Shanghai Tan [Shanghai 25/12 - 31/12]

And now we are into the final week of Shanghai. Looking back, I have compiled a list of the good and bad about this modern city of China:

Good
1. Shopping - To those with the dollar advantage, the latest in fashion are really cheap.

Bad
1. Food - Too meaty, Too oily, Too salty, Too exotic, Too spicy. Eventually, we survive on bread, potatos, corn in the afternoon; McDonalds and KFC in the evenings; and is still quite happy about it. Back in Singapore, I don't even take McDonalds. So you guys get the big picture on where the food is ranked by us.
2. Air Pollution - Really bad. It may be the cause for all three of us to fall sick in the third week there.
3. Public Transport - Terrible. It is all man for himself. The strongest survive; back to the wild side of life.

We had a chance to catch the 'Story of Singapore' by Discovery Channel on Wednesday. Really fascinating and appreciative of the island state Singapore, especially since we are out of town for about a month.


Day 22 (Sunday)

Today, we revisited the shopping areas for one last blast of shopping frenzy. We hopped on the cab and travel through the city centre. It is foggy today, so join me in the journey through the city scape again.

The twin towers of Xujiahui in the foggy morning.



We alighted at the old shanghai street and walk through it again. My friend is getting some unique handicrafts from this place.







Along the way, we came upon one of the on-street dramas. We tend to see it on average of once a week. A big crowd will usually gather in watching the on-street drama.



If you guys have not figured it out from the picture, it show two women quarrelling. I have gotten tired of this whole culture of people quarrelling by the road side and decide a take a snap of them. Together with a part of the audience.

Next we proceeded on to the City of Books. It is a tall 7-storey high building with books in its lower 5 stories follow by computer and video entertainment collection at the top two floors. Really huge and trimming with people. I have gotten a few books from there and some gifts for my friends.



At the end of the day, we just proceed on to Xiang Yang market again and finally round off the day with Mister Donuts.

Day 24 (Tuesday)

Had dinner with our local colleague. He frequent this restaurant with his family.



The dishes reminded us of Si Chuan culinary. It is the 3rd or 4th time for us having a bowl of slice fish filled with chills. The rest of the meal is quite alright.

Day 26 (Thursday)

A company dinner is scheduled for all of us. This time is at a famous seafood restaurant from Ningbo. A personal room has been booked for our dinner table with our Singapore team dining in with the local General Manager and our colleagues. I have observed that customers normally treat the service staff (waitresses) rudely as it is part of the culture there. Shouting commands and demanding them to serve as and when they like. The service staff are still very much incline and courteous to the customers regardless of the impoliteness they were subjected to. Secondly, it is Shanghainese culture to Gan Pai onto the round glass on the main dining table instead of standing up and knocking against each other glass. This is because the table is too large for all to pay tribute.

Anyway, here we are off to seafood delicacy. The dishes seems alright but taste quite raw for some. The clams are bloody; with raw squids dip in wasabi. I prefer the prawn dish out of them all. Finally came the lobster. Just savour some of its lobster sashimi. After everyone has their share, I noticed that its feelers are actually moving. OMG, it's alive!!!

I stopped having any more of the dishes thereafter. And to make matters worse, I overheard the manager asking his stuff to go on down to pick the fresh product as no menu are available in this restaurant. So what you pointed out at the live stock is what you eat. Sinful...




Day 27 (Friday)

We were told about a major shopping street to the north of Shanghai known as Qi Pu Lu(七铺路). It is quite inaccessible from our hotel, so we decided to take a cab down. Some sights along the way below:

The flyover expressways are all closed. So all the cars have to travel by the normal roads, causing quite a massive jam all over.



A quick peek into the normal pack Shanghai bus. Imagine you are stuck in the middle with no escape from it.



The hordes of people crossing the streets at anyone time. (Actually this is the busy street right in front of Nanjing Dong Road, just off People's Square)


The unique Shanghainese architecture with a blend of old against new.


Here is another fascinating architecture.



And finally we arrived at Qi Pu Road. The whole taxi ride took us 40 mins with a price of 52 RMB. The colourful flag is actually hang outside out of the many Mega Clothing Malls. In each malls, there are actually close to a hundred shops.



A view from one of the mall with the shopping street. It takes 15 minutes to walk in a rapid pace from one end to another end. There is so much cheap clothing that it really puts us off.




