How much does it cost? - Food shopping

When I looked in our fridge this morning I found a couple of tomatos, some cheese and half a bottle of wine. This is the result of Paul beeing away for 10 days and me living of his home cooked food stored in the freezer as well as some nice lunches out. So I thought I better go shopping and take you with me this time to show you that China is not all about cheap deals.

To get food we basically have three different choices here in Shangai:

1) Wet markets: It is called wet market because the farmers sell their fresh products here - and probably because the floors are mostly very wet from various fluids.
I love going to those market (always making sure not to wear my flip flops). But the challenge is still that I don´t know most of the stuff sold there. And with the recent news of exploding watermelons (because they were overfirtilized) I was a little put off for a while.

2) Superstores, e.g. Carrefour, Tesco : They are massive stores where you can buy anything from food to clothes to homeware and bikes. Pretty similar to how you know them in Europe. The German equivalent would be "Real". You can get all the Chinese products as well as Western stuff. The challenge here is that you need good ellbows and and strong nerves because of the amount of  people, mad people and the noise which is extremly offputting. We choose to go there as little as possible and it is worth a documentary on.

3) Expat supermarkets: These are gorcery stores which stock most of the Imported goodies you don´t want to miss and have a good selection of organic food. You wonder if there is a challanging factor?

Follow me to Olé- our favorite super market in Xujahui:

Olé is based in a huge shopping mall and one of the nicest supermarkets we have come across in Shanghai. All the products look immaculate and they always play some relaxing jazz music. This  makes a nice change to blasting hardcore techno music and shopping assistants shouting at us with their megaphones in Carrefour. Having space and peace - this alone is worth a little premium. Congrats to the marketing team of Olé - well done!

However even Olé it is still a Chinese supermarket. Here some examples:
Onions and potatos  are always packed in set´s of two or three and you can buy a whole mushroom tree:

Now let´s take a look at the dairy product section and hold on to your wallet!

If you devide the price by 10 you get the estimate EUR price:

e.g.:Philadelphia ~ 3,50 EUR (Germany 1,30 EUR)

Mascapone Cheese - a real luxury:

Actually - any cheese. Here grated Cheese:

Let´s move on to the Cereal and Bread Section:

 Somehow the Risotto got mixed in with the Cereal..

Well to be honest it does not look that much different to muesli?

Now here one of my favorite rip offs: Kneip Bathoil.

In Germany we pay about 5 EUR (50 RMB) for one bottle.

Good that I have a 6 month supply with me!

Should have bought a six month supply of that,too:

But if you think this can not be topped:

Here it is - the ultimative Expat treat:

Yes, you have seen this right: about 2000 EUR for a bottle of??

So, is your wallet in shock?  Ours was at first, too.

The trick to save money is to look a little deeper into Asian food.

Sushi for example is a great deal here (and was already before Fukushima :-) )

This  lunch set box  is only 25 RMB:

At the end I gave the 200 EUR bottle of wine a miss,

 but still managed to spend 370RMB on my shopping:

I need to start cooking now and hope you enjoyed our shopping trip.

Next time we go crazy and I take you shopping to Carrefour!

Zaijane!

Today I cycled to China

Today I had to go to our bank. Citibank to be exact, which is  based in Pudong right on the other side of the river. It is ususally is a 20-30 Minute cab ride (without traffic).

When I looked out the window this morning I saw blue skys, no rain in sight and it did not feel like opening the window into a sauna. So I decided to make this trip a little more exciting and to cycle to the bank. An estimated 10km trip across the heart of Shanghai. On purpose I did not bring my camera because I  wanted to  make sure I get to the bank before it shut.

The great thing about moving around in Shanghai  is that you don´t really need a map in the city. Pu dong stands for "East of the River HuangPu", Pu xi stands for "West of the River". We live  in Puxi and all road signs show if you are travelling east or west  The same works for north and south by the way.

So I turned right from our street (Gao An Road) started cycling  west along Jiangao Road which is a not too busy  street (in Shanghai terms). It runs from east to west through a large part of the city. I really like Jiangao Road. It is several kilometers long and fringed with trees and little local  shops and restaurants. It crosses the heart of the French concession and you get to seem some beautiful colonial architecture and gardens, too.

At the end of Jiangao Raod I had to cross a development zone and one of those larger 8 lane city roads. Behind me were many tall rise buildings, besides me huge building sides  and in front of me were the low rise buildings of  Old Shanghai. I decided to dive right in there.

It felt like I was sucked into a place in time that has not changed for 100 years. Little alleys and lanes, small houses closely tucked together. People in the streets cooking, playing mahjong, snoozing in their loungers or just sitting in their door step. Washed clothes, beddings and shooes hanging up in the air for drying, cats and chickens crossing my path. Children playing with their grand parents, old men smoking pipes and street vendors selling their fruit and vegetables. I was in China.

