Saturday, it finally stopped raining in Shanghai - trudging around in a raincoat or under an umbrella is not my idea of fun: when everyone else is using an umbrella, the footpath can be hard to navigate and the ways in which the people under them might move are harder to predict. Anyway, I had a couple of things I wanted to do in clear weather.
Zhongshan Park is about 10 km west of the centre of Shanghai. It was originally half the garden of a British property developer, but became a public park more than a hundred years ago. It’s name was changed in the 1940’s to honour Sun Yat-Sen (he was apparently better known as Sun Zhongshan). It’s 53 acres (21 hectares). Before going in, I had another destination in mind - the food alleys under the Cloud Nine Shopping Mall. They’ve made a real effort to create the idea of higgledy-piggledy alleys, with numerous small restaurants as well as a few historical artefacts - like half a dozen old CRT TV’s showing movies, or a few bicycles leaning in strategic spots.
I had a really nice coffee, then went across the alley to a biang biang noodle place for a meat of some sort burger (or Rou Jia Mo) - the bun is more of a flatbread than you’d find in a hamburger, and they’re quite delicious. Oh, and some noodles, lots of noodles.
At the entrance to the park, there’s a paved area - at one end, maybe 20 couples are ballroom dancing, at the other a few people were playing badminton. It’s fair to say that most were my age or older, but everyone seemed to be having fun, and there were quite a few just watching and hanging out.
Walking further into the park, I came across a lily pond, a big garden with three guys working hard to clear weeds and cut the grass, a fenced off “English lawn” and then several meandering pathways through a wooded area. Everywhere I went, I could hear music - one fellow was all by himself, no audience, playing an erhu (an upright 2 string violin-like instrument) and there was a full band with two singers doing (I think) a bit of Chinese Opera.
Rather than load this post up with more photos, take a look at my instagram post of the day. I wandered around the park for quite a while - it was easily 4 in the afternoon by the time I left. On the way to the subway station, I bought myself a very expensive sprite at a wee stall - my own fault. Everyone uses Alipay to buy things here, and some places, you have to scan a QR code, then input the amount you’re paying. I forgot the decimal point, didn’t I!
Since the day was still clear, I headed to the Bund: there is a big walkway along the edge of the river, then seating for 2 or 3 hundred metres, 4 or five rows deep. The point is to watch the lights come on across the river in Pudu - two hours earlier, the place was pretty much already packed, and it stayed packed until after dark. I enjoyed sitting there, watching the people move around and reading my book. The cloud cover meant that the lighting was quite subdued, but not long before dark, the sun came out for a brief golden moment - I actually thought this was better than seeing the buildings lit up by their artificial lights.
I also very much liked seeing the buildings of the Bund after dark - the lighting was far more effective - during daylight, the buildings did look a bit grey and grim.
Leaving, I was accosted by a three young people, barely in their 20’s, who wanted to take my photo with them. Then it was time to deal with the crowds - perhaps I shouldn’t have been so determined to walk back via the main drag, Nanjing Road, or should have been more aware of what the Police had done. It’s a wide, fully pedestrianised street - they had put a temporary fence of sorts down the middle - people coming to see the lights on one side, those leaving on the other. I didn’t know this, so tried going through the mass of people still coming - they stretched back at least a block. Eventually I worked it out, and got on the correct side - life was so much easier, but I still thought I deserved a drink, and knew just where to have one - the Churchill Terrace of the Fairmont Peace Hotel, right on the Bund. Sitting nine floors up, I could still see most of the Pudu buildings and there was, well, peace - at least until I saw the price of my gin (160 yuan, or close to $NZ40!).
Sunday, it was back to raining, more seriously than on the prior days, so I thought it might be a good museum visiting day. I had quite a list, but the one I picked provided some unique insights - the very first Automotive museum in China. It took an age to get out there - it’s 45 km west of central Shanghai - and then it was a 30 minute walk in the rain, on paths that were not draining at all well. I’m not sure if it was an add insult to injury thing or the Gods smiling on me thing, but I only had to pay the senior rate to enter (seniors at this particular establishment have to be over 70!).
There are four floors of cars, with a ramp circling the perimeter, on which more cars are parked. Most were foreign, cars I’d seen before, so I didn’t pay them much mind - I was here to see the Chinese cars. There weren’t that many of them - nothing from before 1959, and nothing after 1990. I’ll just show the oldest and youngest. This is a 1959 Honqi CA72 - I should have looked more closely, as the tail lights are said to be inspired by palace lanterns and the interior integrated elements of Chinese folk arts and crafts:
Then we have the 1990 Shanghai SH7221 - it has a 2.345 litre engine but has a maximum speed of only 132 km/hr.
For 1990, that’s a very old-fashioned look, and Chinese car design has come on an enormous amount since then. There’s a nice cafe on the fifth floor, where I could have a fairly decent coffee before braving the rain again. It had gone down somewhat so, rather than hurrying, I popped into a Dicos store - they are the third largest fast food joint in China (after KFC then McDonalds) and do fried chicken. I had their chicken leg, they claimed that it’s famous - quite tender, but the crust didn’t really taste of anything. Heading back om the subway, a fit young bloke was sitting in the priority seating area - our glances connected and he came over to chat. He’s been in Shanghai one day longer than me, but here to stay, doing a masters in Anthropology. He’d tried Guangzhou but didn’t like it.
My last night in Shanghai, my dinner nearly killed me. I went into a little place near my hotel for some beef noodles, but they gave me so many noodles! I like a bit of a challenge, so tried to eat them all - no way! So I thought I’d better eat the beef, let’s get this done, and put it all into my mouth. It was quite dry and chewy, so I had to break off little bits, chew them down and then swallow - but I really had bitten off more than I could chew and nearly choked.