The Bund
Shanghai began with my spirits higher than they have ever been in China. I had completed my last day at the school of nightmares, had a movie day to myself, and I was all packed up and ready to be moved and, to quote Sarah Kane, “begin again!” The journey started off fairly OK until after a bus, subway, and train, we made our way to the sleeper train to be greeted by a crazy Chinese woman obsessed with money. She waltzed over to a bed that wasn’t hers, plonked herself down, helped herself to a bag of seeds that belonged to the family bunking in next to us, sat down and began the trial: Do you have boyfriend? Do you have husband? How much was your watch? What about you necklace? Why are you here? What are you doing in Shanghai? You are rich. No we’re not. You are rich. No, we’re not. Why don’t you fly. We respond in unison with:”Tài guìle” which directly translates as “too expensive”. She laughs and repeats the same question a countless number of times. The latter part of the journey consists of a constant supply of junk food, beer, and this crazy woman watching us sleep, do our make-up, put our contacts in… I am all up for the Chinese being interested in Western culture, but c’mon love!
The prison… I mean, sleeper train…
So hours, days in fact, later we arrived in Shanghai! Typically, the subway station we needed to get to was closed – why wouldn’t it be!? So we braved a cab after facing the impossible task of flagging one down. Eventually, we were comfortable driving through the streets of Shanghai – totally fascinated by being in the Big Apple of China. The driver pulled up on the side of a somewhat derelict road and merely gestured toward the road we needed to walk along. When we arrived at the hostel, the booking was not registered. Why? Because it was the wrong hostel! So after two full days of travelling, off we were again on a hike, with our heavy backpacks and tour guide in hand, through Nanjing Road, which is as busy as I imagine broadway during rush hour, and after minor confusion we were finally checked in to the correct hostel with a beer in hand!
We hurried to get showered, drink our drinks, and head on out to meet the other teachers we had arranged to party with! We met up and took everyone back to our hostel as it was happy hour and the drinks were remotely affordable! The night was incredible, everyone was in such high spirits, in holiday mode, and relaxing with fantastic company. I have mentioned this before but I cannot stress how much the concept of time changes when you are working and living in a foreign country – It had been exactly a month since we last saw everyone…prior to that we had only really known one another for two weeks… and yet there we were catching up like long lost friends from years past. We ended up in a club with brilliant music that wasn’t too far from our hostel and had an amazing night filled with way too much Jim Beam, dancing, and sweating like a fat kid in a chip shop! At the end of the night, as is typical of any night out, we ended up in the local MacDonald’s at 4am where everyone was sleeping…a common encounter in fast food restaurants late at night in China. Of course being quiet and respectful was out of the question… “HIIIII, HELLLLO NEW YORRRRK!!” There was nobody behind the counter so my friend, who shall not be named (luckily you escaped the naming and shaming this time around) decided to casually stroll through the open door to the opposite side of the counter and began to serve everyone chips! It was priceless!!
China’s got talent…
The following day with my hangover as a constant reminder we headed downstairs to have some breakfast at Mingtown hostel… It was tiny! It’s not what one would ideally want on the hangover from hell. It was so pathetic it was laughable! We headed to the infamous French Concession which was a rather odd experience. Judging by it’s name you would assume it would be… well, like France. But there was a dominoes, several spanish bars, and an overpriced Greek restaurant which we ended up having lunch at… not the best start to the day. I won’t be going back there if I do end up heading back to Shanghai – proper disappointment.
We grabbed the first cab out of there and got taken to The Bund. It was stunning, the views were incredible. During the daytime ‘rammed’ does not even begin to explain how packed it was. It was truly beautiful though and a must see place to visit. We hung around until the evening time and sat by right by the water looking out onto the bright lights – it was the first time in China, including all of my visits to several temples, that I felt a genuine sense of peace. I could have stayed there all night! As a result of the hangover and being on our feet all day it was time for a few drinks at the hostel and a good nights sleep.
The view at night
The next day, which was unfortunately our final day in Shanghai, was filled with tourist attractions, street food, and a lot of waiting! Finally after speaking with everyone and arranging the day, despite getting up at 8am, we were on our way by 11! Our first visit was the famous Jade Buddha which is housed within the grounds of a temple built specifically for the purpose of the central Jade Buddha and the reclining Jade Buddha. The temple was beautiful and filled with inspirational quotes, buddhas, statues, candles, incense, and buddhist monks walking around with their iPhones in hand (very strange image!) We paid to get into the temple and walked around experiencing the beauty of people meditating and praying at every angle. Cheekily, they charged us extra when we were in the temple to go and visit the Buddha… which in all honesty was a bit disappointing. It really was stunning but it was in a glass box, understandably… but it was tiny! When that much fuss is made over something you expect it to blow your mind… and it didn’t… we weren’t allowed to take pictures so after we stood there awkwardly for a few minutes we decided it was time to leave… i’d be lying if I said we didn’t feel like we had just been mugged.
The reclining buddha
Directly after the temple we jumped in a cab to take us to ‘Boobies Tattoo Studio’… yes, it’s called Boobies… and it’s also the cleanest tattoo parlour I have ever been in! Along with several other teachers I got the Chinese symbol for ‘Gan Bei’ meaning ‘down your drink’ on the bottom inside of my left leg. That word for me sums up China… it’s said everywhere and it was the first word of Mandarin I learned to speak, understandably I think. It was pretty painful, but very worth it! As soon as we finished there it was straight on to the Silk Market which is supposedly the place to go to get real silk at fake prices. I managed to resist as even so much as the journey to Shanghai had put me on a less than comfortable budget.
The beginnings of a cult…
We were all ready to go any buy our tickets for the river cruise and head on down to the bund but of course this is China. At first we were in the wrong line. And then the tickets were sold out. So instead we ended up in Hooters and spent 50 yuan per cocktail! In my earlier blog posts when I talk about our experience up in Harbin, I mention my friend Keith who, bless him, had the worlds worst 23rd birthday in the history of shit birthdays. So we’re sat at Hooters and the Hooter girls come on out in their tiny hot pants leaving nothing up to the imagination with a cheesecake, singing a special hooters song for “kiss birthday”… “errrr.. it’s Keith”…. “yes, kiss”. After all of the commotion we attempted to pay the bill… which ended up with us bunch of 12 or more of us Westerners stood on bar stools in the middle of the restaurant area performing the YMCA and the Macarena to people who I am sure were simply trying to enjoy a quiet meal and the view of a few…hooters… and no, they didn’t take any money off of the bill…and, yes we were mugged once again!
The last night was good, but it was nothing compared to the first night. We went to a club called MAYA whereby you pay 100 yuan entry fee and then it’s an open bar all night. Fortunately we didn’t pay the entry fee, only had a few free drinks and left. It was so intense – it wasn’t music you could dance to and looked like the kind of place where rich college kids who are high on all sorts go to “party”. We ended up, after some spicy tofu, to the same club we went to on the first night but some people weren’t feeling it, most were tired, some had dodgy stomachs. It was time to call it a night. 2 hours later we rose at 7am to catch our train back to Chengdu. I woke up with a tummy bug and ended up on a 2 day train journey with the smelliest squat toilets you can imagine, leaving nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.
By the time we arrived back at Chengdu, after losing my friends boyfriend and his phone, I arrived back at my apartment gone 10pm with time to shower, re-pack, and sort my life out before getting up at 5am the next morning to catch my flight to Dongguan…
…the adventure continues!