Shanghai trip

This was Alex’s and my first time in Shanghai, Mark has been there a couple times for travel and meetings.  I was able to figure out how to get us train tickets on my own- a seemingly small task, but it’s one less thing that we need to ask for help on.   The people in my office are so amazing and helpful but we try to limit how much we ask for help and save it for big favors (like helping me get my driver’s license).

So we hopped on the G train and headed into Shanghai.  Alex was so excited to ride the bullet train- even if he was a little disappointed that the world didn’t flash by in the window the way it does in cartoons.

The station in Shanghai is a little overwhelming at first, there are so many people and so many different ways you can go. We got lunch in the station – Alex got to have Subway for the first time in China, and Mark found a dumpling place he liked.  We knew we were looking for the metro, but there are two signs on opposite sides of the metro for two different lines of the metro, neither one was the one we wanted to be on.

Once we got to the 2 (you have to get on that or the 10) you can transfer to any other line.  Buying metro tickets is a breeze, there’s an English button, and you pick your destination.  By the end of these two trips to Shanghai, Mark and I feel like pros on the metro.

Now, I learned a lesson here that I should have learned already – get the app before you go. There is, of course,  an app for the metro in Shanghai that has a map of all the lines.  There is an app for almost anything here, and half the time there is an English version.

Our hotel was a short walk from the metro station, and in a fairly quiet section of Shanghai. As many people as there were around, it wasn’t nearly as many as I was expecting.  The best thing about the hotel was that is was attached to a fantastic sushi place. We had dinner there the first night, and Alex even tried some salmon belly (not his thing, but he tried!)

Sometimes I forget that I should take pictures for the blog, especially when food is involved.  So there are no pictures of the actual sushi- but it was great. I tried some new things and overall we had a wonderful dinner.

The next day was adventure day. Mark watches a youtube show called “Food Ranger” and one of the first shows he showed me was about a breakfast food called jian bing. our family has been talking about this for months, wanting to try it. We’ve even shown other people the show about it (Sorry Dad).  So since we were there, we decided this was the time. So we hopped on the metro, put the address into the maps (Google maps is accurate about 3/4 of the time here, I also have a map app that come on my Huawei phone that works better with addresses in Chinese) and wandered around until we found it.

Our review on Jianbing is all thumbs up.  It was delicious, everything that had been hyped up was real. It’s crunchy and eggy, and a little sweet and a touch of hot- it would replace breakfast noodles for me if I knew where to find it locally.  We all agreed that it was worth the trek to find it, and that we will be going back for more!

On the same street  we found a bakery that sold what I think are called mahua. My office mate brought in a snack from her home town to share, and we loved them. They are green twisty crackers, that I did not take any pictures of.  So when we found them at the bakery, we knew we had to get some more.  I didn’t take any pictures of this either, so you’ll have to imagine them.  We are trying to find these in Haining as well because it is a new favorite. We can find brown twisty crackers, but they are more like cookies and sweet.

We also hung out in a coffee shop for a while. Mark and I really loved the street that we were on, it was small and local but still lots of movement and bustle.  I really ended up liking all of Shanghai more than I expected.

After that we went to YuYuan Garden, I found that on several lists of things to do when you’re in Shanghai.  Again, we hopped on the metro and got there very quickly.  To get to Yuyuan, you have to walk down a street lined with stores, this stores sell all kinds of things, scarfs, toys, wigs, you name it, it can probably be found here.  It was so fun to see so many people out and about, it was busy but not unbearable.

We decided we’d go through it and see what the shopping area was like before heading to the garden.  It was amazing.  There were so many souvenir options and food options. There was a line for a dumpling restaurant that was 60 people deep.  As we worked our way through, the crowds got a little thicker and there was definitely a press.

After Alex got his treat and we pressed on to find the garden. The closer we got to the garden the denser the crowd got- there were decorations set out on the water and a bridge to walk through  to see them all. Everyone was heading to see that.  We found the garden, bought our very reasonable 30RMB tickets, and headed into what we didn’t know was the back entrance of the garden.

The pond in the background had huge koi in it, Alex enjoyed feeding them the green twisty crackers, the fish seemed to enjoy it too.

I loved the round doors, and the sunlight and shadows. It had a wonderful sense of calm, despite all the people there and the fact that it is nestled in a city of 24 million people.

 

We took the train back, and had a pizza party dinner in our hotel room while watching some survival show dubbed in Chinese.

This is the end of part one-  and really just day one (and a half ) in Shanghai.