Shanghai Trip - Day 9 - Part 1

I have to keep splitting up the last few days of my trip into different parts because they were such LONG days.

I think on Day 9 we went to the Chinese Colonel's for breakfast. This time, there was no Chinese Costanza table-swapping incident, thank god. After breakfast, Aunt Christina headed back to Hong Kong. I think. I'm forgetting things. Anyway, the rest of us did some sight seeing.

First we drove by the following dance club:

Paramount Night Club 

This is the night club that my Great-Grandpa used to go to all the time. It was just right across from the apartment, where my Grandpa grew up. Great-grandpa was such a frequent dancer that I guess there used to be a picture of him hanging up on the wall. He would often take business clients there, and accordingly to family legend, would also often go and pick up hot girls. I heard he was quite the player.

I nicknamed the next street that we were driving down "Wedding Dress Alley." All the stores on the street sold wedding dresses, or apparently rented out wedding dresses. Here's a picture of a woman washing a wedding dress, in a laundry machine, on the side walk. You can see where she's hung up another one to dry.


 

Soon after, we stopped at the house were Grandma grew up. We didn't get very far into the house since there were tons of mosquitos flying around everywhere. And a table of disapproving old ladies playing mahjong in the doorway. You can't see them very well but mahong players are right past the gate underneath the mops.


 

Aunt Marilyn and I are really paranoid about the mosquitoes in China (there is a problem with dengue fever there), so we just got a few pictures of the well that Grandma and her family used and then ran away. I felt itchy for a good two hours afterwards, but have yet to come down with dengue fever, thank god.


Grandma's Well. Lair of mosquitos. 

We were headed to one of Shanghai's most famous attractions. There is a whole bunch of beautiful taoist temples in the city. When the Communists took over, all the monks were chased out.


 


 


 


 

Now, it's turned into a ridiculous tourist trap. Tons of people swarming around buying junk.


 

I'm totally agnostic, but even I found it somewhat sacrilegous that there was a Haagen-Daaz and an Esprit Store and a...


Starbucks at the Temple 

Of course, that didn't stop me from getting a frappucino.


 

Aunt Marilyn and I had bets on who among Grandma, Grandpa and my mom would scold me first for buying an icy, milky, super sweet drink while still recovering from my cough and stomach flu. I figured my mom would, and lo and behold, I was right. As soon as I walked out, she said, "A FRAPPUCINO????!!!! YOU'RE GETTING OVER THE FLU AND STOMACH FLU AND YOU'RE DRINKING A FRAPPUCINO???!!!" Followed by, "I have to take a picture of you two!"

One of the temples had been converted to a restaurant famous for its "Soupy Dumplings." These dumplings are a famous part of Shanghainese cuisine and are known for the "soup" but it's really not soup, it's just the melted lard/fat from the super fatty pork and crab center. You eat the dumpling with a spoon and the whole point is to delicately bite into the dumpling, suck out the "soup" and then eat the rest of it. This restaurant had three levels. Each floor up got progressively more expensive. Grandpa wanted us to eat on the bottom floor to see what it was like to eat with the "general public" but everyone nixed that suggestion. On the ground floor, it was basically like a fast food restaurant where you waited in a super long line, got your dumplings, and then just sort of sat along a bench and ate them.

We pushed on up ahead to the second floor, where there are tables and chairs, but you have to fight for them yourselves. There's no table service or hostess. You order the food from this guy behind a counter and pay in advance, and then fight for a table.

The third floor is for the tourists mainly. It's the nicest and most expensive and you actually wait in line and someone takes you to your OWN table and takes your order. We were all for the third floor, except it was jam packed so we decided to try the second floor.

So, on the second floor, the whole point was to stand by a table and wait for the people to get up and leave. There is a lot of hovering over people as they eat, and a lot of table sharing. After a bit, a guy comes up pushing a cart of dumplings, people eat, they leave, and you push your way on to the seat that you've been hovering over. Fun fun.

This pic's a bit blurry but you get the idea. The people sitting down are eating, the other people, including my mom on the left hand side, are hovering.


 


Grandma hovering in the corner, waiting for the woman in pink to hurry up and finish her dumplings. 

We had a bit of a Chinese Costanza incident here. Grandma had spotted some people with carry-out boxes and wanted us to grab some to use as plates (you don't get plates on the second floor, only a tiny dish of vinegar to dip your dumplings in and spoons and chopsticks) Since she was jammed in the corner, she kept asking us to get them, but no one really wanted to bother getting them, since most of the other people weren't using them anyway. So, she got irritated and pushed her way out from where she was standing, pushed her way through the restaurant of crowded people and got a carry out box. She could only get one since you weren't really allowed to use them as dishes, and the restaurant would only let you have one per groupo to carry-out your leftovers. Later, when we finally sat down, she offered the box to us (it had a lid and a bottom, so technically two people could use them as plates), but again, no one really wanted it so she got really mad at us, and said, fine, if no one wants it, she'll just get rid of it, and then nearly threw the box out of the open window behind her. Luckily, she didn't actually chuck the box out the window and she did keep it to use as a carry-out box for the leftovers. But, she didn't speak to us for the rest of the meal. I don't think it bothered Grandpa too much though.


 

Here are some more pics of the dumplings. There are I think 16 dumplings per bamboo basket thing, and the waiters stack them up super high.


 


 


The woman in tan and the woman with the gray sweater on the right were two of the people we had to, as usual, pretend didn't exist. 

These dumplings have "hai fun" in them, which I've talked a lot about. It translates to "crab powder" but is essentially just small pieces of crab meat. Here at the restaurant, they had a few women picking "hai fun" out of the crabs behind a window. And when I saw them, I had a much better idea of why "hai fun makes my poop run."


 


 

On our way out, we saw a bunch of koi swarming around in a pool in the gardens area of the temple. I was actually pretty grossed out by them, and asked Aunt Marilyn to take a picture of them.


Koi Orgy 

After lunch Grandma, Mom and I did some more shopping. A Sweet Potato seller walked by us and we couldn't resist. Mom and I love sweet potatos so we each got one. It's kind of cool how it worked. There was a big drum of sorts with coals on the bottom, and the sweet potatos were kept on around the rim of the drum. They were delicious!


 

We met up with Aunt Marilyn and Grandpa at the Four Seasons hotel and where they were enjoying afternoon tea. Grandpa said it was the most relaxing hour of his entire trip.


I think he looks pretty relaxed and happy here. 

Anyway, that's all for now. More on Day 9 to come.