As I cycled through this labyrinth a well known feeling rose inside me. It is this heart warming tickle which I get every time when travelling in Asia and I feel like I have entered a parallel universe. This place in down town Shanghai is a million miles away from the Shanghai you usually get to see. There was no sight of any fake Prada or Gucci handbags or anything fake for that matter.  No cars, no shopping malls, no one rushing or bothering you and greatest of all - people were friendly and smiled back. Not that Chinese are not friendly. It is more like in most other major cities in the world: We rush and  become faceless, to busy to care for a smile.

I could not stop wondering and beeing amazed by the life and  many little things I saw every time I turned into another alley. Not once have I seen so many different colours in one spot in Shangai or experienced something that real.  I truly loved it and I look forward to getting my camera out one day and taking pictures of this place because it is a matter of time and this area will be converted into another trendy place for the "New" Shanghainese and Expats.

Old Shanghai borders with the Riverfront.  When I had finished wondering I took the  ferry across to Pudong and arrived just in time at my bank which is based in one of those fancy sky scrapers right at the river front.

I later had lunch on the river side. And wilst sipping my coffe I  watched the ships passing by on their way to the sea  feeling very happy and grateful for beeing able to be here and this little adventure.

Powercut!

Every now and then we get these notices in our lane. Since I have only completed 60 hours of Chinese I´m not quite up for translating any of those. And since we are not living in an expatriate compound there is no one who would translate it for us. So usually we ignore it, well knowing that something is going to happen - the offical red stamp gives it away.

To be honest the only thing we would ever worry  about is that the government would declare that they are taking over the property we ar living in and want to build another shopping center or sky scraper on top of it. No joke! This is actually a clause in our renting contract for our lovley old style aparment. But we are sure that given the 3 days notice our landlord would inform us upfront.

 Back to this paper. So yesterday I woke up, wondering why the alarm clock would not work and the aircon not kick in.It took me quite some time until I understood that the reason is not that everthing is falling appart, more that we had no electricity. So I went down to Mr and Mrs. Xing and in my best possible Chinese asked if they had electricty. (Actually all I did was pushing the light switch and said "Mei you" - Not have)

She than explained that the power was switched off at 5 in the morning and that it would come back on at 6pm again (yes my chinese is good enough to understand that). And than she pointed at the sign on the wall - "aahh" - I understand and wondered wether it was worth eating all the ice cream in the freezer before I would have to throw it away. Later in the shower I found out also that not only the power was switched off, but also the gas. But since we have nice tropical 32 degrees here it did´t matter that much. If anything I had another excuse for not cooking and ventured out into the city.

The people in Gao An Road did not seem to mind the interruption and many of them took the opportunity to take a nap in their shop. Except for the guys in the office downstairs who seemed to walk into the office in the morning, than I heard very loud shouting and with a big bang closed the door again. Sure they would have read the sign?

Anyway the power was back in the afternoon - only the TV did not come back to life. Not sure what is wrong with it, but Paul has high hopes that it is finally broken and that we get one of those huge flatscreens now!. :-)

It´s raining cats, dogs - and plums

It was only a few weeks ago that I wrote that Shanghai experienced it´s driest period in 135 years. Well now it is time to move on and to focus on Shanghai´s rainy season. It is called the Plum rain (Pflaumenregen) season. I´m not exatly sure why it is called plum rain. I can only guess because the raindrops actually seem to have the size of plums.

The plum rain season is supposed to start middle of June and to last for a whole month (only 3 more weeks to go!). Fortunately for me and my parents in law the season decided to kick in 10 days ago right  as we were going for a walk round the French concession. With no available taxis (the usual issue during rain in Shanghai) we walked home. Despite of  our umbrellas we got home soaking wet (the cars driving fast right through puddles on the road did it´s fair contribution to that).

So here we are watching the floods in our garden and gratually getting used to living in a steam room like enviroment . Latest now we appreciate  that we are living on the 2nd floor, have aircondition and  that I brought my New York souvenier wellingtons all the way with me to China.

It is a bit challanging but  we try to see the fun part of it: With the skys opening the Shanghaiers opened their wardobes and we get to enjoy some great  rainy season fashion. From leopard printed rubber boots (my chinese teacher in her mini skirt last monday) to funky designed rain coats for dogs. Well worth a documentary on it´s own one day. Today we can start with me:

I´m wearing Silva´s "Tschibo" raincoat which saved me last friday night when I cycling back home in a sea of "plum juice" and more "pluming" rain from above. By the time I got home I could not help but feeling like a soaked tent on a bad camping trip. 
Next time I will also think about what I can combine my beige rubber boots with....

Todays Yoga Class - A challenge

A few months ago I signed myself up at our local yoga studio and got something like a yoga "flatrate" which allows me to bend myself to extasy as often as I want and also to explore different styles. Since I joined I found two great teachers there teaching Hatha and Astanga Yoga. I can only say that I truly enjoy the experience seeing how my muscle get  little by little more flexible my berathing improves.

So today I thought I try out something different: Rythm Yoga with Alvaro - a latin American Yoga Insturctor and "Multidisciplinary Artist" I just found this Artist description on the website of the yogastudio and now I have had a lesson with Alvaro I think it is a very suitable description of him.

