First Visitor! Day 1

Sorry I'm so behind... the busy Shanghai life is catching up with me.  I'll prepare a couple posts to recap the last 2 weeks!


During the week of April 18th, I was quite busy making sure that I had a good weekend planned for my first visitor! Gretchen is a good friend of mine from work, she went to Depauw and played basketball, in general we just have a lot in common.  Last fall, we both joined the same group at work, so it has been a lot of fun actually working together.  She was with an audit team in South Korea over the last 2 weeks and came over to China to end her Asia Adventure.


Gretchen arrived around 8pm on Friday night and I went to the airport to meet her. She arrived and we had 2 options: take a taxi home or take the Maglev, then take a taxi from there.  The Maglev is a magnetic levitation train that connect the Pudong International Airport to the edge of downtown Shanghai.  The top operational speed of this train is 431 km/hr (268mph), making it the world's fastest train in regular commercial services since its opening in 2004.  Since this is on many top 10 lists for Shanghai, we opted to kill two birds with one stone and take the ride on the way back to my apartment.

I managed to actually catch the 431 mph on my phone!

Taking the Maglev was cool - it only takes 7.5 min to make the trek of about 25-30 in the taxi, but unfortunately everyone else that got off the Maglev had the same idea as us, to take a cab further into the city.  There were about 50 people in line for a taxi, so I convinced Gretchen we could take the subway the rest of the way home.  This seemed like a quicker idea - but it certainly wasn't easier! We would only have to make one transfer, but this proved to be pretty inconvenient with Gretchen pulling her large suitcase (2 weeks of business travel) and me pulling her computer bag.  There were several instances of only stairs and no escalators which were very uncomfortable to scale.  We were quite a sight to be seen. Gretchen and I both agreed that if we had been each other's sister - we would have been killing each other!! haha Hannah - I promise to take a taxi from the airport! :)


We finally made it home to my apartment and headed out for a quick dinner - it was already nearly 10pm.  We walked down to the Xintiandi area near my place, a very popular tourist destination.  We ate at Din Tai Fung, this is actually a Taiwaniese restaurant that serves amazing steamed dumplings.  They actually have outlets all over the world, but its a perfect spot for yummy xiaolongbao or "bao" for short.  After a long couple of weeks and the traveling Gretch was tired, so we called it an early night.


Saturday we were up bright and early.  I had prepared a busy agenda, so no time to waste! We started the morning by stopping at my two favorite morning spots for a coffee and baozi - similar to the dumplings we had the night before, but this is truly a steamed bun with tasty pork inside.  This little shop on my walk to work is always busy on the weekdays, no less than 20 people in line.  I get 2 ro (pork) baozi for 2.40 RMB, this is about 37 cents.  At first I was like why are they eating pork in the morning? Then I realized bacon, ham, and sausage - not so weird after all.  Then I'm like, there are so many people in line, they must be good.  One morning I was passing by and a coworker was in line - they helped me order and taught me what to say.  Now, I stop a couple times a week to enjoy the local Shanghianese treat.  And they don't just eat it for breakfast - all day long as a snack!  I was glad to share this with Gretch and she said she liked it too!

Gretchen with her baozi in the taxi

So, we grabbed the food and jumped in a taxi headed west of town toward the Hongqaio Pearl Market.  I had not been to this yet, so was glad to take the trip.  Most of the floors are similar to 580 Nanjing Rd, but the 2nd floor is all jewerly outlets - mostly pearls.  There are all levels, styles, colors and sizes of pearls available and they will custom finish the piece for you.  Gretchen picked up a couple nice 3 strand necklaces in traditional white medium sized, some black pearl earnings, and a cute single pearl necklace for herself.  We didn't get too down and dirty in the negotiating with these guys - as it was our first stop and we were not really warmed up.  Gretchen also picked up a few purses here, a cute LV for herself and a Coach for a co-worker.  It was fun, but I couldn't wait to show her Nanjing Rd., much more selection.


We figured we needed to include some culture in the trip - so our next stop was the Jing'an Temple.  Literally, "Temple of Peace and Tranquility" this buddhist temple was a great sight.  This whole area of town is called Jing'an - so I figured the temple had to be something to see.  We really enjoyed seeing some active worshippers and the intricacies of the temple.  Below are a few pictures from our visit:

Gretch throwing her quay in the pot for good luck

Notice the transposition of the old school temple
with the Guess ad on the huge modern skyscraper
in the background.

After we got our fill of the temple, I persuaded my first visitor to try out a little restaurant I found that was close by.  There are some really nice websites here in Shanghai that cater to the expat community that is thriving here.  My favorite one so far is smartshanghai.com - this lists everything in Shanghai, has an iphone app, and has taxi printouts to make my life so easy! Anyway I searched the Jing'an area and same across a really cute place called Downstairs. We sat just inside the huge open doors and had a delicious afternoon brunch.  It turned out to be a great little place and I will definitely be going back... Below you can see me with my mimosa and carmelized banana and chocolate french toast - unreal!

Needing a quick break, we headed back to my place to drop off our first stash and re-energize for market #2 - 580 Nangjing Road.  I've mentioned this before and I was ,again, not disappointed.  After much haggling and constant threats of walking away, I picked up some amazing Tory Burch flats for about $40 - I wore them several times this week, they are so cute and really sturdy. Gretchen and I each got some Longchamp bags - I got a large one for traveling - $20 bucks for like a $250 bag in the store.  The quality is decent, and enough.  Our biggest feat was the watches.  Gretch has received several orders and had pictures to show.  We spent most of the time with John on the 4th floor and he amazed us by pulling each watch out that we had he pictures of.  The quality was solid and they were exactly what we had asked for.  After much haggling and back and forth, Gretchen came out a winner because they were not happy.  She got 4 watches for 1000 RMB- $150, just under $40 each. She did way better than I did when I bought my watch from this guy.  Anyway we had a blast messing with all the people and getting some super deals.  We were mentally and emotional exhausted, but satisfied.


From there, we headed east on Nanjing Rd.  This led us to a major shopping pedestrian street, that dumps you out at the Bund.  This area was packed, but cool to see all the bright lights and touristy people - both Chinese and others.  Once we got the Bund, it was ridiculously packed on the promenade looking out over the Huangpi River toward Pudong.  We bagged it and headed for a drink at Glamour Bar.  Below are a few pictures from our trek down Nanjing Rd. to the Bund:

The bright lights of Nanjing East Rd.

Nighttime look at the former Shanghai Customs House,
they say the chimes of the clock tower are said to mimic
Big Ben in England, but people here call it Big Ching. 

There were probably a million people on the Bund - ridiculous tourists!

Me at Glamour Bar - drink called "The Lime, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"
Unfortunately, takes me back to reading the dreaded book in the 4th grade!

This completes Day 1 with Gretchen.  New post to come with the rest!