Nights in Shanghai

When we got back to the apartment building, Nate, Jess, and I went up to our room to sign up for the event. When we pulled it up, we spotted a few problems.

For one, it was 125RMB (about 20USD.) The event was basically happy hour at a bar for various professionals in China. The cost included entrance and one drink. In order to sign up for the event you had to certify that you (1) worked in China (2) were fluent in a Chinese language (3) held at least and MBA. All of us had category 1 covered. Some of us had category 2 covered. No one had 3.

“I don’t think I’m going to go,” Nate said.

“I don’t know,” Jessica said.

“It could be really interesting people watching,” I pointed out.

“You want to pay 20 dollars to people watch?” Nate said. “There are so many places we could go do that for free.”

“And it is a lot of money if we aren’t going to drink,” Jessica pointed out.

Those were both excellent points and hard for me to argue with. “I have a friend who lives in Shanghai,” Jessica said. “I’ll email her and see if she has any suggestions of things to do tonight.” We decided that sounded like a good plan and agreed to meet back in 90 minutes.

Jessica’s friend suggested we spend the night in a neighborhood called Tianzifang. It took us awhile to find it on the internet, but once we did, we located a subway station that was nearby. I had an English map of the subway and Nate had a Chinese map. His seemed to be a bit more accurate so we had him navigate and headed out. Dayana and Akeena also joined us, while everyone else talked about going to the networking event.

We made it to the stop we needed (called “Du Pu Qiao.”) Upstairs, we found a nice little street filled with a fair amount of foot traffic.

“Let’s look for a place to eat?” I suggested.

“We should get Italian,” Dayana suggested.

“I find it’s dangerous to cross continents,” I said. “Not always bad—I’m sure in a week Italian will sound great—but we might get some odd stuff if we order Italian food.”

Walking just about a block, we passed a little shotgun room that was skinny and narrow leading back to a kitchen. The signs on the door were all in Chinese. “This might be good,” I suggested.

We walked inside.

Taking a seat, they brought us yellow menu cards. They were also in Chinese.

“Alright Nate,” Jessica said. “We need some translation.”

“This is rice and noodles,” he said. That was about as far as we got. A lot of the words were unique and complex. When the waiter came to take our order, Nate did his best to describe the dishes we were looking for. Jess pointed at what someone else was eating nearby. I pointed at a picture on the wall. Nate got seafood and rice. Akeena and Dayana go some sort of noodle dish.

The food was good. Mine had steamed rice, beef, red peppers, green peppers, and red onion. It was spicier than most things we’ve eaten, but not overbearing. I occasionally got a few bites of beef that had ground up bone fragments in it. It was a little disturbing, but I just picked them out and tossed them in the trashcan under our table. It also taught me to eat a little more carefully and examine each bite before I put it in my mouth.

“I love the lamps,” Jessica pointed up at the stained glass designs that hung over head.

“I like their funny hats,” Dayana said pointing at the white little caps that all the men working had on. “I wonder if they’re like Chinese chef caps?”

“They’re Muslims,” Nate said. “They’re from the Yunnan province, which is predominately Islamic.”

“Oh!” We all said.

“That explains the lamps,” Jessica said.

After we were finished we went to the counter to pay. The bill was 96RMB for all us. We each contributed what we had on us and figured we’d settle up when we got back to the apartment.

As we walked along, we saw a cool little alley lit up with Christmas lights. “We have to go that way!” Jessica said. Stepping off the beaten path, we did.

The alley led back to lots of tight winding streets, with little cafes, boutique shops, and bars. There was hardly a white person to be seen anywhere, and lots of young locals hustled around. There were more paper lanterns, twinkling Christmas lights, brightly colored signs, great smelling food, and just a fun filled atmosphere around every corner.

There was a plaque that said “Tianzifang” as we first entered the neighborhood. “I have to look up what this name means?” Nate said. “’Tian’ means ‘heaven,’ and ‘fang’ means ‘place.’ ‘Zi ‘might just be reflexive or might mean something else.”

At one point, we saw two police officers walking down the street. The police here are pretty intense looking. They wear beige and green uniforms (which honestly kind of resemble Boy Scout uniforms) with green military caps and white gloves. Many have night sticks over two feet long and they are always standing at attention or walking in unison. These two officers, however, were clearly off duty. They were walking casually and laughing with one another. It struck me that in the end of the day, they are clearly just people too.

