Old and Ancient Shanghai

So at end of last week we were all bracing ourselves for super typhoon muifa, one of the most powerful to hit china in recent years and were told to stay inside and keep doors and windows shut. However in Shanghai ultimately the weather warning got downgraded to tropical storm and aside from some showers and thunder storms it was okay weather.

However, the sound of thunder here reminds me of the type of storms you imagine when reading horror novels (Stephen King’s The Stand springs to mind), the classic foley artist go-to thunder sound effect but amped up mega loud. Then you get the sporadic flashes of lightning and the fat droplets of rain. It always starts out as a light shower at first then within the next few minutes you know the rain means business.

This past weekend it was the Qixi festival which commonly dubbed as Chinese Valentine’s Day. Legend states that a celestial weaver girl escaped from heaven and was noticed by a cowboy herding his cattle and they both fell in love, got married and had two children. The girl’s goddess mother was very angry that her daughter had married a mortal so created a river in the sky to separate the pair, which we now know as as the star constellation known as  ‘the milky way’. On the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, millions of stellar magpies form a bridge across the milky way so the girl and her cowboy lover can be reunited again. It is said if it rains on the day of the festival (which it did) it is the lovers tears falling because of their sorrow of being parted. It was really cute seeing couples wearing matching tee shirts (a lot of shops sell t shirt in sets for couple here and you can even buy matching shirts for the whole family!)

Old Shanghai

I spent my weekend doing some shopping. At People’s Square, one of the exit comes out through a tunnel described as a ‘time machine’ decorated with brownstone and old shop fronts to recreate downtown ‘Old Shanghai’ of the 1930’s. The street is based on the French style Xiafei Road with some British and Japanese constructions complete with red glowing lanterns, sunny clear blue skies painted on the ceiling and those plastic cutouts of people like the ones you sometimes see at museum exhibits - very touristy but fun. You can also take your picture with a trolley bus under a neon sign that says ‘Shanghai 1930’s traditional street.’ This leads you into the Hong Kong shopping centre, the style of mall similar to some outlets in some of the malls in Singapore and Malaysia (and hong Kong of course) with little boutiques and stalls and a really nice bubble tea stall where I can indulge in my favourite milk pearl tea. Aside from dresses, clothing and accessories there are also a few shops of cartoon characters  (benko? astro boy?) and general gift stores in the vast mall. The food courts here are different than other parts of asia I have been to as you have to purchase coupons in a machine before going to whichever place you want to eat. I also went to the fabric market and got a dress made to measure and West Nanjing Road which is a more westernised shopping area where you can find most western brand stores.

Yuyuan Gardens

I started off this week on a very fun and informative tour of Yuayan Gardens which is in the old city next to Yuyuan bazaar which is basically tourist central and the buildings maintain the exterior look of ancient chinese architecture, how the market square would have looked in imperial times (you have to imagine it without the McDonalds, Dairy Queen and Starbucks). I learnt all about Chinese garden design and Taoism and my own personal Taoist protector which correlates with my Chinese birth year and sign (Year of the pig). I even enjoyed it in the searing hot and humid heat which has started up again this week after it had cooled some when typhoon muifa was looming.

For the second time i had the most delicious amazing dumplings at place called Din Tai Fung which is a Taiwanese chain and has several branches in Shanghai and throughout South East Asia and one in Los Angeles. I went to the one in Xintiandi in the French Concession. I cannot rave enough about these dumplings - the dumplings are steamed have have soup inside and we ate loads and I also tried a hairy crab meat dumpling, as Shanghainese cuisine is famous for hairy crab it had to be to be tried. It was nice but not as nice as the prawn and seafood dumplings.  The area around Xintiandi is a pretty nice with lots of shopping malls and bars and cafes.

In terms of day to day life, i don’t think I will ever get used to crossing the street here - I am terrified every time! Eventually hopefully I will get the hang of it!

xoxo