As mentioned my father arrived a day before the New Year which we celebrated extensively! And now I will add a picture of the speed at which we travel from Pu Dong International Airport to the outer city ring. The Maglev goes 430Kmph!!! On January first we spend the day relaxing and not doing much, I had to walk over East Nanjing Road from People square to the Bund, which on the morning of January first proved to be quite the challenge. It was crowded with people and the walk took me twice as long!
Arriving at the hotel we planned to spend the rest of the day visiting the Fake Market to show them what Shanghai has to offer. He was very pleased to find some of his watched copied and at over an hundredth of the price! The fake market is quite the experience, shop sellers calling and pulling you into their shops. The best response to give them is “Bu yao, xie xie.” Which literally translates to “Need not, thank you.” There are several fake markets scattered around Shanghai, the largest being in the Science and Technology Museum subway stop. My personal favorite is the one on West Nanjing Road, for it has the shops sorted by floors. Some of the shops have secret hidden compartments where you have to crawl through clothing racks to get to the secret room behind. And if you are nice enough you can then again go through the second compartment into the ‘ultra’ secret room. All in all it’s a lot of fun but be sure to inform yourself about the ‘real’ prices beforehand. Anyone reading this please ask me for information on any item. I think I have a vague understanding of what one should pay after my time there! (in the picture btw you can see the top floor of the market…yes, only in China)
That night we are at a good traditional Chinese restaurant called Butterfly Garden. I wanted my dad and his wife to taste the real Shanghainese cuisines. There are some advantages to being the last ‘group’ to visit me there. I know better what to order, my Chinese is better as is my knowledge of the city and its culture. My mom and my brother, who were the first, joined me in a chaotic scattered dash through the city as I also had to experience the tourist sites for the first time. But when my dad came and we went to the Planning Exhibition I knew what it was for it was my 3rd time there. For dinner we ordered practically everything with the help of another guest seeing as my Chinese still proved insufficient! Beijing Duck, lotus root with stuffed rice, fried fish, Chinese cabbage, fried egg plant and of course General Mao’s favorite dish Pork Knuckle in brown sauce. Which consist of a little bit of meat attached to a rather large chunk of fat in a sweet brown sauce.
The next day we organized a private tour through the city starting off in the Yu Yuan Gardens, I had been here before but now with a tour guide a lot of things stood out that I had not noticed before, one of which was the large dragon whose body stretches over an entire wall (see picture). We also visited the bug, fish and animal market where sellers sell all kinds of insects, arachnids, fish, cats, dogs, turtles and lizards. It is interesting to see that the Chinese buy crickets and keep them in the house; this is because they like the sound they make. Some go a step further and wear their cricket in a cylinder around their neck, for good luck. All around the market there are men listening to crickets to see the spirit of the little fellow.
Of course we had to have dinner at the Hyatt one of my favorite restaurants, mainly because of the view and service one gets. Its mixed menu so one can order a mix of Asian, Mediterranean and French cuisine. Overlooking the entire city as it is in the highest building of Shanghai the World Financial Center.
A highlight of my dad’s visit was the cooking class. He and his wife are excellent home-cooks and they were interested in learning some Chinese cooking techniques and traditional dishes. So us ordering so much food at the Chinese restaurant was mainly research on what we wanted to be able to make. My personal favorite is the fried egg plant, Xiao Long Bao and Sheng Jiao Bao which are dumplings. Additionally we decided to learn the pork knuckle sauce and how to make sweet and sour chicken, a local dish. In the almost 5 hour program we also managed to go with our chef to the local wet market where we bought all our ingredients. (See pictures below)The rest of the time there was unfortunately a little sad because many people were leaving Shanghai to go back home. However, this made way for a lot of goodbye parties and dinners! So the week was filled with fine dining as everyone wanted to have their last night or dinner in their favorite bar, restaurant or club.
On our last day we visited a local channel town which was rather nice, to get them out of the busy city life, out into some ‘fresh’ air!
That night we at one of Shanghai’s nicest and exclusive restaurants; Family Li’s Imperial Cuisine. The restaurant is located right in front of the hotel on the bund, underneath the War Memorial. It dates back 400 years when Mr. Li worked for the Emperor’s household as head of the Kitchen and Security. When he retired he wrote down all he could remember about the cooking methods and recipes. This he passed down to his family and in 1985 they opened their first restaurant in Beijing and not too long after that in Shanghai. Its fine dining at its best, clients are hosted in their private rooms and receive excellent care during their stay. Although the portions are small, the flavor and richness of the dishes make more than up for it. The dish that stood out the most (also depicted) was the birds-nest soup. This is a soup made from the saliva with which a particular bird binds branches to build its nest and it is one of China's finest delicacies. However, once you forget what its made from the taste is actually quite nice!
After some drinks in the bar their stay had come to an end. My final visitors would leave the following morning and from then on the countdown till my own departure would begin. However, I could not leave without saying goodbye! So I woke up early and was at their hotel which is about a 40 minute taxi ride away at quarter to seven! This was mainly so I would not miss out on my final opportunity to have a Western breakfast! I do love eggs Benedict. After breakfast I invited two of my friends to come to the hotel and relax at the spa! It was Tobias’ birthday so it was a nice way to treat him to some luxury during these times of intense studying for Chinese!
Well the countdown has begun, only 11 more days in Shanghai!
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