Ultimately what Beijing lacks in class like that created by the mod international financial centre that is Shanghai, is compensated by its cultural offerings and in my opinion a more confronting yet rewarding expat experience.
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| Train station resembles more of an airport than our equivalent, Southern Cross.. |
I spent most of my time with friends and family including my cousin's in-laws, Shirley and Steven Chai, exploring all corners of Shanghai beginning with Pudong. Just twenty years ago this area contained mulch and farmland; today it offers the infamous skyline depicted below (including the PwC Shanghai office).
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| Pudong |
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| Yum Cha with the Chais |
The Bund, which faces opposite Pudong directly across the river, offers an equally impressive view containing an extravagant strip of hotels from the Waldorf Astoria, where I indulged in a 650 kuai ($10!) coffee, to the Peace Hotel - built by the Jewish Iraqi Sassoon family, and the Peninsula – established by the Kadoorie's, likewise Iraqi Jews.
The following day a stroll down Nanjing Rd lead me to People's Park. Other than being a central meeting place, this landmark is also famous for the local 'Marriage Market' where parents of single sons and daughters publish announcements on the garden walls to arrange their version of a 'Shiduch'. Despite the public holiday and China's recent dip in economic growth, this market was clearly alive and well.
While in Shanghai I also explored the Yu Yuan Gardens, the boho artist's enclave of Tzianzifang, the quaint avenues of the French Concession and Zhouzhuang, a water village deemed to be the ‘Oriental Venice’ an hour and a half out of town.
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| Yu Yuan Gardens |
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| The Bund; Tzianzifang |
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| Zhouzhuang - 'Oriental Venice' |
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| Confucius; Cons for sale! |
A definite highlight was being guided by Dvir, an Israeli expat on a Jewish tour. We met at the Bund wherein lies the legacy of the first wave of Jewish immigration. Much of this strip of large opulent buildings was financed by Iraqis upon arriving in Shanghai via Mumbai after having escaped anti-Semitism in their home country. Following this we crossed to the contrasting Houkou District containing the impoverished Jewish ghettos initially inhabited by Viennese Jews escaping the pogroms of Russia in the early 1900’s, then again by Holocaust refugees in the 30s and 40s.
Hearing about Dvir's side project was equally as fascinating, collecting old Jewish tombstones that were uprooted from the four Jewish cemeteries destroyed, not due to anti-Semitism, but in line with the "cultural" communist revolution. Stumbling upon his first discovery in an antique store where the project all began, one hundred more stones have been and continue to be recovered in and around Shanghai from bridges, sidewalks, pathways and at the bottom of riverbeds. No memorial has yet been erected due to red tape but this is his ultimate goal.
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| Houshan park memorial, opposite the ghettos |
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| The ghettos of Shanghai, Houkong District |
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| Ohel Moishe Museum and Synagogue below |
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| Family portrait (bottom left): Twin girls in the front row, Hadasa and Yaffa were born to an African-american father, and a mother who is half Polish and half Chinese. Their grandfather was a Jewish Polish refugee who arrived in Shanghai during the war; beautiful HSBC building (bottom right) |
As a lover of markets with no room in my overnight bag for more chachkas or antiques, I ventured to the very local Muslim market famous for its lamb and other delicacies and an atmosphere which I have tried to capture below....
The evenings, although just as eventful were far less tourist orientated and more about mingling with the locals and taking on Shanghai's nightlife, all the while conscious of not being "Shanghaide" ! Most nights were spent with French expats (many of whom enjoy working in the wine industry) being escorted to numerous bars and clubs...
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| Dinner with Tim and Julie @ Sapar Uyghur (Xijiang cuisine - Mediterranean Chinese fusion) |
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| El Coctel |
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| Wine Bar |
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| Dinner with Joel and French contingent |
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| Club 88 |
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| Rooftop @ Geisha |
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| Rooftop @ Kartel |
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| Mint nightclub...with some barbie dolls, I mean models.. |
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| Dinner @ Lost Heaven w/ Nikhil and Joel |
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| Pudong view from the Bund by night... |
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| ..and the Bund |
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| Amazing dinner @ Shintori |
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| Bar hopping... |
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| Shanghai by food...street stalls, coffee on the Bund, pigs feet, choose your own wine at the French Concession, more street food... |
My first night back in Beijing reminded me why I love the randomness of this city: Japanese dinner with Israelis, followed by Cinco de Mayo celebrations at a Brazilian drive-in cum bar, a Chinese nightclub, and KTV with the locals....
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| Cinco de Mayo celebrations... |
And to conclude this week's blog, you know you're in China when.....
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You know you're in China when...locals are wearing pajamas's (yes, some today would say fashion forward...), there's a mile long queue for dumplings, dogs are clothed and your bedside table at the hotel contains a gas mask in place of a bible!
Until next time, zai jian! xx
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This week to celebrate Chinese Labour Day, I boarded the bullet train East to the "pearl of the orient", Shanghai. By day I almost qualified as a typical tourist (failed to see all the sights as spent too much time people-watching at coffee shops ), and in the evenings I enjoyed the nightlife as a local, adopted by Shanghainese expats. 
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