A romantic stroll in Hangzhou - Chinese style

In early April it was "tomb sweeping day" in China - one of those  national holidays where every one ends up working over the weekend in order to get 3 days off during the week. 

Originally we had planned to go away to climb  the Yellow Mountains . But than lazyness took over and we decided to venture out for day trip to Hangzhou instead.

Hangzhou is considered one of the most romantic cities in China. It is located 190km south of Shanghai and it´s main attraction is a huge man made lake which is surrounded by mountains and teaplantations. The new high speed train takes you there within one hour and therefore makes it a perfect daytrip from Shanghai.

Having learnt from previous national holiday experiences we knew that we were not going to be the only ones with the idea of getting out of town, especially as the weather was forecasted to be good.

Already at Honqiao trainstation in Shanghai we got a pre-taste of what to expect on our journey:

But before we were able to take off we were rejected to enter the train first time -  My great chinese skills had sucessfully managed to us buy train tickets in advance - for a day earlier. So we had que up to buy new ones. Believe it or not - despite the chaos it took only 10 minutes.

By mid day we had made it to the Westlake in Hangzhou and started walking around enjoying the sun and the flowering trees. Every now and then we came past a tea house or temple.

Springtime:

(My chinese posing skills, well developed by now...)

It doesn´t really matter if you visit Hangzhou on a weekend or national holiday.  It is  always busy because it is such a popular tourist spot. But when the country is off you get a little extra challenge - keeping balance on the bridges that cross the water and making sure that the crowd doesn´t push you over the edge. It is MEGA busy and in some corners like this passage way below it can get a little chaotic.

Can you see me?:

A still picture doesn´t really bring across what it was really like. We threfore took a couple of mini films to share this little chaos with you. You will get a nice impression of what it can be like in China - hillarious!.. and a little extra fun when you find out you went in the wrong lane and have to walk against! the crowd :-)

Film 1 - click HERE

Film 2 - click HERE


Now,  I can hear you shouting " Oh my god"... :-)...But you know what? It was still real good fun to be there and that´s when we noticed that well into our second year we have adjusted and found our place in China and it´s crowds . After all we are also nothing else than little ants wandering in the middle kingdom

Despite the chaos, despite the noise - at th end of the day it was a nice walk on a sunny day.
Just us - a couple of other people in search for romance :-)

and...ACTION!!!

... a bit of Bridget Jones Feeling in Gao an Lu...
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Shanghai is full of surprises and you never know what to expect. The other week for example we woke up in a Filmset. You wonder how that came along? - here is a fun story:

Right below our kitchen there used to be a cafe. It only opened a few months ago and just as I had predicted it closed 6 months after the opening again. Either the concept of selling glasses, scarfs and cafe at the same time didn´t work or the landlord got a little too greedy -  a common problem in Shanghai.

A couple of weeks ago we noticed someone starting to work inside the old cafe again and we wondered what kind to etablisement would move in next.

So on a regular Tuesday morning,  I was washing up the breakfast dishes,  I noticed a bunch of people gathering right below the kitchen window acting important. I also saw big flower decorations piled up at the entrance door. In China this indicates that a new "something" is opening.

Curious and excited to find out who would be our new neighbour I ventured out in front of the door - and  found myself confronted with a film camera

"Wow", I thought, "this this is exciting. They have convered the place into a  small shop selling..
Oh my god! - CHOCOLATE??!!!!"

Instantly my mind started going wild: A chocolate cafe right below our kitchen! What a danger zone to put right under my bed! What a fantastic idea! Imagine going out in the morning and having every day a chocolate takeaway!!!! Who needs Starbucks when you can have a fresh hot chocolate instead??...

My excitement was soon  noticed by a guy who seemed to be involved somehow.
In my little Chinese I started getting carried away saying things like "I live up there, you know... chocolate right below my kitchen.. I LOVE chocolate!... can we install a lift for morning deliveries???". (.. no joking I said that!)

The guy looked at me, told me he is from Hongkong, therefore not speaking Mandarin and laughed out loud before he said "Only one day"..I didn´t really understand and wondered if he meant that there will be free chocolate for everyone only for the opening day?? (don´t ask, that´s how my mind works sometimes)

Then I started looking around and suddenly the whole thing seemed a bit strange to me. Such a scene for such a smal shop, even if it was for expensive European chocolate. Something was wrong here.

I crossed the street, looked at the big picture  and than I realized what was going on:
The little cafe had been turned into a filmset!!

That explained why it took them only 2 days from starting building until re-opening! It was only in the windows where you could see that it was a new chocolate cafe. Behind the scenes you could still see the old decorations.

I went back to the guy I was chatting to originally and he laughed at me, confirming "Yes, we are filming a love story related to a chocolate. It is a Korean - Japanese Production. Right now we are only filming the surroundings, in the evening we will do the shooting with the real actors".

"Cool" I said " you know I live upstairs?".. "Oh do you?" he said. "Do you want to be part of it and walk past the shop in one of the shoots some time later?"...what me?..."SURE!!!... just ring the door bell for Lincoln when you need me!"...and off I was back upstairs, digging into my wardrobe  whilst already phantasizing about dining with George Clooney one day... :-)

The day went on and they actually didn´t ask me to come out. But when I saw how much effort it took them to shoot only a mini scene of just people walking down the path and how many takes it took them until they were satisfied I really didn´t mind. The director told me something about 9 hours of filming for 5 minutes of movie material.

Shooting a film in Shanghai must be kind of an extra challenge. It was hillarious to watch how hard they tried to keep the set free from any pedestrians, cyclists, busdrivers or bin collectors. And even when they managed  to keep everyone out and quiet - next doors dog went wild behind the wall.

