Monday-Sunday,
February 11-17, 2019 Shanghai, China
On Monday after a light
breakfast of boiled brown eggs and spicy Chinese Dumplings, we took a second
nap until early afternoon; to get our sleep habits tuned to the new time.
Big city sights in the French Connections.
Our Airbnb
We decided to take a walk in the neighborhood
to get some supplies…but most everything was still closed up for the Chinese
New Year, which was to come to an end on Wednesday.
We stopped to ask a
gentleman for directions to a grocery, the local 7-11 didn’t have our needs for
some fresh fruit and breakfast supplies. The gentleman, Mike, took us on a
guided tour of the area pointing out the grocery, cell phone store to purchase
our Sim card, and some excellent restaurants, as well as the metro and how to
get a metro card.
He went out of his way to make us feel welcome and comfortable in Shanghai. He insisted on taking us to lunch at the corner American Bistro where we ordered up brunch after our two hour hike around the neighborhood. Having grown up in Shanghai, Mike was an encyclopedia of Shanghai knowledge. His English was excellent.
He went out of his way to make us feel welcome and comfortable in Shanghai. He insisted on taking us to lunch at the corner American Bistro where we ordered up brunch after our two hour hike around the neighborhood. Having grown up in Shanghai, Mike was an encyclopedia of Shanghai knowledge. His English was excellent.
After graduating from the university, he spent
time in the US in Silicon Valley, returning back to Shanghai to open his own
business in 2009. Turns out he is a part owner of the Lexar Company…the company
that makes the cards that go into cameras and computers. We were so fortunate
to have met him. What a GREAT guy and our new friend in Shanghai.
On Tuesday, Larry and I
braved the metro riding the red line (1) going down to the People’s Square, one
of Shanghai’s top ten areas to visit.
The metro in Shanghai is fabulous....but there are many different modes of transportation. We surprised at the large cars driven here.
Interesting ride for the rain!
They ride here in the rain and cold!!!!
Wouldn't want to be fighting for a lane in this weather.....wheeeeeeee!!
We were headed to the Shanghai Museum
because it was pouring rain.
People's Square Park was nicely landscaped.
When we found the museum, there was a huge queue
of people waiting in line in the rain to go in.
We quickly changed our plans and spent the afternoon walking around in the local underground mall.
That was
fun and a real eye opener to the local cuisines, shops, and people.
We enjoyed a gorgeous aquarium in the mall.
Larry
especially enjoyed talking to the locals when he could find an English speaking
one. We have been pleasantly surprised to find several English speaking Shanghaian.
Larry found a nice winter
ski hat for 3 bucks, it is chilly here. What a deal!
Oh…. the smells of Shanghai
are not to be unmentioned. We have enjoyed some delightful aromas…like fresh
bread baking and stir fried concoctions…..but we have had some gosh awful
smells of something rotting in restaurants that we quickly depart from, not
taking a chance.
The factory fumes that you can taste in your mouth when we’re outside help us to understand why so many locals wear masks over their mouths and noses.
The factory fumes that you can taste in your mouth when we’re outside help us to understand why so many locals wear masks over their mouths and noses.
At the mall food court we
experienced a wonderful stir fry for lunch…. and steering clear of some pretty
unforgettable terrible smells in a couple of venues. It is interesting that
restaurants have a sign displayed from the health inspector. Each restaurant is
given a happy face, a straight face, or a sad face, making it easy for
customers to decide where to eat.
Although the weather was
frightful, we had a great day in Shanghai!
On Wednesday we walked into
a different neighborhood of the French Concession. The streets were lines with these exquisite sycamore trees. We could only imagine the beauty that they added during the spring, summer, and fall.
We passed by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Hall, with a great display of famous past musicians.
We walked by lots of locals
shops that were open for the first time since the beginning of the Chinese New
Year.
An interesting way to advertise a tailor shop!
We finally found a telephone
store that had the correct Sim Card for our phone. Unfortunately, our phone was
of no use to us except for making local calls…we were planning to use the phone
for uber, but the Shanghai taxis are as reasonable as uber; however, we used
the metro most of the time causing us to not need a phone.
There is no google, no
facebook, no instagram, no twitter and no blogspot in China. These are blocked
by the government. When we tried to use the Chinese search system, Baidu, it
was written only in Chinese with no English version….so we were not privy to
any information on the internet. We did have access to our email and Whats app
worked for a couple of days and then stopped.
It was another heavy, rainy
day so we called it a short day in the early afternoon.
