Return to Shanghai

Even the longest holiday has to come to an end. And so did my 4 weeks in Germany.  After a grand finale shopping trip to Frankfurt I found myself checking in at the airport for LH 726 to Shanghai leaving at 10:30pm last Wednesday. No actually I need to put this right: I tried to check in - and got into trouble since the scales screamed: "she´s got 52 kilo´s of luggage!!!" at me. I know what you think now: What on earth did she have in her suitcases???

Well here ist the answer:  Half of the portfolio from “DM” ( a german drug store) and half of REWE (supermarket). Why? Because everything imported is either mega expensive or it includes whitening cream - and once you know what toiletry shopping is like here you would agree it is like entering heaven when you walk through the doors of any European drugstore.

So there I was with 6kg overweight and no ex Lufthansa colleagues in sight who would for sure have let me off..
Smart as I am I  had parked my rental car outside with all my (another 15kg!) handluggage. So the check in agent asked if I can maybe shift some of my weight into my carry on bag since I didn´t seem to carry anything with me. “Sure!!, I widly grinned.. and unfolded a little travel bag which I always have with me for such occasion.  I re-loaded 6 kg into that and eventually got my boarding pass.

When I dropped off my rental car  I instantly regret having that much hand baggage. The amount of stuff I had to carry was as much as I remember Indian families carrying with them for 4-6 people.
Too late I noticed several liquids in my bag and therefore made the guy from Sixt rental cars very happy by donating to him a huge bottle of honey, a bottle of contact lense solution and  a very expensive sun taint lotion - bugger!.

Fortunately my flight was 30 minutes delayed and therefore I got the chance to relax from all this stress in the Lufthansa lounge,  phoning friends for  last good byes and  to enjoy once more “Brezel and Leberkäs” (traditional Bavarian meat loaf with prezel).. (at least my silver card is worth something if not extra-extra luggage..)

At 10:30pm  I ventured to the gate and got slightly overwhelmed and excited by the look of a Chinese crowd. Even though through my shopping trip to "Kaufhof" in Frankfurt, I was somewhat prepared to meet again so many of  my potential neighbours again. I was  thrilled when hearing the boarding announcement in Chinese. Because I noticed that it sounded familiar to me and I was actually able to understand most of it.
All of a sudden it hit me: "Oh my gosh! I´m  living in China!!!"

I just could not believe that only 6 months ago Paul and I entered the very same plane into a totally new life, not really knowing what it would be like. And there I was, understanding elements of Chinese and feeling actually comfortable with the hussle and bussle and the noise of the crowd as it pushed itself onto the plane.

And you know what? It felt good. Just like flying back to Germany 4 weeks before it felt like that this was the right thing to do. Flying back to Shanghai, back to our old apartment right in the heart of the city, back to Paul and back to friends waiting for some mad birthday celebrations for Paul ahead (Side note from Paul - there will be no post of that. Three days later he is still recovering from it..)

And as I´m writing this post I´ m sitting on the Huangpu river again, drinking my  favorite star bucks coffe latte, the sun is shining and I´m watching the ships and the chinese world go by Yes, it is good to be here and to know that many of you follow our stories from this mad city.

Sometimes it feels like I want to hug the world!  :-)!!!!!!!!

Summerbreak!

When the thermometer climbs to 32°C in the shade of our balcony at 9:30 in the morning- and when you start seeing shaved "hot"-dogs walking around - than you know it is Summer in Shanghai and that it is about time to take a break and to escape the city for a while.....

Will be back with more Shanghai stories towards the end of August.

Zaijane - See you, soon!

Dining out in "Fish street"

 

Last weekend together with some friends we decided to give the overpriced expat restaurants a miss and hit "Fish street" right in the heart of old Shanghai. All it is is a little road just of Xizong Lu and it is fringed with street vendors barbequeing their latest catches. If you don´t mind that it is a very chinese experience you will enjoy going there and mixing with the local crowd which later at night (that means after 9pm in Shanghai..) seem to be mostly young Chinese on their way to a night out.

You can look forever to find an English menue - you won´t find it. But that is no issue, because all you do is "Zhe ge -it" (point at the uncooked stuff and and say Zhe ge" which means "This! which by the way is any expats way of getting round anything in Shanghai  - or you do it even lazier like us and bring an experienced brother with you who has done this already several times :-) They than BBQ your food an bring it into one fo the many the dining rooms you are choosing to eat it in.

