 4am finally we said good-bye to the first day, absolutely exhaustedly!

We started the next day in a Shanghai-French crouching restaurant with a 5-6-meal breakfast… needless to say that we stuffed ourselves to the impossible and later it was really time for a walk and a bit of sightseeing! Vinod (Canada), an alumnus known apparently by many others but new to me, also joined us this time.

The Old Quarter was very sweet and it reminded me to the pictures of the old Shanghai movies. There was a nice park nearby, the Yu Yuan Garden whose hundreds-year-old buildings, dragon sculptures and consciously arranged fengshui sites truly admired me.

Later we targeted a bar called Cloud Nine which opens up the skylight view of Shanghai from one of the highest points, if I remember from the 84th or 85th floor. The view was fabulous: even though in the grey, burry, polluted Shanghai the view was not the clearest ever, it opened up the sight to the modern, unprecenedently quickly developing city as well as the buildings and small houses of the Old Shanghai. Here finally we saw Shanghai’s symbol, the Pearl Tower, too, which, to me, seems to cutely the 20 million-metropolis with its pink bubbles ;-)!

Then Pilli (Kenya) also arrived from KL to join our “Shanghai Nights”. Triin and Devrim really did their best to show the river-side scenery, the Bund glowing in its night lights to the exhausted gang. Here we stopped by in a little cafeteria to get some refreshing drinks (believe it or not but a cup of tea, a glass of juice or cocktail were all at the same price!) and then we headed towards the Shanghai Circus!

I had seen several TV programs about the Chinese circus shows before but what we saw here during a one-and-a-half-hour performance, it was truly unbelievable: without any kind of protection, belts or anything these guys were running on huge circles and without a sign of having spines or bones, little girls did poses that brought stunned and amazed gestures on the visitors’ faces. I simply adored it!

Later we visited a Hunnan restaurant where we ate chili with chili for the ‘happiness’ of all!

Before we would have got into the Shanghai Nights again, we changed at Devrim’s and then Ben, Vinod, Pilli, Irina and I went to check out Zapata’s, a nearby bar. At first, the view of all the expats shocked us but after a few cocktails and meeting the gang of a Brazilian alumnus we happily danced the night away!

After 4am, we got back to Devrim’s, but as per Murphy’s law, the lock got broken and we could not get into the flat. After playing around with some magician type of keys we finally managed to make it to bed at around 5.

The next day, Devrim surprised us all big time! What was it? A huge and delicious breakfast! The continuously cheeky man showed us his real side: his big heart and love (I have got to write this down even if I know that while reading this his head would get redder and redder ;-)).

Our next destination was Zhu Jiajiao, a small water village an hour bus-ride away: here we had the chance to roam around on a tiny Chinese boat among the little canals and see real life amongst the traditional cute buildings known from the old Chinese movies.

After we got back to Shanghai, Irina and I headed to the Fuxing International Jazz Festival while the others explored a new cuisine over dinner. We enjoyed the charming music of a Latino and a Canadian band while slowly sipping on a glass of wine and beer.

Later we headed to Barbarossa (or something alike) bar where the others were awaiting us. My limited Mandarin knowledge came handy while talking to the taxi driver, the security guards and the people passing by that we asked for directions but I also must admit that I did not understand whatever they responded (as you know a word can mean four different things depending on the tones used and it has been already 2.5 years that I got my basics and I could go on with excuses alike ;-)) but the whole interpretation thing gave us endless reasons for laughter!

The Arabic style bar was very cute: we were drinking nice cocktails by the tables ‘armed’ with shishas and later we walked around the river-side, wondering at Shanghai by night.

This time we were at home by around 1-2am already – we needed some energy-refuel finally.

On Monday morning, Pilli, Irina and I roamed around the city to look for a fresh croissant and an awakening cup of coffee. Due to its historical legacy, we could sense the charming atmosphere of the French district with its unique mixture inside the Chinese streets (not mentioning the impact of the English and the Japanese which I’d better not talk about in much details – not as if I know much about them ;-)).

We had a look at the Shanghai Museum’s sign and painting exhibitions which was a pleasantly slow program for the early hours.

This day, again I tested by language skills several times and to my greatest surprise many times they actually worked ;-). Talking about communication: the Chinglish (Chinese English) was hilarious – the signs of the parks warn the visitors not to urinate or do the big things inside or bring animals… unless it is all permitted ;-)!

At lunch time we met Lars and Tiffany at the Shanghai South Train Station so that together we could go to see Hangzhou. According to the legends “what is paradise in heaven, is Hangzhou (and Shuzhuo) on Earth”. Would we ever need anything else than this to go and check it out? Of course, nope!

The foggy view of the West Lake was really stunning: we had a look at its stunning shores, pagodas and surrounding hills from a tiny Chinese, hand-driven boat – I liked it :-)!

Even though we spent a short time on the shore, it was really worth it! Due to the shift change and the traffic jam we ended up trying to wave a taxi down for around an hour but it rather ended up in endless laughter than anything else.

Devrim and some of his friends (Louise, Steve and Harry) were waiting for us in a corner-side Chinese restaurant where our delicious dumpling dinner hardly cost a few cents.

Later we were to get some very well-deserved massage in a place called Taipan! I think it was my most painful ever massage where the masseur just did not get that I did not like his fingers in the spine and did not understand my almost perfectly pronounced (yeah right ;-)) ‘hen hao’s and ‘bu hao’s… but it was still fun…

Then we went to check out a nice bar in the French Quarter where Ben again joined us. As Zapata’s closed down we ended up going to a Latin restaurant for some snacks and at around 3-4am we said good night ;-)!

We ended up oversleeping (surprise, surprise ;-)) so after a relaxed breakfast with Pilli and Irina we visited Triin and Lysander (and also Jessie and Alex) in LMU (Logistics Management University). Our company established this office around a year ago for training purposes and I loved its set up with all the meeting and re-arrangeable classrooms and of course, all the Employee of the Year posters around, prepared by my team in Singapore ;-)! Together we then went for a lunch in a real Shanghai restaurant where we chit-chatted and slowly got to know our colleagues a bit better – it was a very nice time together!

Later we met Devrim again at the Fake Market where Irina had to satisfy her shopping obsession ;-) – needless to say that I could challenge my Mandarin again here which was fun and inspiration at the same time. I am not too sure how long and how much I would enjoy this communication gap but so far my Shanghai experience has made me very much like the place and the whole package with it!

After packing up at Devrim’s, we headed to the airport! But not just by a traditional taxi but with a train, the Maglev that goes 435 km/hr! Can you believe it? Amazing!

We had hardly 10 more minutes left for the check-in for the 16.35 flight… but we got there… but… then Irina and I were told that our tickets were for the flight at 14.30… Hoppa! We were wondering what to do when the check-in guy confirmed that only one seat would be available and I already started contemplating with nightmare visions of studying accounting at the Shanghai airport when finally we both ended up getting seats to the very same flight. What to call this if not mere luck ;-)?

It was a pretty unusual ‘city’ holiday in Shanghai where days and nights meant pure fun and definitely unforgettable experience! Thank you, Triin and Devrim :-)!

(If curious to see more pics, check this out!)