Shanghai China Snippets Observations about living in Shanghai and China in general

From the moment I arrived in China I was amazed by the aptitude of the Chinese to take a nap.

No matter where they are, no matter how noisy the place nor how inconvenient the position seems, they are capable of dozing off in a nanosecond and steel some sleep.

Sometimes I am a bit puzzled when I see the staff of a restaurant sleeping, heads on the tables, feet on the couches and the chairs. Should I really wake them up to order.. Do I really want to order.. as the sight is not really inviting.

On the other hand I am bit jealous at times too as I would love to be able to sleep any splitsecond available. Sleeping is pretty nice you know.

Having a visitor means you need activities. The good thing is you go to places you normally would not. Last night we went to the Shanghai Centre Theatre to see their acrobat show. There we were, sitting next to all kind of tour groups. Nontheless, it was definitely worth it. It’s a great 1.5 hours of entertainment and if I only achieve 10% of their flexibility I will be a lucky man.

P.s. The weekend will be used to finalize my Yangshuo reviews

Just got a compliment from our cleaning lady about the new mattress we bought.

“How much did you pay?”

“400 Kuai”

“Ohh, not expensive” “Nice color”

Yesterday I realized again why I hate shopping in supermarkets in China.

The Lotus Supermarket in Pudong, Shanghai:

• Asking staff where one has to go to move to a different floor only results in a shrug of the shoulder and vaguely pointing of a hand while at the same time the head is doing it’s best to stare somewhere in oblivion.
• The cheese and meat section has a lovely counter, the only thing lacking is a person behind it. It takes some gesturing, walking over to somewhere else to get a person willing to help. Disturbing these persons in their very important conversations with colleagues is, I admit, rather intrusive.
• Taxi stand, we don’t have a taxi stand anymore, just carry your kilo’s up the stairs, wrestle though the crowds and hope there is a taxi. Thanks for shopping and by the way, prices are roughly the same as in the small supermarket around the corner

Sometime ago, in March, I put up a picture I made from a construction site near me to get a close up of what is happening in the Shanghai real estate market. It’s a bit more than 2 months later now and time to show the speed of building.

The constant noise of drilling, the grinding of old trucks and the occasional honking of horns have become part of my sleeping pattern. No drill, even when it seems to be a wall away, will make me jump out of bed, entice me to shout or have any more influence on me than the song of a passing bird. Silence has become unknown and I probably can’t sleep if I will be ever confronted with it again.

Coming Wednesday there will be another Shanghai Weblogger Meetup . One of the probable topics might be: “My favorite places in Shanghai”. See also my earlier post with my own Shanghai favorites.

As a fellow blogger, Michael, hasn’t got a Shanghai related blog
so I’ll publish his Favorite Shanghai Places here. He has his own
Shanghai web consulting company though.

Michael’s List

* My favorite place for afternoon tea: Home, with my collection of tea.

* My Favorite afternoon tea: The little pellet-shaped Huangshan Oolong tea

with a bar of dark
Domori chocolateis a favorite pasttime

*
My favorite working lunch restaurant: Red Door (next to Manabe on Zhaojiabangat Wuxing Lu)

*
My favorite Starbucks store: I really hate Starbucks

*
My favorite Hunan restaurant: Di Shui Dong or Guyi

*
Best Sichuan food: PinChuan

*
Best Cantonese: Hengshan Cafe

*
Best Pizza: Jimix: Seve

*
Best Xinjiang: Bayi behind Grand Gateway, XJH

*
Best Taiwanese: Charmant

*
My favorite tea house: Are there any in Shanghai ??

*
My favorite restaurant in Pudong: where’s Pudong?

*
My favorite road: Fuxing Lu.

*
My favorite gym: Y+ Yoga

*
Favorite local musicians: B6, The Sonnet, DJ Vnutz

*
Favorite local magazine: Metrozine

*
Favorite bar: C’s Bar at 685 Dingxi Lu nr. Fahuazhen

*
Favorite happy hour: Sashas, outside when the weather’s nice.

*
Favorite cheese shop: Cheese and Fizz, Xintiandi

*
Favorite chocolate available in Shanghai: Hachez, usually at Parksons.

*
Favorite steet food: The cold noodle seller at Huaihai park.

Construction is a 24-hour story in Shanghai. Roads get a fresh surface, buildings are torn down and new, even uglier, complexes are build.

My building is from 1996 but it looks like it was hip in the fifties. The old houses opposite my building will be pulled down in the near future. Although on the one hand understandable as sharing the toilet and the bathroom is one of the perks of living there, the sad thing will be their replacements.

Maybe the current buildings are a bit of a mess but these small neighbourhoods are at least full of life. I intend to keep track of the
speed of building in my area by making photo’s every now and then.