It is a truly messy way of eating which is why you get (and need!!) plastic gloves (need many of them!) and if you want you can also get an aprin. Food is served on skewers or in bowls and comes with a nice sauce which we have not figured out what it is.. Looks like soy sauce and tastes a little sweet.

Winners again this time were the garlic bbq oysters (less than 1 EUR each!), smoked fish on a stick (see piture above), BBQ prawns and my personal favorite "miàn bao" which are sweet tasting little bread dumplings roasted over fire

After dinner the restaurant weighs you and depending on how many kilo´s you put on you pay...

.....only JOKING!!

this guy just tried to make a little money with his scales.

You probably wonder about how our tummys felt the next day?

Mei Venti! - No Problem!! - We will be back again!

Today we are just looking at the frogs - and go to cooking school

  

Last month I wrote about how expensive it is to cook western style in China. (See Post from 30.06). After 6 months in Shanghai now it was finally time for us to learn a bit more about how to cook Chinese food.  Not that we (or to be fair I should really say Paul..) didn´t know how to do it.  But the challenge was always that when we wanted to use our brand new wok we struggled to find the ingredients or didn´t know what they were called in Chinese, or most of the times - we saw something looking good but didn´t know a) what it was and b) what to do with it.

So together with our friends Silvia and Andi we signed up for a Chinese cooking workshop at "Shanghai Kitchen", which is luckily located round the corner form us (- and the Paulaner Beergarden for that matter :-) )

Our teacher was a young Shanghainese called Jimmy, which I soon wanted to start calling "Jimmy Oliver" because he approaches cooking with no less passion than his famous English colleague. When Jimmy is not teaching he is a chef at the Ritz Carlton and therefore we were very excited to find out how he prepares every expats favorite Shanghai dishes:

• Shanghai fried noodles
• Eggplant cooked with spicy sauce
• Kongbao chicken
• Fried Pork with Pinapple

But first we went on a tour to a local wet market. From fruit and vegetables to tofu, meat, fish, rice spices - you can get anything here, see for yourself:

Below Left: Making of Fresh Dim Sum

Below Right: Tofu Stand

Below Left: Frog was not on the menue (maybe part of advanced cooking?) but it is  worth mentioning that Paul had it last friday and aparently it does really taste like chicken.

Below Right: Hairy Crabs - they are a delicatessy in Shanghai. We were told that you take them alive and boil them for 2 minutes in water. After having to swim stacked up in a drum filled with a marinade of ginger, sugar and vinegar probably in some way a relief....

Once we had completed our shopping it was time for the kitchen:

I think Paul was probably ready to kill a chicken....

no worries.. it was already dead...

Hobby Chef vs. Domestic Science Degree:

Here we go - my Shanghai noodles - approved by Jimmy!

 

Now guess how much this 4 course dinner feeding 9 people cost?

100 RMB = ~ 12 EUR!

I just hope that Paul doesn´t expect me to take on the lead in the kitchen now ... :-)

Moganshan - Escape to bamboo forest

Summer has finally taken over the city. With every day temperatures raising above 30°C and 80%+ humidity you start to look for alternative places than bars to cool off. Last weekend we decided to try out Moganshan nature park which is a good 3-4hrs travel south west of Shanghai. It is the closest mountain regin to the city and therefore perfectly suited for a weekend break (providing you know how to cheat yourself a train ticket - see last post).

The beauty of this area was discovered more than 100 years ago by European expatriates who chose it already back than as their cooling oasis in summer. They built stone villas and mansions right amongst bamboo forest about 400-500 meters above sea level. You therefore find a lot of 1920´s European architecture giving the place a very colonial and for us homely atmosphere.

During the cultural revolution many of those houses were abandoned. Some were taken over by Chinese officials and many of them today belong still to the government.
But several of the old buildings have been converted into Bed and Breakfasts or Hotels and therefore make this area a increasingly popular hideaway for Chinese and Foreign citizens again.

Unfortunately when we went the weather was not the greatest.  We had hoped for some clear blue skys which recently seems to be unheard and -seen of in the humidity of Shanghai. Still, it did not stop us having a great time wondering  through bamboo forests, tea plantations and exploring buildings of past times.

