Hello from Tierra del Fuego!

Day 3: Shanghai

After a leisurely morning at the hotel, we decided to go to the zoo.  Matt declared that he would not leave China without seeing a panda, and since we were bypassing the city of Chengdu and its Panda Research Center, the Shanghai Zoo would have to do.

But first, we headed back to the Bund for a daytime view of the riverfront. 

Not as glitzy during the day, but still cool

The promenade was incredibly busy, with tour groups galore.   Matt and I consider ourselves pretty independent travelers, and after seeing the huge groups with their matching hats and flag-waving guides, we’re pretty happy to be seeing China our way. 

Follow the orange hats!

Next, we found ourselves back at Yang’s Fry-Dumplings for a second meal of the oh-so-good snacks.  After a quick lunch we headed west out of the city on a Metro line that had literally been open for four days.  In preparation for the upcoming Shanghai World Expo, the city has undergone a massive amount of construction, including the addition of several Metro lines/extensions.   We happily discovered that the train would get us within walking distance of the zoo, though we had to watch our time as it would stop running at 4 PM, as is customary for new lines. 

Along the road from train to zoo

We successfully found the zoo, which was unceremoniously located among apartment buildings, Shanghai’s domestic airport, and a ton of construction, but once inside, it was a sprawling, beautiful area that we had practically to ourselves.  We made a beeline for the pandas, stopping to see peacocks, bears, tigers, and wolves along the way.

Do I blend in with the rocks?

The Sichuan province lent Shanghai ten panda cubs for the World Expo, and they were definitely the most popular guys at the zoo.  Climbing all over each other, munching leaves, and generally looking cute, the pandas were well worth the visit.

Panda watching

Panda snacktime

Posing for the camera

Pondering something at the bottom of the slide

This one prefers to eat in privacy

We hustled back to the train station before the last one left without us and went looking for dinner.  I had read about a hot pot restaurant that sounded good, but when we arrived at its address we found ourselves at a swanky office building filled with…offices.   After a little wandering, iPhone consulting, and finally the help of a doorman, we discovered that the restaurant was closed.  I suppose this is one of the issues with so much construction going on; it’s difficult to keep webpages up-to-date as things open and close. 

Standing on the street corner, we scanned the area for the next potential dinner spot.  Looking up, we saw a restaurant with its name in neon in every window, looked it up on the iPhone (thank you, random wireless connections!), and found it to be known for some of the best dim sum in the city.  Sold! 

Restaurant on second floor... good thing for the neon advertising

The restaurant, Fu Lin Xuan, was pretty fancy inside but not expensive.  The service was as good as you’d see at the Peninsula; very attentive, patient, and speedy.  We had ourselves a great dim sum meal, ordering steamed BBQ pork buns, rice dumplings filled with meat, shrimp and taro spring rolls, flaky pork pastries, and garlicky cucumbers.  All were excellent, and we were happy to have randomly found such a great place for dinner.

What a great meal!

Next up:  Shanghai Circus World!  We had tickets to the “ERA – Intersection of Time” show, an acrobatic extravaganza that I’d read about online.  The metro conveniently had a stop half a block from the theater, and we got there in plenty of time to watch about twenty tour groups fill the arena around us.   The theater was in a huge dome-shaped space, with great seats no matter where you were, so we felt pretty good about having bought the “cheap” tickets!

The show was AMAZING.  One acrobatic act after another, accompanied with great live music and lights, left us awestruck.  Everything from juggling to contortionists to tumbling to high-wire was featured, and we loved it all.   Matt snuck a few pictures during the show. 

Two guys catapult a third into the air to land on the circular mat

Cool twirling lights

Grand finale - eight motorbikes driven around the huge steel dome. AWESOME.

After the show, we headed back to the hotel, stopping for ice cream at a convenience store along the way.  (Can’t beat 70 cents for two ice cream bars!)  It was another great day; tomorrow we have the morning in Shanghai before departing for Guilin and the mountain scenery of Yangshuo!

Day 2: Shanghai

Our first full day in Shanghai began mid-morning with a walk to a pair of dumpling restaurants that I found in my pre-trip research. First up was Jia Jia Tang Bao, where a dozen pork dumplings, ginger, a soda and another enormous beer was a mere $2.  The dumplings were excellent, and the steady line out the door told us we weren’t the only ones who thought so!

Pork dumplings and ginger

Reeb beer quenches your thirst and provides entertainment for observant word nerds.

