“I’ve been thinking about what you said about Europeans
stereotyping Americans,” Amy said. “I think China has the opposite stereotypes
of us.” Amy’s parents were from China so she had been to east every year since
she was born.
“They actually think we are poor in America,” she explained.
“Because American things are so much cheaper for us—like iPhone cost a fortune
here—so their thought is that we can’t afford to pay the same price for the
same quality that they pay here. They also think we are uneducated because we
don’t understand their customs; kind of like Americans think Hispanics are
stupid when they don’t speak English or blend into our norms.”
Shortly after that, two Chinese girls showed up. Without
introducing themselves, they counted us and told us to follow them. It was kind
of odd, but we went along with it.
The tour was great and we got to see some of the popular
stuff in Shanghai.
Our first stop was West Nainjing Road. It looked like Times
Square with big advertisements on all the buildings and large crowds hustling
in and out of stores. The architecture was old and Romanesque with marble carvings
and gothic arches. Hucksters were selling cheap touristy crap, the most popular
of which was wheely skates that could be attached to tennis shoes to turn them
into roller skates.
Bohan haggled with a woman to buy a pair of wheely shoes. She
initially wanted 75RMB for them and he talked her down to 15RMB.
“He’s mostly telling jokes,” Amy translated. “He’s saying ‘we
are students. Look, we do not even have water. Why would we pay 75 for cheap
things when we cannot even afford essential things?’” The woman was cracking up
and eventually agreed on his price.
I went into full blown tourist mode, snapping photos in
every direction. From neon signs in Chinese characters to American brands (and
some cheap knock offs like a watch company “Rolesque”) it was an awesome city
center.
“What is this place called?” I asked.
“West Nanjing Road,” one of the girls, named Jessica, said.
“Nineteenth road?” I asked.
Jessica laughed. “Nianjing road.”
We walked along Nianjing road, crossing traffic a few times
and posing for photos a few more. It was actually funny the number of people
that were taking pictures of us. Every time we posed for a group shot, a small
crowd would gather to take photos of us. People would also approach Natalie (because
she is blonde) and Kendra and Akeena (because they are African American) and
ask to take photos with them.
Gradually, we left the flashy lights and followed the crowd
through a more formal business district. The street ended at the Bund.
The Bund is perhaps the most famous attraction in Shanghai.
The term comes from the Persian work for “leeve” or “dam” and refers to a
stretch of the embankment along the Huanpu river. For centuries, the area has
been the city’s primary financial district, with most international banks headquartering
along the river. It is also a place to get the best view of the downtown
Shanghai skyline.
Now “best view” is kind of a relative term. It is a
breathtaking view, with the pearl tower and other skyscrapers front and center.
The smog however makes it nearly impossible to see past the first row of
buildings. Even looking across the river is like looking at a low quality, 1980’s
movie. It’s almost blurry and out of focus.
Another interesting note are the large barges filled with
trash that are sailing south on the Huangpu river. I’m not sure anyone really
asked where their destination was on the greyish green murky water, but I think
we all had a few pretty good guesses.
There were several times when we noticed we were in the way of
people taking photos. Politely, we would move away so their photographer could
get a direct shot. That was when we realized, they didn’t want us to move away.
They weren’t posing with the skyline, they were posing with us.
Our next stop was for lunch. On our way to the restaurant we
stopped into a convenience store for one of our guides to buy something. Looking
around we found a whole stash of Oreo products we’d never seen in the US. In
addition to Oreo Pocky, they also had little cups where you could dip the
chocolate cookies into the frosting (brilliant!) I think the US is seriously
falling behind when it comes to our Oreo consumption.
In a refrigerated display, I saw a bottle of bubbly orange
liquid. The label was orange and yellow and had green Chinese characters on the
front. I pulled it out.
“Nate?” I called. He came over. “What does this say.”
He studied the characters. “This one is ‘Mir’…this one is ‘ren’…this
one is ‘da.’”
“Mirinda,” I said with a smile.
“Yes,” he said. “It means like ‘beautiful’…’sweet’…”
“It’s the best orange soda,” I said. “I haven’t been able to
find it in the US.”
For lunch we went to a Wanton house. The restaurant was a
small two story shop, and we all crowded around tables upstairs. I sat with
Jessica, Dayana, and one of our guides, who now introduced herself as Kaycee.
We decided to order some foods to share. Kaycee suggested
the crab dumplings. I initially thought we should try the yam dumplings too,
but they were sold out, so we did shrimp instead. We also go a three seafood
soup, an order of wonton soup, and beef and rice. (And a Mirinda to drink.)
When I first bit into the crab dumplings, a spurt of boiling
hot liquid shot out and all over my chin. I swore I was going to have a blister
and I used the cool soda can to cool it off.
“You have to bite into the dumpling just a little,” Kaycee
said. “You drink out the soup and then eat the inside. Otherwise you will burn
yourself.”
“You don’t say?”
All of it was really good, but I think the crab dumplings
and the wonton soup were the best. The wontons had pork and corn inside. The
seafood soup wasn’t bad. It had a really sweet flavor, and these tentacle like
strips of meat were pretty good. Kaycee didn’t know what they were called but
looking it up online, we are thinking they might have been sea urchin.
Our next stop after lunch was Yuyuan gardens. As we
approached the gardens, the architecture gradually changed from modern skyscrapers
to the traditional almost temple looking designs. The red buildings had large
pillars with golden dragons outside. The green apexed roofs dropped down into
sweeping corners that curled back up.
We walked passed a little alleyway with lots of vendor
selling knickknacks and treasures. Everything from small jade dragons to golden
Buddhas and beaded bracelets. We turned the corner and headed down that way.
One store sold watches while another advertised handmade
candy. There was a Dairy Queen as well as little Italian gelato shops. The
buildings were beautiful, decorated with red tassles and paper lanterns. We
weaved through the different side streets taking it all in. I had a giddy smile
on my face the entire time.
Eventually, we reached a large coy pond with bridges and
fountains all across it. Emma (who’d we met up with earlier) told us we had 30
minutes if we wanted to buy a ticket and go in the garden.
Natalie, Jessica, and I got in line right away. The rest of
the group debated, but most of them wound up joining us. The tickets were half
priced for students and we were able get right in.
Behind the walls was a beautiful garden. It was mostly large
trees and carved rocks with some occasional poppies sprinkled around. The
garden had once belonged to a wealthy family and we could go in their old
mansions to see how they would have lived. All of them were basically one room,
surround by windows, with a few chairs for sitting and some regal paper lanterns
overhead.
As we ducked and crawled through crevices and up stony
staircases, the garden seemed to grow and expand with each passing second. It was
beautiful in absolutely everyway. The energy just felt good (although some
members of our group were proving the loud American stereotype) but I felt like
I could stay there for hours.
When our thirty minutes was up, we found our way to the
exit. Outside, more street vendors were selling their wares. One lured Natalie
in, and she successfully haggled her own price (she got two jade dragons for
half the price that the woman initially wanted for one.) We met up with the rest
of the group and headed back.
These were the types of days that made travel fun. We ate
good food. We saw pretty things. We met nice people. This is what makes life
worth living!
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