Here some impressions

Abandoned place:

View over Moganshan National Park:

Believe it or not, but we have never
seen as many and as large butterflies as here:

With all this green we almost forgot that we lived in China
Until we came across those signs:

Not sure what they exactly mean by pummeling..
And we did not quite figure out our duty...

The best thing about the trip was our stay in House #2 where we had a room (#9) with a great roof top terrace. And to be honest with you - this is where we spent most of the time. Just relaxing, breathing fresh air,  looking into green and enjoying a good read:

At least until they decided to dig up the market square with a hammerdrill on sunday...:-)

Want to know more about Moganshan?

About Moganshan Nature Park: Wiki (English) ; Bericht im Spiegel (Deutsch)
Where to eat?  Moganshan Lodge - .. and forget about time.
Where to stay?  Moganshan House #23 .. house #2 is a true jewel
Where we try next: Naked Retreat  ... who want´s to get naked with us?

Sometimes you just need to know how to ..cheat - buying train tickets

Last week we decided that the best way of resisting the temptation of going clubbing in Shanghai again  is to escape the city. This combined with the fact that we are sweating every day in about 35degrees gave me a clear mission to organize some train tickets to take us to the cool mountain region of Moganshan. We will talk about Moganshan in the next post. Today I want to share with you that buying train tickets can be a bit of a mission.

I have heard that you can book train tickets easily online and also in some smaller tourist offices around town. But I have not quite figured out which websites are trust worthy and where the next tourist office is located.. So I decided that the easiest way is to go to the train station and buy them personally.
Shanghai Southern train station is 4 stops by  subway and therefore I thought it would not be a too hard task to get them.. in theory..

When I got there I was confronted with the choice of either using ticket machines or personal service ticket offices. There were pretty long queues for the ticket machines and most of the time the machines show only Chinese language. So I decided to go for the personal counter and to give my Chinese some practise. There were exactly 12 counters with pretty much exactly 25 people behind each one. All the signs above the offices were displayed in Chinese and therefore all counters looked pretty much the same to me. I thought I´m beeing smart and chose the line with only 23 people in front of me.

Whilst standing in the line I noticed that my queue was a particular stressed one. There were people rushing in from the side and the guy behind the counter seemed like was  close to a nervous breakdown.  20 minutes later I found out why this line was so busy. When I got to the counter and bravely said in chinese that I wanted 2 return train tickets tomorrow leaving to Hangzhou he gave me a wicked grin and said "Mei you" (Don´t have) - and pointed at the other 11 counters on the left. The counter I had waited at was only issueing tickets for this day.

Another half an hour later I found myself again leading  a new waiting line, ready to explain again what my mission was about. It takes a little courage to do this. Because behind you are all these other 24 people who are really not keen on standing behind a foreigner. Like anywhere in the world people know "That can only go wrong and will take forever"

My counterpart  behind the glass turned out to be a woman who probably got up with the wrong foot that morning. So whilst I explained she gave me a look as if I I had told her that her shift tonight would not finish at 5 but at 11 at night. We did not hit it off very well but we were able to work out that I needed a return train tickets to Hangzhou. I actually said that I needed two and was happy when she started typing into her computer.

For some reason I had to hand her my passport for issuing the ticket. This did not surprise me because in this country you are almost not able to do anything without your passport - at least as a foreigner. A couple of minutes later I proudly held the  first two tickets in my hand. "Great" I thought " All I have to do now is ask her for another set of tickets for Paul".  So I waved the tickets at her and  shouted "liang ge" - two times! " into the microphone so that she and everyone else could hear me.

By that thime the crowd behind me started shuffeling with their feet and some people bended over my shoulders wondering what on earth could take that long. The lady behind the counter now looked like I had given her a whole night shift and asked me for Paul´s passport. Here is the exact dialogue - translated into English:

Ticket woman (TW): "Your husband passport?"
Me: " Don´t have!"
TW: "zhzhziojiojw´wefiowj weofjhn zheikj!!!!"
Me: ??????????????????????????
TW and next guy behind me in queue: "Why not have husband passport?????"
Me: "Because my husband needs his and is at work.......!!!!!!?????
TW: "Can not"
Me: "Sorry?"
TW: "Can not"
Guy behind me" You can not get a ticket without your husbands passport"
Me: "Why????????"
Ticket Woman: "Next!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" -
and did this classic "don´t want!- can not´t! -go away and leave me alone-before I loose my face-wave".
And before I realized I was pushed out the line with only one ticket for me to Hangzhou on friday. I thought what a waste of time, how crap my Chinese and how on earth I´m was going to make sure that Paul and I would ride on the same train. It seemed like  there was not much else I could do because there was no way for me to get Paul´s passport on that day. Slightly frustrated I made my way back to the underground.