Was going to go with retaw, but beer sounds better

Next up, we crossed the street to Yang’s Fry-Dumplings, and surprisingly, they were even better.  A delicious pork filling was surrounded by an even more delicious soup, with a golden brown pan-fried bottom crust to change up the texture.  Outstanding, and at a mere $1.50 for 8 huge dumplings, we will definitely be eating here again before we leave Shanghai.

Yang's dumplings win!

Full of dumplings, we set out to explore Shanghai.  No rain, thankfully, as we made our way through People’s Square, a lovely park area filled with museums and other cultural monuments.   We stopped at a huge mall food court for a bubble tea drink, then headed south toward Yu Yuan Gardens.

Lions are believed to have protective powers and bring good luck; they are everywhere

Yu Gardens and Bazaar is a collection of beautiful buildings loaded with shops selling everything from cheap souvenirs to jewelry to medicine.   There is also a temple and gorgeous garden area.  We wandered through the shops, eventually bargaining a great price for two ink-print paintings of Yangshuo scenery.   We watched the artist as he hand-painted the prints (not ours), smudging, smearing, and dabbing the ink on by hand.  He showed us a picture of himself in O’Hare, and gave us a good price for being from Chicago (right!). 

We found the entrance to the gardens, paid the $5 admission, and found ourselves in a peaceful, scenic area free from the craziness of the shops outside.  The Ming-dynasty gardens are divided up by walls that make it seem a little maze-like, and we had fun exploring the area and taking some great pictures.

This cat was kind enough to pose for us

A beautiful backdrop at Yu Gardens

We left the gardens and headed west on a walking tour provided by one of our guidebooks.  It was a great way to see some back-street areas of the city as we wandered through alleys exploring various markets and observing daily life of the Shanghai people.  One market in particular was like nothing we’d seen before, filled to bursting with flowers, tables of crickets and grasshoppers each in an individual box, bowls of turtles and fish, and cages full of birds, rabbits, mice, and kittens.  We did not buy anything here. 🙂

Pick a turtle, any turtle...

We ended our walking tour at Xin Tiandi, which translates to “New Heaven and Earth”, an area of stone tenements formerly the site of the first national congress of the Communist Party of China redeveloped into a shopping and restaurant complex.   Our destination was Crystal Jade, a restaurant known for their excellent Cantonese food and our chosen dinner spot.   We sampled more sweet and sour pork, some excellent hand-cut noodles, and spring rolls; all was delicious and while this meal was slightly more pricey than our lunch, we left very happy.

Hand-pulled noodles were excellent

Winding down, we headed east toward the Bund on our way back to the hotel.  We discovered a cool Thai market as we walked through a small park, and caught a few seconds of a concert featuring two Thai singers who, judging from the screams of the girls in attendance, were very popular.    We walked along the street below a major highway, which was bathed in blue light and gave the whole area a very futuristic feel. 

Cool blue lighting illuminates the highway

The Bund is the most famous landmark in Shanghai.  It’s a street lined on one side with grandiose buildings and the other side with a riverfront promenade offering awesome views of the buildings across the water in Pudong.  The Peninsula is located at the north end of the Bund.  The night was clearer, so Matt tried for some cool nighttime shots of the lit-up skyline.

World banks and famous hotels line one side of the Bund

On the riverfront promenade with the Pudong skyline in the background

The rain started again, so we called it a day and headed back to the Peninsula.  Tomorrow:  pandas, acrobats, and more dumplings!

Day 1: Shanghai

Hello from Shanghai!  After flying from Chicago to New York, and then taking a 15-hour flight from Newark, we arrived in China — and this time we actually have visas. 

Nic and Shanghai's 2010 World Expo mascot Haibao (Blue Gumby)

There were zero problems as we changed our money and acquainted ourselves with Haibao, the omni-present mascot for the 2010 World Expo (pictured above).  For transportation from the airport to Shanghai, we took the 430 km/hour Maglev train, which got us downtown in 8 minutes vs 1 hour by cab… nice!

The umbrella-toting masses on Nanjing Road

Upon arrival, we trudged a mile from the subway to the Peninsula in a blowing rain storm.  It wasn’t torrential, but when everybody busts out their umbrellas, the streets get crowded in a hurry.  After a short break, we returned to the rain-soaked streets in search of dinner.  Walking back down Nanjing road (pictured above), Nic led us to a restuarant called Grape.  Delicious fried noodles, sweet and sour pork, dumplings, and an enormous beer for around $10.  I like China prices so far.

Fried noodles and sweet and sour pork

After dinner, I dropped a couple bucks on a shirt and sweater as we wandered back east on Nanjing Road.  It finally stopped raining.  We checked out the Peninsula pool and called it a night.