I saw a lady selling mango soft serve and I stopped to buy a cone. As soon as I finished it we found another lady selling green tea gelato, so we stopped again.

“Eating ice cream beats getting drinks any night,” Jessica said. I don’t think truer words have ever been spoken.

Around 9:00 everyone started moving into the bars and the shops started closing rapidly. It all of a sudden became very dark out on the streets.

“This is spooky,” Akeena said.

“Can we like hold hands or something,” Dayana said.

“Lions, and Tigers, and bears,” I joked as we tried winding out way out of the maze of streets.

We very quickly found our way back to the main entrance of the neighborhood and crossed over to go down into the subway.

“What if we went back to the Bund,” I suggested. “I bet at night it’s all lit up and maybe a bit clearer to see.”

We navigated our way back to Nianjing Rd. On the subway, I noticed a sign that read “last ticket sold 3 minutes before last train.” I pointed it out to Nate and he agreed that it might be a bit worrisome.

At night Nianjing Road was even more impressive. Now, it really was lit up like Times Square with neon flashing signs absolutely everywhere. The buildings were spotted with flood lights that made them appear to be glistered in gold.

We retraced our steps from the morning down to the Bund.

“Everyone is going the other way,” Nate pointed out. He was right. Not only were there significantly fewer tourists (it was equally as crowded, but not as many cameras or backpacks were visible) but everyone was headed back into the subway.

We continued on to The Bund.

“Good to see we weren’t the only ones with this idea,” I said as I realized the Bund was just as crowded if not more so than earlier.

“I don’t think anyone can be the only one with an idea in China,” Nate pointed out.

We crossed the street and went up to take more pictures. It was just as smoggy, but beautiful at night. The buildings were lit up blue, and silver, and red, and green. Many even changed colors or had flashing lights on their roofs. The smog sort of created a halo effect on each of them.

At one point, we got separated but all met up at a bench. I realized that this place was also clearing out rapidly, and within 20 minutes, there was only a third of the people that had been here initially.

“Maybe we should try to catch the train,” Nate suggested. “If it does stop at 11, we could be stuck here in about 15 minutes.”

We headed back up Nainjing Road. Dayana and Jessica stopped to buy drinks. “This could turn in to more of an adventure than we bargained for,” I joked.

“And more money than we bargained for,” Nate pointed out, especially if we wound up taking a taxi.

We discovered there was actually a stop on the direct line back to our building about halfway up Nainjing. We raced down the escalator and through the turnstile. Going down the next escalator, I pointed out to Nate, “we lost the girls.”

When the train showed up at 10:58, there was still no sign of them.

“We can’t go,” I said. “If they’re still upstairs and this is the last train, then they’re stuck here.”

“But if it’s the last train,” Nate said, “then we’re stuck here.”

I handed him our box of take out food. “Then go ahead and go,” I said. “I’ll go find them.”

I ran up the stairs back to the turnstile where we last saw them. There was no sign of them. Suddenly, my cell phone rang. It was Jessica.

“Hey,” she said. “We’re on the train.”

I looked at my watch. It was 11:00.

“Ok good!” I said. “I’ll see if there is another train.”

Because we were underground, the signal wasn’t very good. I heard her say “Call us if you get stuck.” But that was it. I rode the escalator back downstairs. There were still a few people milling around on the platform but I couldn’t tell if they were waiting or loitering. This could get exciting I thought.

As I paced around, waiting, I knew I could get back if I had to. I had the hotel’s address written in Chinese on a card in my wallet. Worst case scenario, I’d go upstairs and find a cab.

I began to feel a slight breeze. The pressure was changing in the station and my ears popped a little. A train was coming! Sure enough, there was a whistle and a train pulled in on the other side of the station. The people that were milling around all got on.

Well…this will be…interesting? I thought. I had a good feeling about it, but I realized I also might have really screwed up.

A couple seconds later, there was another breeze and the pressure shifted again. This time, the train that pulled in was going in the right direction! I hoped on board and road it 4 stops. When I got off, my group was waiting for me.

“It doesn’t stop at 11:00,” I joked. We laughed.

We were all a little tired and pretty much walked back to the hotel in silence. When we got to the elevator, we all said goodbye as people got off. Going up to our room, Nate got in the shower. I was exhausted and my legs spasmed as I sat on the couch waiting for him to come out. When he did, I took my turn, before literally passing out in bed once again.