But hey, what was that? I looked at my tickets and noticed that there was absolutely no reference to my name, my passport or anything personal. "Wait a minute" I thought " "A system is sometimes there to be fooled, a chinese one in particular!"..And so I decided to make my way up again and - to simply queue in another line. Just this time I made sure that the guy behind looked like he had a better day. And whilst I waited I noticed that next to no one! was showing their passports when booking a ticket. This gave me confidence in going ahead with my plan. Worst case I would have lost another half hour waiting.

I put on my best smile and  told my whole story about where I wanted to go ect. Again I had to show my passport. Holding my breath I watched the guy checking it and - believe it or not - punching in my interim residence permit visa which had expired some months ago!  Even I could see that he used the wrong document - latest the large X crossing out the page made it clear. To my luck this did not bother the ticket guy the slightest and the computer did not set off an alarm with crying sirenes and red lights flashing.

Five minutes later I happily wondered back down to the tube station, holding 4 tickets for a ride for both of us to Hangzhou and back in my hands! And in case you wonder - no one found out  about my little cheat.
Not even the ticket boarding machine :-)

What are we doing this weekend?

Last weekend we had planned one of those quiet weekends at home and I´m sorry to say: Mission totally failed. See the problem is that we are living right next to Hengshan road which is one of the largest party areas in Shanghai. Three of the largest clubs in Shanghai are based just round the corner  and nestled amongst countless bars and restaurants. It´s not like we are out there partying all the time, but it seems like it is just the other way round than it was in Germany: You have to make an effort NOT to go out.

So friday night Paul and I went to "Mistral", which is a lovley Spanish tapas place in Fuxing Road, just about 15 minute walk from us. After that we went to "JZ-bar" which is a funky live Jazz club accross from Mistral. We left there about 1am. On our walk home we noticed new flashing lights over an entrance in Hengshan road. Before we knew it a little happy little chinese guy pulled us through the door. We walked through a tunnel and over sudden found ourselfes in a huge two floor dance hall with countless half naked men going crazy to the latest beats. It took a couple of seconds to realize, but we had walked in the opening night of Shanghais new and largest gay club called "Angel"
If you want to get an idea, take a look:

It is a fun place to be but after the Jz club it did not quite fit the theme of the night - or maybe it was just Paul not beeing so sure :-) But I can´t wait exploring this place more with some friends form home one day!!

Next day, Saturday we were really going to stay in. But than we found out that Pauls colleague was playing with his band in a bar.  So we ended up in Yu Yin Tang Garden which is kind of a large pub with a small concert hall and seems to serve the cheapest beer in the city.. Dave (Pauls colleague) was actually playing in 3 bands that night. If you want to take a look at this video of  "Hotter than Teppanyaki"and listen to the tune " I like beer but it does not get me drunk" - Dave is the singer.

A little later that night on we got to see a real Shanghai celebrity punk band. The guys are Canadian and about 2 meters tall. The singer is a chinese girl and probably half the hight. She looks like a totally innocent school girl. But when she gets going on stage she is totally mad. Imagine a rabbit on speed jumping around on stage. I could not help thinking about one of the schizophrenic "Kill Bill" caracters and was waiting every second for her to pull her sword. Unfortunately she is not going that mad in this video. But you get an idea:

I think we were home and deaf at about 3am. It was too hot to sleep anyway (about 34 degrees at night). So what was there left to do on Sunday? Exactly chilling out and recovering. We packed our blankets and took  a taxi to Century Park where we relaxed a little on the lake. The good thing about the heat is that no one wants to get out. So we had the park nearly to ourselfes.

And what are we going to do this weekend? - Well the plan is to do NOTHING.... :-)

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!. :-)