So I have a lot to update on even though only 2 days have passed, but this weekend was GREAT!
So as previously stated we decided to venture out to Shanghai on Saturday, so woke up early (don’t worry, not 5:45 a.m. early) on Saturday morning, got out of the house and on our way to the Renaissance Hotel in Suzhou to change some money and have a nice, big American Breakfast (buffet style – so yum), and then we were on our way for my first train experience in China! We purchased first class tickets so I didn’t have to worry about any beggars putting their heads in my lap (that happened to Curt at some point and that weirds me out a bit), and the train ride over was very peaceful and relaxing. We caught the 10:00 a.m. train which put us into Shanghai at about 10:45 a.m., so on the 40ish minute trip I got to see some of in between cities China, which was interesting… lots of gardens, trash, hovels, nice corporate buildings, and just a hodge podge of everything in between or all of it together on one block or in a field… It was a gorgeous day again, so perfect for experiencing a new city.
Once we got to Shanghai Train Station we switched over to their Metro system which, like every other major metropolitan city in the world, is a great way to travel. Even not being able to read the language, it still was fairly easy to get around so we got me a card that I could top-up with instead of worrying about buying single fare tickets all the time, and then we got on our way to the Pearl Tower which is the stop closest to Sarah and John’s place.
We got there around 11:15 a.m. I would say, called them, and while they were on their way we walked around the Pearl Tower, the river, and just started to take in the sights of Shanghai, which is an *amazing* city. It actually reminded me a lot of European cities – a big river running right through the middle of it, lots of corporate high rises on both sides, plenty to see and take in, etc. Sarah and John arrived, and it was SO good to see Sarah and meet John! They didn’t have any plans for the day (thank goodness, because we kind of took it over – keep reading) and we had no agenda really, just a Top 25 Things to See in Shanghai book, so we figured we’d let them kind of show us around and we’d just play things by ear! Such a fun plan to have NO plan…
So we cabbed it over to Yu Yuan Garden first, which is in Old Town. This area is kind of what I pictured China to look like – lots of beautiful temples, fine wooden carvings, and the bridge of 9 turns (not sure if this is the official name or not) which is a beautiful bridge with 9 zig zags across a pond of sorts filled with huge koi… apparently evil spirits can’t make sharp turns, or that many turns, so people would walk across to either get away from them, or for good luck… I’ll find out the history for sure, but it’s something like that. Whatever the full story is, it was beautiful! There are also lots of shops around there, so we just had fun chatting (me with Sarah, Curt and John following behind) and catching up, all the while window shopping in these beautiful little alleyways!
After we’d seen everything there was to see in Yu Yuan Garden, we then ventured to a very trendy area called Tai Kang Lu where a lot of people eat and wander, and shop… this area was more hip with art galleries, and a lot of Westerners hang out here as well. So we wandered a bit and then stopped for lunch. Again, the weather was gorgeous so we sat outside, enjoyed good food, although uncharacteristically for China, the service was not so hot – it was like they didn’t know the order of how to serve customers – sit down, take drink order, give drinks, take food order, give food, let people eat, clear, and bill. Our experience went more like, sit down, take drink order, take food order, give food, let people eat, people ask for drinks for the 7th time, bill, clear plates, bring drinks. Just weird, but we still had laughs and a good time, and again, we had no plans so it was ok. We then continued to explore Tai Kang Lu and the surrounding alleys, shops, etc. – there’s just so much to look at! At Sarah’s suggestion, I was also on the lookout for a business card book… they’re into business cards with maps and English on them which Westerners use to give taxi drivers to get to a place or area, which is a GREAT idea, and I found a cute green one here! Yea!
Then we decided to head to Nanjing Lu and to the People’s Square area which kind of reminded me of like a Piccadilly Circus or Leicester Square, or a smaller scale Times Square – lots of people, shopping and major brands, lights (even though it wasn’t dark), lots of people selling fake stuff, and just general energy.
Then onto more sights, and we went to the Bund area which is on the other side of the river from the Pearl Tower, and by this time the sun was setting so we were enjoying the weather, river, sights, talking, and then after a bit we decided it was time to go get dinner!
We opted for Xian Tian Di which is a posh area in the French Concession which was gorgeous and I think a collective group favorite. Newer gray stone buildings, twinkle lights, amazing restaurants with outdoor patios, lots of people milling about, and just amazing atmosphere! We walked around there for a bit, and decided on a place called Luna for dinner. Our train back to Suzhou wasn’t until 9:30 p.m. so we all got drinks, ordered some tapas to start with, and had a slow and leisurely dinner with melt in your mouth ribs (it said this actually on the menu, and we all agreed that they did indeed melt in your mouth – they were so incredible that John and I switched our main course dinner to have more of these, which as Methodists is a no-no J. Haha – don’t worry, that’s a funny joke that was a theme throughout the day as Curt and Sarah are both Lutheran, and John and I Methodist – turns out John and I have a lot in common with being hard core Aggies, football fans, and the fact that we don’t think the other person in the relationship should order the same thing as the other person b/c you should sample and it’s kind of a waste, whereas Sarah and Curt think it’s totally fine to do that, so we concluded it must be a Lutheran/Methodist thing… LOL… not really of course, was just funny.
ANYWAY, the dinner was delicious, wonderful, all of the above, and at around 8:15 p.m. I checked my watch, and then decided to check the train tickets to confirm they were for 9:30 p.m. Looking closely at a mix between English and Chinese writing, and see 17:32… after a couple of glasses of wine am thinking that 12+9 is definitely much higher than 17, but trying to do the math slowly to be sure, and read every English number on there making sure there is nothing else on there that could be 9:30 p.m. and nope – so got out our morning ticket to make sure I was looking in the right place, and yep – sure enough – the lady at the ticket booth who we thought spoke pretty good English gave us 5:30 tickets instead of 9:30 tickets – ugh… so we missed our train by a lot. Curt said there was probably a 10 p.m. train, but I was like, it’s going to be one of those situations where if we part ways and go to the train station, we won’t be able to get on, so Sarah and John said we should just stay with them and we could have more fun that night, SO we did… haha. Then we could be really slow finishing up dinner, enjoyed our drinks, the weather, and the laughs (there were many and a moment where I almost cried I couldn’t breathe). Then we cabbed it back over to their area of town, went to their place to let their lab, Lucy, out, got situated and then went back out to… PARTYWORLD to check out KTV at it’s best on a Saturday night!
So the Chinese love Karaoke (realize this is a huge generalization, so sorry, but humor me) – I’m sure everyone has seen the Rush Hour scenes where Chris Tucker takes over and does his Michael Jackson, which is hilarious, but that is how it is – they love it. So they have these huge karaoke bars with private rooms, which is what PartyWorld is like – it looked like a hotel, and probably had 200 rooms, maybe all 12x12 outfitted with couches, liquor and drinks, nice big flat screen, mics, and a central buffet out in the middle. So we’re walking down this hallway peeking into the room windows watching everyone singing their hearts out, and it was hilarious! We decided we definitely need to get a group together and plan a PartyWorld evening!
Then we headed over to this expat bar near their complex and had fun getting a couple more drinks and watching a Chinese band do American covers – too fun.
Then we stopped in the DVD/CD store for Sarah to buy some DVD’s, then home, watched some of The Changeling, and by 1:40 a.m.ish we were all so exhausted that we called it a night.
And I’m going to do the same – will pick up tomorrow to start with waking up on Sunday (Easter!) morning… (p.s. none of these pics are mine - all Google as the camera battery decided to die - sigh... but these are great substitutes, and I'll have more opportunities to get great ones!!)
Night,
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