And finally we round off the shopping frenzy with Xiang Yang market and had dinner at a teppanyaki stall round the corner. I went for their best seafood delicacy with a fellow friend.



This is how it looks like. The teppanyaki for commoners as compared to the one we have the week before.





Day 28 (Saturday)

Our last day in Shanghai, we booked a limousine service to bring us to Pudong International Airport.



The marvelous bridge design spanning Shanghai city, across the Huang Pu river to Pudong airport.




And we finally arrived at the new Pudong International airport. Did some light last minute shopping before flying back to Singapore.

Shanghai Kings [Shanghai 18/12 - 24/12]

Day 15 (Sunday)

Today is a designated Rest Day for all of us. Did our laundry in the morning followed by some light shopping for our perishables. Chill out in the afternoon and decided to dine in the hotel for our dinner.

Our fellow colleague mentioned that the Teppanyaki in the hotel is only 58 RMB, so we decided to go for it. We were ushered into a private room with the chef welcoming us. Sat down and started looking through the menu.

We were quite surprised when we browsed through the available dinner set meals. It all started from 400 RMB. The chef mentioned that we can pick anything in the menu, including the lunch set menu which begin from 130 RMB. My friend and me selected the Prawn Special meal while my other two friends went for the Fish meal.

The starter for the meal is an exquisitely prepared egg with some rare ingredients in it. The chef painstaking prepare each dishes as if it were his own.



Next we go on to Tomato soup as a warm up followed by the First course of Teppanyaki prawn.



Our normal concept of teppanyaki is what we have back in Singapore’s food court where we are given a normal set meal of rice, soup, vegetables and choice of meat. The teppanyaki we are having now is really the top notch fine dining of the teppanyaki arena. The chef also shared with us on his techniques in preparation and how it is different from the common (lower) teppanyaki meals.

Next is a salad meal before we go into our Second course of Beef steak. Very well prepared indeed.

We rounded it off with some fried rice, vegetables and English tea. This is our first fine dining meal in Shanghai and our first most expensive meal ever. But more is yet to come.



Day 16 (Monday)

One of our fellow colleague is down and out with cold. So the night is set to go back to YinQiXing Indoor Ski for ice skiing. Took a cab which costs 30RMB from our hotel there. We decided to go for unlimited skiing which costs 200 RMB for the double board and 101 RMB for single board. Below is a snapshot of the indoor skiing arena.



And here is a quick snap of us all (if you can see us) at the end of 3 hours non-stop action.



Our next stop is dinner and it is decided to go Japanese this time round. It is more like a match between dinner and supper as it is approaching 10pm when we arrived at the restaurant The restaurant is just next to Shanghai Sheraton. This area is known as mini Japan in Shanghai due to the abundance of Japanese people and companies in the area.



The restaurant is really in its traditional Japanese best. We were ushered into a mini room where all 4 of us can either choose to sit in Zazen or normal sit upright. A waitress dressed in kimono took our orders. She spoke a fluent Japanese and from our room, we overheard the other waitresses learning Japanese in a small room beyond. It is already 10pm and I guess most customers have already left and they are making use of this time to brush up on their Japanese.



We ordered a lot and the dishes keep coming in.





A quick snapshot of the dishes we have ordered. The soup from the tea pot is the best. It left a very memorable feeling just sampling from the soup. Not the diluted kind we normally get from soup back in Singapore but it is a carefully prepared stew soup.



There is also the usual stuff of tempura and the deep sea fish found only off the coast of Japan. And also the powerful steamboat serving which left all of us overly full. The meal is quite alright after yesterday's fine dining, just another 200RMB (S$40).





Day 17 (Tuesday)

For dinner tonight, we went to Shan Xi Nan Lu MRT Station to rendezvous with our 2 other colleagues. We are going to a famous Peking Duck restaurant just a 3 minute walk from the station. When we arrived at the entrance, we were immediately greeted by the picture of our founding father, who also savoured a meal there many decades ago.



The waitresses are mostly dress in tradition Qing dynasty palace maidens attire. One of the palace maiden directed us to the 4th floor in the lift. The waiting area is beautifully designed to that of the traditional chinese interior. We got down to our seats after hanging around for 5 minutes.

