Adventures in Shanghai 2008 - Part 2

Day 2 in Shanghai was definitely more colourful and interesting.

Our hotel/service apartment (refer to the pink arrow) was located along LiuJiaBang road, easily accessible to the Fabric Market.

Also, just opposite our hotel, there are lotsa eateries as well as a huge hypermarket (Trust-mart) - i love the convenience and easy access.

Walking along the busy sidewalk to cross over to the other side of the road, where the Fabric Market is.

Bought some gyozas from this auntie. She was reluctant for me to take pictures of her food, until i bought something from her. 5 pieces of gyoza for 2 yuan (RM1).

If you're interested to have your outfits tailor-made, you should bring along some cut-outs or samples of the kinda clothings you'd like the tailors to sew for you.

They're definitely more up-to-date than the ones in Bangkok, as well as more competitive in pricing too.

Only drawback is that the place is soooo huge that you'd get sick haggling for the best price with each stall. I ended up going to 3 different tailors to make different types of stuff - a pin striped skirt A-line skirt for work, a wrap shirt, and a tube dress.

Originally, i brought about 15 different designs with me, but you know what they say about coming to the fabric market. You'll need to spend at least half a day here, else it's very difficult for you to decide on a tailor and the designs.

I wanted to get outta the place after 2 hrs as it was just too confusing, especially so when we're running short of time.

I guess i'll come here again once i've figured out which tailor i shall return to the next time.

By the roadside, trying to hail a cab. It is true what ppl say about crossing the road in Shanghai.

"You've gotta watch out for the cars, the bikes as well as the bicycles. Oh, don't bother with the pedestrian crossing nor the traffic lights, the bicycles can emerge outta nowhere. Just be alert. Cross when the locals cross."

I like the cabs in Shanghai.

For one, they've got a tv screen to keep their passengers entertained.

For another, the cabby will not start the meter when you get in while he's waiting at the traffic lights, he'll only turn it on once he starts moving. Ethical hor..

Talk about being extra cautious. They've got this plastic barrier to prevent robbery too.

I was kinda forced to converse with the cab uncle (what to do, the rest can't speak mandarin), asking him to get us to Nanjing West Road, drop us somewhere where we could find good food.

And he suggested, the intersection of Wujiang Rd and Nanjing West Rd (here in Shanghai, you always tell the driver to pick you up or drop you off at the intersection of XX rd, and YY rd).

Feeling pretty glad that i could understand the cabbie and he could comprehend my poor mandarin.

The cabbie was spot on!
It was simply a great recommendation. The street was amassed with ppl.

This whole alley here, is a pedestrian st, and the entire st consists of only eateries.

Eh, no idea how the car appeared on this side of the walkway.

Everywhere we turned, there were rows and rows of ppl queuing up to buy food or waiting in line to get into the cafe/restaurant.

We wanted to buy this beef roasted pastry but the line was too long. We thought we'd get it after we've makan-ed, but by that time, we were just too full to bother buying this.

Apparently, this is a very popular Shanghainese snacks.

Another popular stall..

The queues were pretty overwhelming for us. There were mostly locals and it was an eye-opener seeing the locals eat on the street, unabashed.

These bbq stalls are very popular with the locals. I was told the sotong skewers are superb. Too bad i dont like sotongs. :P

Again, everything was in chinese. I'm so glad my parents made me attend those P.O.L classes and mandarin tuitions when i was younger. I could somehow figure out the basics. Phew~

At worst, i could just point and order.

Chinese mantou (pancake) "kiap" beef.

And the locals eat everywhere. Some were eating their grilled fish (in a skewer), just-like-that with their bare hands.

We walked further towards the new phase of the Wujiang Pedestrian St - the more ultramodern part.

As i'm writing this, i'm remembering the exact feeling i had when i was walking there. The cool breezy wind was caressing my skin and hair, and ooOoh..the weather was almost too good to be true for summer.

It was around 21°c that day.

If the weather is like this in Msia, i tell ya, i seriously won't mind walking at all.

I couldn't resist not taking a picture with my idol - Tony Leung - the most sexy man alive!!!

Still @ Wujiang Pedestrian st..

I wonder why they wrapped this tree with jut. Is it to prevent the loss of water during summer? I dunno..

If this is solely for aesthetic reasons, then this is darn cruel!!

We were spoilt for choices, we spent about an hr walking trying to decide what to eat. Gosh..

We settled for this cafe, after much consideration. :P

It is customary for me to try porridges, so we ordered a sliced pork with century egg porridge. It was good stuff - powdery smooth.

(but i was longing to try some from a local dimsum place, one which i have yet found.)

And we had baked prawn fried rice in vietnamese sauce.

I love the curry fish balls from HK (those available on the streets), so i ordered these hoping that they're just as good.

Gosh, they were such a disappointment. Not fresh, not springy.

Pictures can be so deceiving.

For dessert, we ordered their specialty mango pudding in glutinuos rice sweet soup.

Apparently, i saw lots of ppl 'tapau' (bringing in their take-aways) from the stalls into the cafe.

It is supposedly allowed you see. So i jumped at the opportunity and tapaued some takoyaki balls from the stall outside our cafe.

