Shanghai

We take the bus to shanghai and I go over the intinerary with our tour guide “Tony” to see when my shopping time will be. It appears he jam-packed the schedule so there’s only 20 minutes of free time …. This simply won’t work!! I have tons of shopping to do and need to make it back to my favorite local market. I remember the hullabaloo I caused last year when I insisted on more shopping time and got in a fight with tour guide “eddie” who called me some colorful names in both Chinese and English … I brace myself for my request with Tony …. I tell him I’ve already been to shanghai and done all the stuff they had on the agenda, and I wanted to split from the tour and do my own thing. I braced for the lashing out I was about to receive …. Deep breath …. And tony comes back with a ‘no problem! I’ll show you were to get a cab. Meet us at the hotel at 10.’ No way!!! I was free! I love tony … tony No. 1!!!

so the bus lets out at the pearl TV tower (shanghai’s space needle) and they go one way and I go the other to get my cab. This will be a good exercise for me as I want to live in shanghai someday, and want to make sure I know how to get around. We’re spoiled on a tour bus with tour guides … everything seems so simple … how would I do without my security blankets? I stood there for a few minutes just taking it in … one by one the group disappears and I’m left standing there …. Not familiar faces in sight … all alone ….. cars whizzing by … people running up to me offering to take my portrait … people running up to me offering to steal my handbag … I wondered if it was too late to rejoin the tour …

But I stuck it out and walked up to an available cab. I knew where I wanted to go, and I’ve got a half semester of LBCC Chinese class under my belt. That should do it! I approach the cab and say “Yu Garden” … relieved that I am going to a very simple place to pronounce, as well as very famous tourist attraction. It’s like going to NYC and asking a cabbie to take you to Times Square.

Or maybe not. He just stared at me. YU GARDEN, I say again, trying not to do that thing where when someone doesn’t understand you, you just say it louder. He just waved me away and now I’m back on the curb. I try again with the next available cab … “Yu Garden” and the guy tries talking to me in Chinese, rather strongly and adamantly. I’m really not sure how hard this is going to end up being … but it seems more difficult than it needs to be. In the meantime some locals approach the cab, get inside and speed off. Bastards.

Now there’s no cabs. I wait and stroll … but no dice. I am next to a huge giant traffic circle and decide to start walking toward it as there’s taxis zipping through it. There aren’t really any crosswalks here for pedestrians … you just wait and go when you can. Except in a traffic circle, the pace is even more fast and furious …. Any hesitation and it’s death by bus, taxi, Honda or bicycle. This is live Frogger. But I see the carrot dangling ahead of me … all I have to do is cross the street and I will arrive at SUPER BRAND MALL … yay! From across the street I see the first store inside is H&M, so that’s all the motivation I need. I stick with a pack of locals as we dodge traffic together and find great comfort in the confines of the Kylie Minogue collection of H&M once I arrive in the mall. I thought about just staying here and doing mall shopping. I see the H&M tunic I bought was $5 cheaper in the US and realize I am here to bargain shop, not mall shop! Upon exiting the store I see a tourist information booth and ask the nice man there if he speaks some English. He does! Jackpot! I tell him I can’t find a cab to take me to Yu Garden. He doesn’t understand ‘Yu Garden’ either, so I show him the photo of it on my camera. He’s like ‘Oh! Yu Garden! It closed today!’

Me: I don’t want to go to the garden itself, just the stores around it for shopping.
Him: Yu Garden closed today.
Me: that’s ok. I don’t want to go into the garden. I just want to go to the neighborhood it’s in. the stores around it will be open. I want to go shopping in the stores AROUND yu garden, not INSIDE garden.
Him: but Yu Garden is closed. No taxi will take you there.
Me: Yu Garden neighborhood only!
This went on for 5 more painful minutes before I gave up on the taxi idea and asked for a bus. He gave me a map and told me take the tourist train to the other side of the pudong river, then said I could catch a cab from there to Yu Garden.


The only thing I regret about taking the tourist train is that no one was there to experience it with me. I took some video of it to help capture the magic … but it really doesn’t do it justice. It’s basically a little pod car, like the thing you ride up to the top of the St. Louis arch in, but only seats 4. It’s almost all glass …. Which allows passengers to see the magical laser and light show that suddenly starts upon departure … along with cheesy English narrative, about how you are entering a space tunnel. I swear this is not to be missed … if you are into cheese … and since this is the land of no dairy, all cheese is welcome!

