Our 10 day trip around China finished with a day and a half in Shanghai, filled with architecture, crowds of shoppers, terrible traffic, delicious dumplings, tasty tea, a lion dance, and the most amazing fireworks finale I have ever seen in my life!
The first stop that Pan, our Shanghai tour guide, took us to was the waterfront of the Huangpu River in front of the Bund to get our bearings and learn about “Puxi” – the West side of Shanghai, which is the old established area – and “Pudong” – the East side, which is the new up-and-coming area with the tall sky scrapers and new developments. It was interesting to learn that the East side which is growing and now the hot place to be, used to be the undesirable side of town.
On a cold, grey misty day in which smog could be fog or pollution or both, I was elated to find a splash of color growing on this wall of flowers that led to the water’s edge.
This area of the waterfront as well as a series of about 26 buildings (mainly old banks and trading houses) in various 19th century European styles of architecture is called the Bund. The word Bund comes from a Persian word and was used to describe this area that was settled by a prominent family of Bagdad Jews named Sassoon who emigrated to Shanghai in the 1800s. Most of the major financial institutions in China were based in the Shanghai Bund in the early 20th century.
To Asher & Aliya, the most interesting parts of all that financial history were the stone lions in front of the HSBC building.
As we walked down the steps from the waterfront to the Bund, we passed beside the cordoned off steps where the New Years Eve trampling catastrophe occurred. On New Years eve less than 2 months before we arrived, the top walkway along the water front was jam packed with people eager to see the fireworks display. The stairs were quite narrow and the area was completely overcrowded, so 36 people were trampled to death!
Apparently it is not so uncommon for there to be trampling related injuries in China because the people continuously flow and something happens to interrupt the flow. We experienced the scary feeling of crowds of people flowing through narrow alley ways in the afternoon when we tried to go to the Yuyuan Garden but couldn’t make it through the crowds of the nearby markets.
I much preferred peering over the old rooftops instead of battling the crowds of the markets.
More enjoyable and less crowded was the Xintiandi and Shikumen. The Xintiandi is a relatively new shopping area that was created in the old area of town.
It was rebuilt as a modern version of old style row houses, but with places like Starbucks coffee (which is a great place to find a non-squater clean toilet, which is a rare find in China)!
While we were in the Xintiandi, we visited an old Shikumen which means “stone gate” house called Wu Li Shiang which is a well preserved example of an old Shanghai style house.
Around the corner, we passed by 76 Xingye Road – the site of the first national congress of the communist party of China. On July 23, 1921, 3 people met here to form the Communist party.
We left the ground of the old side of town (Xintiandi) to the top of the new side of town . . . all the way to the 101st floor of the Shanghai World Financial Tower.
Somehow, our guide Pan miraculously convinced the security guards to let us bypass the enormous line out front and go straight inside to a special holding area (I think it was an area just for guides) and then to the lifts to take us up to the bottom of the opening in the building. With greatly obscured views, I was so glad that I didn’t stand in a long line to visit the top of Shanghai.
The best “seat in the house” was in the ladies’ bathroom at the top of the building. It was definitely a room with a view!
On our way out from the Shanghai Wold Financial Tower, we passed an exhibition of cows. Aliya liked the Hong Kong cow!
After a day of running around town, it was time to sit down and have a wonderful afternoon tea with Florence Samson at Song Fang Teahouse, a wonderful tea shop which she started in 2007. We were very lucky to have Florence prepare a fabulous tea tasting for us. The tea was so smooth and flavorful (and the kids LOVED her delicious cakes).
At the end of the day of walking, and crowds and views from the clouds, the kids had their happiest moment when they hopped in the pool with borrowed swim caps on their heads (many of the pools in China will not let you swim without a swim cap. Fortunately, the hotels we stayed in supplied the kids with swim caps!)
After our swim, we thought we would venture out of the hotel for a quick dumpling dinner. We were looking for xiao long bao (delicious steamed soup-filled dumplings), but the first place that Pan had recommended had already sold out of almost all of their dumplings. So we crossed the street and had some shengjian bao (pan fried soup-filled dumplings) at the famous Yang Fry dumpling chain, which Pan also recommended. The dumplings were smokin’ hot, crispy, liquid-filled balls of flavor!
We were hungry and they were delicious! Although, we quickly realized that unlike Hong Kong, pretty much no one in China (except for expats) speaks English! It was at that hole-in-the-wall dumpling shop, as I stood trying to order our dinner, that I truly appreciated all the English speaking guides that we had had while we explored China.
After our dumpling feast, we went back to the Radisson Blu Hotel where the kids quickly fell asleep. I was about to go to bed, but then I heard the popping sounds of fireworks. At first, I thought that perhaps some people just had left over fireworks from New Years eve (5 days earlier). But what I didn’t realize is that the 5th day after New Years is a very special day that is celebrated with many hours of non-stop fireworks displays.
In the Chinese calendar, the 5th day after New Years eve is the birthday of the G-d of Fortune. So, people set off huge displays of fireworks to get the attention of the G-d of Fortune. I’m not sure if it caught the attention of the G-d of Fortune, but it sure caught my attention. I sat with my eyes peeled open, glaring out of our hotel room window at the 180 degree view of lights and color for almost 4 hours! The 30 minute grand finale was the most amazing display of fireworks I have seen in my entire life!
The next day – our last few hours before flying back to Hong Kong – we had a wonderful surprise when we stepped out of our hotel and walked right into a lion dance!
There were 2 lions, a red one and a yellow one, which were dancing around and going in and out of a bus! There was also a man dressed up (Guan Yu) with the lions who was handing out chocolate ingots. Asher and Aliya scored a bunch of chocolates!
After the kids received their chocolates, some man went up to both kids and gave them each red envelopes with 5 Yuan inside! The kids were so excited!
I’m not sure if the envelopes were for them to keep or for them to feed to the lions, as we saw many of the women doing!
We had about an hour left before our flight, so we decided to take a wander around the park in front of our hotel. I was excited to see the Shanghai Grand Theatre which looked exactly like the shopping mall at the top of Peak in Hong Kong (which is right up the hill from our apartment)!
Just when our time in China was coming to an end, we passed by a mini amusement park for a quick last minute ride around on some beautiful swings that swirled above scenic Shanghai.
We had an amazing time in China: history, stairs, forbidden cities, palaces, great walls, cable cars, olympic stadiums, hutongs, yo yos, rickshaws, drums, bells, temples, fireworks, terra-cotta warriors, old city walls, markets, more fireworks, vast caves, bamboo rafts, dumplings, new friends, chinese painting, tea, lion dances, and even more fireworks. The only thing missing was Ben, who unfortunately had to be back in the US for work!