At the beginning of th lessson I was really excited because we listened to some funky  Indian tunes for warming up. I actually thought we were going to do a little dance (After all it was called Ryhtim Yoga, right?) But instead of swinging our hips and feets we started off with some simple but challanging Kundalini Moves (sit down, strech out arms to the side and open close hands 10 minutes - soundes easy? try it yourself!)

After that we went into some slightly advanced Hatha poses . "I can do this" I thought .. and off we went. About 20 Minutes  later and nearly drowing  in my own sweat  into the lesson I thought " Ahhh, All right, Nevermind, - I just need to figure out how to make myself into a tiny knot with my legs sticking out over my shoulder, shift this body up in the air and than balance  it  on my two fingers tips .

Another 15 Minutes later I came to the conclusion that it might be better for my energy flow (and muscles)  if I just sit down, relax and watch Alvro do it all. The way he moved into his poses and held them was breathtaking. It was like watching private artist entertainment and a couple of times I had to think about  the snake women we saw in the Shanghai Circus the other week.

But if you think I gave up - no way: I bravely managed to encourage myself by reminding that I can still be proud about reaching my toes and tried to fold myself into something that may not have looked like a  neat parcel but a not so well packed box with arms sticking out of it instead.

At the end of the 80 minute class we did a 10 minute realxing which we do after every yoga parctise. Some teachers let us lay there in silence, some play some gentle music but Alvaro (after all there is latin american blood running through him!) played some sort of Xylophon - himself. To my surprise  in  such an unrhytmic (unlatin!) way that it nearly made me stand up and say "please let me have a go" (You see, I used to play the xylophone when I was little..) However, soon  the rushhour traffic on Henghsan road below us kicked in  and so did the music from the bar below us. My ears were occupied. Not very yogic, I know. Because if the relaxing is about anything than really about NOT listening to the outside but to your indside of your body (aching muscles enjoying beeing unfolded again)

So will I go back? Sure I will! Not only because Alvaro is great to watch and I want to tackle the challange of folding myself into a tiny parcle one day. But for the actual reason why I do yoga: Because I love it and because it is a path which goes well beyond the physical bending and playing xylophones.

Namaste.

Hainan - a Beach experience!

Last week was the Dragon Boat festival and we all got enjoy another long weekend. With Paul´s parents around this was the perfect opportunity for us to explore China´s tropical paradise - the Island of Hainan which is located in the very southern part of China. So the six  of us took a 3 hour flight with China Southern Airways and checked in at the Mariott Hotel at Yalong bay which to be fair is one of the nicest hotels we ever  stayed in (and most expansive to make this statement complete):

http://www.marriott.de/hotels/.../syxmc-sanya-marriott-resort-and-spa/%20-

Despite the grand and international 5 star standard and atmophere in the hotel you could just not ignore the fact that you were still in China and we got to see and experience  some fun things during our stay:

1) In contrast to beaches and pool sides in Europe we never had a problem getting a lounger. This is not due to the fact that no one bothers placing their towels at 5am in the morning, more so because of Chinese are not very fond of sunlight. As a matter of fact I have seen a lady carrying an umbrella and beeing  covered up in long trousers, long sleeve shirts, sun hats, sun glases (nothing too strange so far..), gloves and believe it or not - a mouth cover.

All this effort is made to ensure that not a slingle sun beam can find the Chinese skin and turn it yellow.  Having seen this I would now not be surprised if the sun protection cream is even containing whitening cream to ensure that when Chinese People come home from their relaxing beach holiday, they look nice refreshed and - white. To be fair - they must find it just as strange that we layed around in the sun and eventually turned pink, followed by shades of rose and red before turning brown (the girls - despite factor 60)  and black (the boys with their quarter of Italian genes..)

So this would make you wonder why on earth they bother going to the beaches at all? Here is the answer: Because they all come out of their rooms at night! Once the sun is gone, hordes of people come out of the hotel, dressed in their swimming suits, carrying inflatable lilo´s wearing their bath robes and towels and enjoy their swim in the sea until late at night.(not sure if they are wearing moon protection lotion?..).

Later on we also understood why the hotel used those  massive flood lights for lighting up the beach for a romantic sea BBQ: It may have been as romantic as dining on a light up football stadium at night,  but it allowed everyone to enjoy the sea and for us was certainly entertaining watching people diving into the waves whilst munching chicken satays and lobster claws.

2)  Another great thing for the Chinese tourist to do is to buy matching his and hers hawaian outfits. In the picture above it may actually be a his and HIS one.. We were meant to buy them ourselfes but we were too busy taking care of our tan´s...

3)  If you were still not sure whether you were  in China or not than you  just had to keep an eye out for the cameras. People had their pictures taken everywhere. Sitting  on the beach during sun set was like watching a massive summer photoshoot for a fashion magazine.

 

4)  Last not least: Safety armbands - commonly worn by adults. Or even better- inflatble rings and animals to hold on to. I can only assume that a lot of people here can not swim because no one seemed ashamed of wearing them. Unless it is a fashion thing - you never know here.

 

Despite all the differences,  there is one major thing we all like and accross the nations have in common, and that is writng messages in the sand... :

The heart gives it away, the rest is Chinese.

Deep down in our hearts we are all the same..