When it was lunch time the whole crew just set up their tables and chairs right in front of our door step.

When I went out to get some lunch I noticed the older couple Mr. And Mrs Jing from downstairs who were just as excited as I was all day. In fact every time I went outside Mrs Jing was there and gave me a big hug of sheer excitement. I  haven´t learnt any movie related chinese vocabulary, but I could make out that it was also her first film set in life.

At one point in the afternoon the door bell rang - I thought it was showtime. But it was only the manager and asked if it would be possible if in the evening they could install some lights in our kitchen for better  effect on the outside. "Sure" I said.. "But I have one condition -  Chocolate!! "
He gave me a big laugh and promised to bring some when they had finished.

And so it came that - even if it was just our kitchen - we  became involved in  a film production

To be honest, the effect outside looked very nice:

By the time it was 9pm I was back at my kitchen sink, washing up dinner plates - and watching the directors over the shoulder. Now they were doing the real shooting with actors inside the cafe.

By 10:30pm they were finally done. Gao An Lu went back to normal -

and Paul and I got to enjoy some nice chocolates for dessert

So just in case you are into Korean - Japanese Romances:

The movie will be called "Sweetheart Chocolate" and play in Shanghai.

... and I´m sure that if you keep a very close eye on the screen, for a mini second you will be able to see a western woman dancing around her kitchen, right behind the windows above the cafe! :-)

Visitors! a fun week in Shangers

This time our Easterbunny held a very special present for us. Three of our oldest friends - Moni, Chris and Jochen -  from Germany came to stay with us. After their one week cultural tour to Beijing and Xi an , they made it for a fun week to Gao An Road, Shanghai. Just in time for Easter -  which  by the way is no holiday in China.

Still, this didn´t stop us from keeping up with our traditions and therefore for Easter Sunday we ventured out to Century park to join the locals for a picnic.

For my nan and sister I need to point out that the picnic basked was packed again with self baked Easter bunnies based on the recipe of my grand mother :-)

There is a lot to do in Century Park! For example enjoying the rides in the fun park....

...or letting kites fly which is officially not allowed.

But everyone does it and Jochen mastered it just like a local:

Later in the evening we took advantage of the good weather and enjoyed a "Easter BBQ" at home, followed by a late night of playing Jenga

Having discovered the convenience of our fake markets it was very soon time for

SHOPPING!

But we made sure that the cultural programm didn´t fall too short.

So we ventured out one day to Xujiajao Water town

and the area of  Tianzifang in Shanghai where the popular Teddybear cafe is located.

It is so cute! EVERYTHING is about Teddybears...

even the pizzas...

And on our last day we all ventured into old Shanghai to discover a bit of real China:

Dear Moni, Chris and Jochen:

Thanks for coming all the way across the globe to see us.

It was very special and just GREAT to have you round!

We will miss you and look forward again to see you on the other side :-)

With all our love from "Chinatown" :-)....

A great weekend!

Spring has finally made it to Shanghai and like anywhere in the world it feels fresh and exciting  and you want to spend as much time outside as you can.
Therefore this time instead of writing much I will show you how we enjoyed our first spring weekend in the city.

Friday night:
I was invited to the 2nd concert of AMRTA, the event in the Shanghai Oriental Art Center where I took the pictures at in November. It was ever so exciting to go again to enjoy the music without my camera and to be in the concert hall with some hundret people who were all looking at the program which was designed with my pictures :-)

Unfortunately Paul was not able to join me as he had to participate one of those over night "team building events" which he somehow was able to miss for over a year. This time he didn´t have a good enough excuse and finally his colleagues got the opportunity to "gambei" him to the bitter end - or in other words, got him really really drunk with Beiju (50%+ alcohol, also called Chinese wine)...

Aparently he managed that night very well, bravely eating snake (comment Paul: a lot of bones..) and turtles and sea cucumbers ("taste of nothing..") he sang karaoke and was declared "hero" next morning. Hopefully that gave him enough  Guanxi (= your personal network, required to do anything in China) to last for the year.

Saturday:

Paul still away until late afternooon gave me a great excuse to hit the fake- and flower market with Kerstin. Some 6 hours later we returned home happily after a sucessfull shopping trip requiring trasport in a mini van taxi:

Later  Paul returned home also with full hands - a bag full of chinese goodies given out after the meeting. A way of the company to increase it´s guanxi with the employes. This time the box included tea, nuts, some undefinable meat stuff  and - 30 fresh eggs. We are not sure why  because Easter is not celebrated here. But our ayi assured me that it was eggs from Chicken. So we have now enough to paint on for sunday and will probably live on omlett for breakfast in the coming weeks...

Sunday:

The weather at it´s best, we decided to go for a stroll in the sun on the river at the pudong site. Luck has it that the superbrand mall shopping center is located right there, too so that I got the chance to visit Esprit, Zarar and Next :-) At least the title "Tai Tai" is now justified :-)!

.. and Paul got the chance to enjoy a nice Hefeweizen in the Paulaner beer garden afterwards

(much more healthy than Beiju!)

On our way we came across this beautifully pimped Mercedes which I must show you:

(Comment of the crowd looking at it: "Ohh..Hen hao kan"..very good looking..)

In the evening we met up with Dave and Marie and their friends to enjoy cocktails

on the terrace of Mortons, watching the sun setting over puxi and the lights of Pudong coming on:

Over all: A real "Expat weekend" in Shangers..

and a  very nice one indeed!  :-)