So I get to the other side of the river, where yu garden is, and enjoy the spectacular Bund …. The strip along the river where you can see the amazing shanghai skyline. I snap a few photos and try to catch a cab. No luck. Same thing. They all just start talking to me in Chinese and speed off. Guess that means I’m walking! The walk wasn’t that bad … took about an hour …. And I was relieved to finally get to where I was going. I remember this shop I went to last time I was here, and I loved the girls who work here, as they’ll make the pearl necklaces and jewelry in front of you.

I visit my first favorite stall and get some pearl necklaces made (they have to be hand-made because American necks are much bigger than the dainty swan-like Chinese necks! The girl working today is the sister of the girls who owns the shop and makes all of her own jewelry, and she starts making the necklaces gets to work on three of them and I browse the rest of the store, looking for more treasures. She automatically gives me the prices at half off sticker price, which you usually have to bargain down to …. So that makes life easier. I feel bad haggling for a lower price, since she’s already giving me such a great deal and automatically halved the prices, but I ask for a few bonus pieces since buying in quantity usually warrants some free gifts! I tell the girl I’ll be back in a few years, and she tells me to bring my friends! I have her card so if anyone ever goes to shanghai, you must stop by her store! Her jewelry is truly magical and unique.

The market is only open until 9 p.m. and it’s now 8 …. That means one hour left for my final store … the other pearl shop I like, which I visited on my first visit. These girls knot all of the necklaces and let you choose your own clasp … I love participatory jewelry making! and will also make anything for you. I like them because they also have lots of jade, turquoise and coral to choose from. I get my list of people to buy for and get to work.

The best is when I get to mom’s pearl request and they pull out the expensive tray. “For mama!” They say. The price is triple and I’m like …hmmmm ….. I say we can get the other pearls for mama, as she will think they are still beautiful …. But they refuse … they are like ‘she give you life!!! These are mama pearls!!!’ so mom, if you’re reading this, you get by far the most expensive pearls!! But they did throw in the earrings for free … yay!

It’s now 9 p.m. and I still need some necklaces made … I ask if they are going to close and they say no! I have three girls working on my order and they just keep knotting and creating fabulous little treasures for everyone! I finally get done with my order … but not before they sell me about $110 more worth of stuff at the last minute …. Who knew I needed a jade necklace too? I made the mistake of telling them I didn’t want to just have a jade necklace because I had nothing to wear with it … so before I knew it they were measuring my wrist for a bracelet, and whipping out some earrings. The whole set was $25 … made right before my eyes …. How can a girl say no to that? I helped them close the shop around 10 p.m. … one of the girls helping make all of the jewelry was from the silk shop next door, so since she wasn’t in her store, she lost some business … so how I had to buy something from her as well … oh well … she did have a nice selection so I was happy to help her out too. I asked them for one last favor … could they help me get a cab back to the hotel? They were too happy to help, and had me in the cab and on my way in no time … we agreed to still be friends, and I would come back the next time I’m in shanghai … I have their card too!

I get to the hotel … the 45-minute cab ride cost me about $4 … and decide to have dinner at an intriguing place called “West Food Café” … upon entering I’m handed a pack of toilet paper(?). not sure what to make of it, but I eat anyway. The menu had a bunch of random items … ribeye steak … spaghetti with mushrooms … nothing really caught my eye … and the waitress stood over me and watched me review the menu … hovering …. A close hover …. An uncomfortable hover, made even more uncomfortable by the fact I’m the only one there and it’s completely silent … she stood over to me like she was going to grade me on my performance on selection. I had to pick something just to end this uncomfortable situation! so I decided on ‘seafood rice with cheese’ thinking it would be seafood risotto. Not really sure what I was thinking as it was a big bowl of rice covered with melted cheese on top …. Under the layer of cheese was some shrimp (eyes, antennae and legs still in effect, poking through the melty goodness) and other random animals in shells. The meal also came with minestrone soup and a croissant …. And I ordered some mango-orange juice, which was served slightly warmed. Cant’ say I was satisfied, but at least I scored some TP, which is very coveted in this land. Yay!