We have reached Shanghai on the fifth evening, as majority of the streets were curfewed due to the Russian leader summit, we did not manage to do much except shopping ard the neighbouring shopping centre The merchandise are more expensive than other town, thus we did not spent much there.
On the sixth day, we have been bought to 新天地, an area where it resemble our clark quay, filled with foreigners. There are plenty of pub and night life been seen. Next we went to the
Xiangyang road and shop in the famous 向阳市场. This market will be closed after tomorrrow. The whole streets used to sells\ cheap counterfeit goods. It used to sells those class A fakes, but since China wants to join the WTO, they are to eradicate all those places that sells those goods. Still we managed to find some cheap goods such as "puma" Bag for 30 rmb ($6), and cheap braclets and earrings for 5 rmb. I did not buy any on the first time, but then return on my free and easy day to buy some home. Xiangyang street also has a very nice restaurant that serve 豆浆油条。The soya bean milk is not as sweet as the Singapore's. It was hot and authentic. The doughstick is elastic and yet crunchy. The size of the doughstick is double the size of Singapore's. The restaurant also provided free sunny side up or 荷包蛋。Yummy ~_~!
After lunch, we were being bought to 南京路。Although it is called nanjing road, this road is in Shanghai. The best thing about this street is that it has a very big book shop; 上海书城。The Shanghai bookstore is very new and it resemble the kinokuniya bookstore in term of decor. Too bad the book store did not sell English books, but if you want to buy any Chinese book, it will be available. I managed to buy a few books that cost between $3 - $5 (after the conversion)I really regret of not bringing a bigger suitcase so that I can hurl more books home. I bought about 7 books in all. （ I went there the next day too)The book store also sells CDs, DVDs and VCDs. I bought a movie known as " The Music Box" or 理发师 by 陈坤。He suppose to win the Shanghai best actor through this movie. Fortunately I bought this movie in Shanghai as I can't seems to find any of those Chinese arty movie in Singapore, except those starred Zhang Ziyi. There is a Taiwan styled vegetarian restaurant in Nanjing road itself, thus after 6 days of Vege only diet, I finally have the taste of something more closer to home. Honestly I dun mind those vege only diet as I will be quite thankful to any morse given.(it was hard to find vege food in other part of China)The food was quite good and cheap, all Chinese restaurant will give complimentary tea and watermelons.(We eat watermelons during every meal, no other fruits available)
On the evening of the Sixth day, we cruise the HuangPu river,黄浦江 and enjoy the full night scenery of Shanghai.
This photo was taken on the boat. This picture shows us Pudong, 浦东，which is full of hotel such as Hyatt and the orient tower. 浦东 was developed much later than 浦西, (This is the site of the peace hotel and HSBC, Citibanks)浦西 was part of the French concession in the early 20th Century. According to the guide, pudong symbolise the male as it was the east, Puxi symbolise the female, thus due to the fact that Pudong was developed much later than Puxi, the female was stronger than the male in Shanghai and Shanghai male has to do all the housework... Dun noe how true is that though, although my guide say that her husband does all the work... Hmm maybe I shd go and find a nice Shanghai man... Haha， Just kidding, I will rather preferred a certain Chongqing man *wink*
This is a photo of the Orient Tower, it was the third highest building in the world and the tallest in Asia. We have to take a lift up to 260m tall and view the whole of huangpu scenery. Hmm very breathtaking. After the tour, we take a underground train knowned as sight seeing tunnel, which run across huangpu river to reach the other side;Puxi. The site that we alight is known as the The Bund, 上海滩。
On the seven and the eight day, we are supposed to have free and easy day. I planned to visit the Shanghai museum, but then heard that the entry fee is quite expensive, thus we spent the two days shopping.
The first stop that we go is 七铺路，it was like a big complex fitted with whole saler priced clothes. There were a lot of baby doll dress found. Not quite my style, thus din buy anything except scocks for my brother. You will have to negotiate for a good bargain, although it may looks cheap, you can still bring down the price further. The price of the bag can be brought down from 120 to 35 rmb after some "disscussion", but then you have to have the thick skin in order to do that... (Finally, my skin come in useful on those days) The complex is quite crowded and there are 6 floors for you to shop in. The complex is extremely crowded in the morning and even the local exclaimed that this is quite a dangerous place to go. We go despite of the hearsay and find it quite okie. It resembled our far east plaze with greater variety and cheaper price.
The worthy stop that we made is to 城隍庙,this is the street that look like Chinatown. It has quite a lot of famous local restaurant in Shanghai. One of them sells the famous 小笼包. The queue there is long from 9am, the restaurant only start selling the 小笼包 at 10am. At 10am, you will probably need to wait for an hour for your 小笼包. In China, all the restuarant has two pricing, the first storey will be comprise of the cheapest menu, thus it will usually be crowded with people. If you prefer peace and quiet, you can proceed to the second storey with pricer items. But the 小笼包 restaurant is so famous that the 2nd storey of the restaurant was also packed with people. The next famous restaurant in the street is a vegetarian restaurant.(It was famous because, it appeared in the LOnely Planets) As usual, I only took a look at the first floor menu, as I was too full I only managed to buy some vege bao from the restaurant. The vegetarian is unlike any that I have taste before. It was more authentic as it contains spinach and mushroom.(the bao is 1 rmb, I bought 2, and it was v filling as it was quite big;double the size of our veg turnip bao) Its seems that the Vegetarian food in China are devoid of those mock meat. I rather like it as it feel more vegetarian to me... Durhhhh. But then there are not many vegetarians in Singapore as they equate being vegetarian as being poor, if rich, they shd afford to eat meat.
All in all, I love 江南,it was fabulous and is full of rich history for us to learn. There were so many famous food to eat as well such as the Suzhou dessert, Hangzhou salted duck, Wuxi braised meat, Nanjing 东坡肉。 上海小笼包。Good for the rest of them, I din taste any of those food except for those dessert tho. @_@
It was a remarkable trip... as you can see that I remembered quite a lot from the tour guides explanations without any notes taking.(there is a TCM recipes from one of the guide regarding cough, I copied that one down though)
I think I wld visit other parts of China such as Beijing and Xi an for the Qin Terra Cotta army and its tombs,I am also interested to visit my ancestor hometown;Chaozhou. Thus I am actively seeking for travel mates for the Dec holidays.