4 yuan for 6 balls. :)

They were so good that I went out to grab another box.

We took Metro Line 2, heading towards Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. Many friends who've been to SH told us to check out the underground market there.

Yups, this is the place.

You can get electronics, pc stuff, jewelleries, bags (mostly fakes), and clothings here. We spent a long time here.

KFC!!!

We were so glad when we found somewhere we could rest and have something to drink at the end of our adventure (truth be told we probably only covered about 30-40% of the place).

We somehow understood what the waitress told us and we upgraded our cokes to ice-blended coffees. Not bad huh?

In the spirits of the upcoming Olympics

Christine and I loved this teriyaki burger. We swore we've go back to KFC again....but we didn't have the chance nor the time la.

There were just too many good food places to try in Shanghai. We weren't contented with eating fast food only.

I couldn't resist trying out the new chain i bought here.

*Fast fast* removed the one i was wearing and replaced with this instead.

We finally managed to drag our tired asses to walk from Nanjing road to The Bund.

It's officially day 1 (though day 2 la) and we were all so exhausted already.

A blog friend, Aigie, informed us that we have to go to the Bund on Saturday night as the entire place will be brightly lit up. She advised against coming on a Sunday as it's the time when the lights are out already.

Walking along the st of Nanjing Lu, we were approached by so many roadside vendors selling toys, roller skates, and other unidentifiable objects.

I keep getting the name of this building confused. Shinmo or Jinmao? Have to check it out and update later.

This one is pretty cool too.

I've asked a couple of local friends, they all couldn't give me the name of this building. "Hey, there are just too many quirky high rise buildings here in Shanghai!", was their reply.

Yet another building..guess this one serves a purpose.

We walked to Peace Hotel. It was a pretty regal place i have to say.

Approaching the bund area...we thought, but we still had about 10 mins to go..(It was a pretty long walk, my guess is that we've walked for about 30 mins already).

We had to go thru the underground subway to reach the lookout point at the bund..

Good news is that we were surrounded by Vincent Van Gogh's pieces along the subway. So, it was pretty pleasant to those of us who enjoy looking at his work.

The view of the town hall area was simply breathtaking!

The buildings here are tinged with european elements. No wonder many said that SH reminds them of europe, and that the ppl too are like that - they are pretty open with public display of affections too.

I didn't get to take good shots of the bund at night. This is as good as my camera could capture. It's so much better in reality.

We wanted to return again during the day so that i could do the pose where i'm holding the "pearl".

But guess what..

Oh nevermind, i'll you tell that later (when i blog about Day 4)..

Yups, we strolled back to the shops along Nanjing lu on foot.

It wasn't too bad as we were constantly distracted by the shops. At one point, i wanted to go into this store (there were SALE signs everywhere here..up to 70% k?), but the SA at the door refused to let us in, saying "We'll be closing soon. You can't enter anymore!". She did this to all the other customers.

It was only about 9pm if i wasn't wrong, and they were supposed to only close at 9:30pm.

A similar incident happened to Christine and I. We entered Watsons at 9:30pm, intending to buy some more facial masks (those travelling sheets) but we were forced to immediate grab our stuff, pay and leave the place as they were shutting down. And the operation hour says till 10pm.

Shanghai-nese can be pretty crude eh? And they are very reluctant to work OT. Nor do they care about others' feelings.

Throughout my 4 days there, i've witnessed many unfolding of dramas amongst the Shanghainese. Pardon me, but it was a sound observation, i've discussed it with various ppl who've been to SH and we agree on the same thing.

Shanghainese love drama. They practically dramatise everything.

Even when we negotiate with them, they really act as if they're damn pissed we're asking for such a low price, but in the end they'll relent..but still, they won't smile at you and say "thank you, please come again".

It's quite funny actually, seeing them putting up a front and looking so fierce, but just when you leave the place (cos you're so sick of being scorned), they'll wave their hands at you and shove the products into your hands, giving you the price you asked for.

Also, we noticed that many times, they just love to instigate a verbal fight. And being brought up that way, they just love to win.

Well, if you keep your mouth shut when you're being verbally attacked, then the other party has nothing to gain. But if you do retort back, hah!! That's when you'll witness the true beauty of a Shanghainese warrior during verbal assaults at the very best.

It was closed to 10pm when we decided we needed a place to fill our tummies and to rest our swollen feet.

Wandering aimlessly, we ended up at Wu Da Niang for dinner.

As it's the end of our day 2 and we still have not tasted the local Xiao Long Baos yet, we ordered 2 baskets from Wu Da Niang.

Sadly, the skins were too thick. I was disappointed and was adamant to try the ones at Yu Yuan Garden.

This dish was pretty good. It's a famous Sichuan cold dish, to translate it literally, it's called "Lover's Tiff".

Only reason why i knew how to order this was cos i used to eat this at this famous Sichuan restaurant in Sydney. It was my must-have dish.

Thankfully, Wu Da Niang lived up to her reputation of good soup dumplings (sui kao).

'The damage'...

I bought about 20 travelling facial masks, and about 15 eye masks from Watson's. They were so soothing that I went back again a few days later to grab some more.


Wow!!

You actually read the entire post? Good for ya!

I know i know, it's damn lengthy. :P