We ordered the main Peking duck dish followed by other normal and exotic Chinese crusine. When the duck arrived, it is prepared in front of us by a assistant chef. Slicing off the crispy skin first, follow by the first layer of meat and lastly the inner layer of meat. 3 plates of Duck meat in all. One of my colleague mentioned that this restaurant sold up to 6 million ducks a year.



All the meat can be eaten in the usual add with duck sauce manner or wrapped in a pop piah like skin, as well as eaten with bread. The rest of the dishes arrived and we finished all of it with the exception of the snail-like seafood dish shown right in front in the picture.



We discovered that it is a trend that not only on our table by several others next to us where the customers left a huge excess of this dish. All of us only took one or two pieces and call it quits.

With a hearty meal, we left the restaurant and back to our hotel. Having great difficulty in catching a cab at Shan Xi Nan Lu again at 9.15pm.



Day 18 (Wednesday)

After 3 consecutive days of extreme fine dining, we decide to lighten our meals for today. But coincidentally, it is Dong Zhi. The chinese had a tradition of having chicken rice on Dong Zhi. And so we tag along our colleague for chicken rice lunch.



In the evening, we seriously decide to go for light stuff. We took the usual Bus Service 205 back to our hotel vicinity for dinner. By the time it reached the second stop, it is so jam pack with people that leaving the bus is totally impossible. When we reached our stop, we have to squeeze through the compact throng of people to the front of the entrance. Thank goodness we are able to squeeze through and kudos to the patience of the bus driver in keeping the door open for us to alight. Else we will have to wait till Xujiahui to get out of this trap bus.

Had a light dinner of vegetables and rice at just 16 RMB per person. The meal is less meaty but nevertheless oily. Had a early rest the night watching DVDs and recuperating.



Day 19 (Thursday)

Knock off work and had a go again at the pack bus. We are wiser this time round and decided to hang around the back exit throughout the journey. Nevertheless, passengers were still allowed up through the back exit at the second bus stop from our work place. Alighting is almost an impossible task with 2 to 3 people to squeeze through before being free. Had dinner at our usual restaurant and return back to hotel thereafter.


Day 20 (Friday)

The bus journey is likewise uneventful and my fellow colleague had a fallout with a fellow passenger when he attempted to alight but was blocked by hordes of passengers going in the opposite direction. My style is just to ignore and squeeze through them, in similar imitation to the local Chinese style.

Thereafter went down to Da Lang Tao Sa (大浪淘沙). It is a majestic building next to our usual restaurant. The whole building is actually a complete spa, health fitness cum entertainment centre in one.



Had dinner at our usual restaurant.


Day 21 (Saturday)

Today is Christmas eve and we got the places to visit all plan up. Join me in my cab journey through the heartlands of Shanghai.

A morning scene of PuDong:



A morning scene at PuXi:



Through the old streets of Shanghai:



A we finally arrive for lunch at the Book City. A scene from our lunch place below:




Our meal of spicy food:


Our next plan for the day is shopping, so we went on down to purchase even more of the original cheap DVDs and had a stroll down back to Xiang Yang street market. Along the way, we noticed the daily newspapers are setup on reading boards throughout Shanghai streets.




We came upon a very unique garden with a peacock-shape like design.



One of our favourite gifts for friends back in Singapore is the Mont Blanc pen collection. I bought a large number of them and have given almost all of them out to my friends within the first week back in Singapore. That explains why I spent close to S$300 on gifts. Anyway, it is Christmas, a moment of giving and sharing.



And lastly we have dinner back at Xin Tian Di. It is extremely packed with people today. Had outdoor dining while enjoying the spectator of celebrations going around.

Shanghai Knights [Shanghai 11/12 - 17/12]

Day 8 (Sunday)

The weather is getting cold from the downpour yesterday with water crystals appearing at the edge of the windows. As the laundry service provided by the hotel seems exorbitant, we decided to take a walk down the street to the laundry shop which we saw yesterday. The price they quoted is almost 3 times better than the hotel service, at only 50 RMB as compared to the 150 RMB (including 10% service charge) by the hotel. We accepted it and highlighted that we would like to collect it later in the evening.



Thereafter we got back to our rooms and had a rest for the day. No more travelling and sightseeing for today.

