Christmas and New Years Eve were a lot of fun! For Christmas we decided to celebrate it with a large group of people and not go out for dinner but for the first time in Shanghai cook a home-cooked-meal! We were with 5 Swedish, 4 Germans and a Dutch guy, me! So everyone set out to cook their national dish. The Swedes went to Ikea and got Swedish Meatballs and Glugg with of course mashed potato. The Germans made potato salad with Schnitzels and a fresh salad. And what did I, the Dutch guy do? I simply bought a lot of Heineken! Along with Christmas decorations and I helped out wherever possible, because I can’t really cook! So eating out in Shanghai was not a problem for me! It was funny to see how different nationalities all have their own little traditions. The Swedes watch Donald Duck episodes at 4 in the afternoon. While the Germans, when entering a home, have to spend at least 5 minutes admiring the Christmas tree. We Dutch don’t really have a Christmas tradition but my tales of this long bearded white male on a horse who has black guys as his helpers/slaves, did get everyone laughing!
We decided to play the Sinterklaas game where everyone needs to buy 3 presents; a ‘shitty’ present a useful present and a nice present. You can give it your own little twist, for example my shitty present was a bad picture of me in a frame. It’s the present no-one wants or secretly desires! The point of the game is that you win and steal presents from each other and of course drink a lot! We ended or in our case started the night by going to Bar Rouge. This is one of the nicest clubs in Shanghai seeing as it overlooks the bund and has a deck/terrace from where one has a full view of the Bund and PuDong. It was a night to remember! It was also my first Christmas not celebrated with my family, as was it for most of us. But then again we became a family on exchange so technically we still were.
For NYE, WOW, it was of of the or the best NYE I have ever had. My dad and his wife came over on the 30th of December. I picked them up from the airport, we gave the luggage to the valet service of the airport and I escorted them to the maglev train, through the subway and straight to the tailor market. My tailor then measured us as we decided which suits we would buy and wear the next day. Yes, you are reading this correctly, we had suits made for 40 euro’s and they were ready the next day. I must however mention that I am a regular customer so this extra service was more than appreciated.
The rest of the day and the morning of the 31st were spent wondering through the city and showing them the sights I had shown others before. It was nice to show him the Chinese culture and to show him how effective this city works. The subways run on time to the second and the traffic however chaotic seems to work, labor is so cheap here in China that there is personnel everywhere and especially in high end hotels, waiting is not in their dictionary.
For NYE we ate at the Hotel, it was a delicious dinner consisting of different styles and cultural dishes. The live band was playing and we sat and drank till around 10:30. After this we moved up to the top floor of the hotel to Sir Elly’s, a high class restaurant which 6-7 times a year transforms into a nightclub. The hotel had offered us a table at this venue so we sat there while the champagne flowed endlessly. Just before midnight we went up to the rooftop terrace overlooking the bund and Pu Dong. I had been to several rooftops in Shanghai but this was by far the best. The hotel is situated on the furthest point on the bund, right behind the war memorial. It provides you with the best possible view of the city skyline because you can see both sides of the Huangpu River. We looked down at the hundreds of thousands of people, all standing on the bund looking at Pu Dong and waiting for the countdown. As we neared the new year a large digital clock was projected on the Pearl TV Tower. It counted down from 60. As it reached ten you could hear the crowd scream, Shí, Jiu, Ba….San, Èr, Yi!!!
And then….nothing
No large fireworks display, no fancy light show, no guns blazing simply the text ‘Happy New Year’. The light show every day at 8PM is more impressive than the celebration display at NYE.
It was suspected that this year would not be as drastic as years before because over the last view yeas the ‘Western’ NYE celebration has been slimmed down. At least we could look down at the masses of people that had gathered to watch the non-existent fireworks! NYE is the night when it is impossible to catch a taxi so all those people had to walk home or wait for several hours for the taxies to become accessible. The best tip, for anyone reading this is to walk into a large hotel and have them order a taxi for you!
My friends were slightly late and watched the count down from several rows of people behind us on the terrace. We stayed there till early in the evening, only to end the night at one of my friend’s apartment eating ordered in McDonalds at 7am. You have to love Shanghai’s delivery service, even on NYE you can order McDonalds!!!
The night even though there was some disappointment regarding the fireworks was still epic. The theme of the party was Jet Set and all the waitresses were dressed as flight attendants while the bartenders were pilots! The Jet Set of Shanghai and the expat community had gathered at our venue and it was a night I will not forget. To be able to celebrate the New Year like we did that night and with my father there to share the experience is something I will always remember and appreciate.
No comments:
Post a Comment