The next thing on our schedules was the tour of Shanghai downtown. On Sunday, we set out at 7 am in the morning in identical t shirts to get on the metro to downtown. The metro was very confusing at first because the names of stations were confusing. The names are spelled out in English too so we're getting used to them now and have already taken the metro by ourselves a couple of times. The metro is very very nice here. It's clean and has enough things to hold on to. Since we were on it very early on a Sunday morning, it wasn't very crowded but I was told that it gets very crowded at other times and you have to wait for a couple of trains to go by before there's space for you to get on it.
Our first stop was the Xuhui campus which the main campus. We are on the Minhang campus which is the equivalent of north campus but MUCH bigger. From there we took a bus that was chartered that was especially chartered for us by the school to a museum where they had exhibits which showed the beginning of communism and the communist party in China. We had to go through metal detectors to enter. If you had liquids with you, you had to take a sip before entering. I'm so special that they didn't make me take a sip from my water!
Street outside the communism museum
Communism Party Logo
Next, we took the bus to Xintiandi. Xintiandi is a an area where there was a small upscale mall and other upscale restaurants. It's a cute place that had 2 parts to it: one which had older buildings representing old China and a part which had buildings representing the China of today. There was a Starbucks, and the coffee addicts who couldn't last 2 days without coffee went right in to get their fix.
Hai-Bao: The World Epo Mascot. Starbucks in the background. There was also a very tall McKinsey and Co. Building
Super Mario at a stall in Xintiandi
After Xintiandi, we went to place called Tianzifang which is famous for its art and restaurants that have cuisines from all over the world. We got lunch at a Vietnamese and ordered mostly by pointing. For somethings pointing doesn't work and that's when you appreciate the Mandarin speakers in your friends group.
East Nanjing Road
Next on the agenda was East Nanjing Road also known ans People's Square. This was one of my favorite places. We had heard that this was the place to find all the fake stuff and where you really have to bargain hard when you try to buy something. We were completely ready for this unique Chinese experience. We walked around for a bit on the street, which is beautiful, but only saw big malls and normal fixed price stores. We had broken up into small groups and our group really wanted to do some cheap shopping. All the time that we were walking on the road, street hawkers kept approaching us offering to sell us DVDs and shoes but we kept ignoring them saying "buyao" which means don't want. Then, someone in our group suggested that we may need to follow these hawkers to find the cheap fake stuff. So the next time a hawker came up to us, we were as surprised as he was when we agreed to go buy his "DVDs and shoes". So, we started to follow him thinking that he would take us to one of the small stores on the side of the street that we were on. But, he turned down a dark alleyway and started leading us down it and we all freaked out! All of us including me were scared half to death that he was going to take us into the alley, get his buddies, kill us and take all our stuff. We kept following him anyways. after about a 3 minute walk in the dark alley way, we came across this inconspicuous door hiddenbetween 2 buildings and the man opened that door. We were so surprised and relieved when we looked inside and saw a nice little shop with all the Gucci, Burberry, Chanel, etc., merchandise that you could want.
We met some really good natured and funny Slovakian people in the store who were bargaining for shades. It was really funny watching them since they kept making jokes about everything. The proceeded to give us some tips. They told us that if the shopkeeper asked for 1000 yuan we should without thinking just say 10. Good Lesson :)
One of our friends found a belt that he liked and we decided to support him and bargain as a whole group. Another person in our group, named Mayank, took charge of the bargaining and started trying to bring the price down with help from us. All of a sudden, the shopkeeper pulls out a lighter and starts trying to light the belt on fire. All of our jaws drop open and were just gaping at the shopkeeper who was trying to set the belt on fire. Mayank did not even blink. He just said: Yea so, I know belts don't light on fire, now give me this for 30! It was now time to just gape at Mayank. Needless to say, we walked out with the belt and a significantly lower price than was quoted to us. We tried to take a picture on the way out, but the people inside freaked out, started screaming and quickly shut the door. We laughed for a while at that.
The man again came up to us and asked if we wanted shoes. I don't think any of us really wanted shoes but we were having too much fun looking at all the fake stuff and were excited for another adventure. So, he takes us down another dark alley as we were expecting. 5 minutes later, we were still walking and we all started freaking out again. We were passing some abandoned buildings and playgrounds and the number of people was getting lesser and lesser. I was holding onto my purse really hard! One of our friends, was very discreetly taking a video while we were walking there. Finally, we reached this doorway and the man walks inside. It was really dark and there was a nasty smell. The thought going through my head was "dead bodies - run". I don't know why but after a moments hesitation we all followed him in anyways and after a 30 second walk in the creepy place we arrived at a tiny store with shoes. We were relieved to see that there was a shop there. I'm quite sure that this shop was run by a gang because we saw a few guys in suits looking all serious with the same dragon tattoo on their neck. One of the guys started complaining about the bad quality of the shoes that these gang members were selling and the rest of us thought he was going to piss them off and they would shoot us. Thankfully, nothing happened and we left safely with our purses and lives.
It was a great adventure and the best part of my day!
After that we went to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre which is a 5 story building. We spent quite a while exploring it.
Model of Shanghai Downtown. Sometimes they light up the buildings to depict night time
After that we took the bus to Chenghuangmiao which is a very beautiful place and also has the really pretty Nu Yang Garden. Unfortunately, the garden was closed by the time we got there. The most famous dumplings restaurant in Shanghai was at this place and some of us stood in like for 1 hour to get some. They were really yummy.
Beautiful buildings in Chenghuangmiao
The famous dumpling restaurant
Lastly, we went to the Bund which is by the river. The view was beautifuuuul. We walked along the river for about an hour and then got an a boat which takes you across the river. All of us were very tired but whatever we were seeing from the boat was so beautiful that it made it worth it. A Chinese guy took a picture with one of the really tall Caucasian guys in our group. We all thought it was really funny.
This is the line to get on the boat. Everyone was pushing even though we all already had tickets
View from both sides of the river. Both the sides looked very different and very pretty
Sunday was a packed day and I had a grrreat time! The only problem was that it rained the whole time we were out. But, it's time to get used to that since it rains here at least a little bit every day.
Nayana
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