Later in the evening, we got a call from a fellow colleague who just returned from Japan. We were invited for dinner with him at Xujiahui. Took a bus from the hotel to Xujiahui, the cold is really enduring; standing out in the cold waiting a long time for the bus to arrive. Upon arrival there, we walked through Xujiahui central and through a busy street branching off from there. We arrived at a popular Taiwanese steamboat store round the area. It was pretty crowded with us waiting 20 minutes at the entrance before being ushered in to our table. We ordered quite a lot, with dishes ranging from beef sashimi to the usual steamboat ingredients. The main soup is divided into chicken herbal soup and hot spicy soup. The sauce served there could be mixed and match so whoever came up with the best sauce combinations will really make the meal satisfying to the max. At the end, we were introduced to a game on whoever guessed the total price for the meal correctly or closest to it will be exempted from paying it. I didn't win this time round.



Day 11 (Wednesday)

The only highlight for the weekdays this week is ice skiing. Since we will be visiting the ice skiing indoor stadium again next Monday. I shall share more about it then.

And now let's have a sneak peek into our daily lifestyle in Shanghai. After 2 days of consuming food in our company's food court, we have resigned to having bread, corn and potato for our lunch. Like the lady seen in the picture below selling corn and potato by the roadside:



For our dinner, we try to go light by having meals in a restaurant a 10 minutes walk from our hotel. Consider posh for local standards, but this is where we have our dinner daily. Quite affordable to us Singaporeans, with meals ranging from 50 RMB to 100 RMB for 3 person.



A typical serving for dinner looks like the pix below:





Day 14 (Saturday)

Here is the trip plan for today:

The day started at 11am and we took Bus 205 to Xujiahui and transit to the MRT station. Did some window shopping at the IT building there next to the station, my colleagues originally intending to get a mouse and some DVDs but find the variety and price to be quite costly as compare to back at home.






So we move on to our next stop at Shi Men Yi Lu station, the ticket costing 4 RMB each. When we left the station to the main shopping street, we were amazed by the long stretch of vendors selling goods ranging from pirated DVDs to daily accessories. This street is so horded by people that walking through it takes several minutes.






Our final destination is here. And this will be where we will have our lunch at a popular Chinese store. There is a long queue waiting to collect the food but the worst is yet to come, getting a seat in the shop is a much more unforgettable experience.



We finally settled down on our meals which is shown below. Consisting of Xiao Long Bao and fishballs/meatballs soup. The tea pot we see at the top actually contains vinegar.



Next we proceeded on by foot to the famous Xiang Yang market, the place where we have been to a week ago. This time we were led by a 'local'; he is actually a Japanese who has lived in Taiwan for over 6 years and now being posted over to Shanghai. Along the way, we bought a large numbers of original DVDs from a video shops, not wanting to take the risk with pirated stuffs. The original discs still cost equally cheap as compared to back in Singapore. Walking down the street, we came upon one of their many public toilets below:



Shanghai also has many gardens spread out through the city with the one below just next to Xiang Yang market. As it is winter time, all the leaves have fallen, leaving only the wooded park against a backdrop of the setting sun.



And here we are at the Xiang Yang road market.



There is a notice at one of the exit / entrance to the market which mention about the illegal hawking of counterfeit branded goods. Dun think anyone really is bothered with what is written on it, and it is in English, so presumably it is meant for the foreign tourists and foreign law-makers to note and not for the local Chinese.

Upon arrival at the market entrance, touters will swamp the visitors asking them whether would they be interested in purchasing any counterfeit goods ranging from bags, watches, pens, DVDs, shoes and so on. Normally on a weekend, we will see lotsa foreign tourists.

When we make our purchase, we were taught how to go about bargaining and getting a good deal out of it. Our local guide told us to ask for the price first and set our price at 20% of what they have requested. Thereafter we can insist to keep our price by walking away from the shop (by faking failure of negotiation) and they will eventually give in to our requests. So this is the negotation techniques we have adopted for all our shopping there.

The coolest negotiation group I find are from the caucasians who have a niche way of bargaining with the local shopkeepers. They will befriend the shopowners and slowly shift down the price using charisma, especially to the female shopkeepers.



During the evening, we continued the journey which we left out from last week at Nanjing Dong road. The pictures below show the start and the journey through Shanghai's famous shopping street.









The temperature is now at 3 degree celsius.






The beautiful night scene at Shanghai's Bund, facing towards Pudong.



The famous night scene at Shanghai's Bund, facing towards the old administrative buildings.



And we finally settle in for dinner on a floating restaurant at the river bank.