In Shanghai, I sit and watch the Osmanthus flowerball gracefully unroll in the glass teapot until a stunning flower emerges and floats in my tea. The waiter pours a little into my porcelain cup and I sip gingerly, hoping not to burn my fingers. I feel hot and sticky and my feet are aching from walking all day in the heat.
But as I gaze out the window of the traditional Huxinting Teahouse, from where it sits in the middle of a lake in the Yuyuan gardens, I feel my body relax.
Tea Traditions and Fast Trains
There is a quartet of old men playing charming music in the room next door. When the tea is gone, I get in a taxi, head to the main train terminus and board the Maglev to head for the airport. Within a couple of minutes the world outside blurs past and with a big smile on my face I glance up at the speedometer above the door to the train – 431 km (267 mph) an hour.
At the Juyong TeahouseAlmost as soon as it reaches this speed it starts to slow down again, and after 7 minutes and 20 seconds we pull into our destination – Shanghai’s airport terminal. Now that is what I call an airport transfer! As Shanghai gears up for the 2010 World Expo and the tens of millions of expected visitors, this is a perfect parting example of the mix of old and new that I have so enjoyed in Shanghai.
A Walking tour of Old Shanghai
Old Shanghai city is a great area to explore on foot. I get off the subway at Laoximen station and walk a few blocks to the Confucius Temple on Wenmiao Lu. This temple and its predecessors have been here since 1294 with some reconstructions and renovations since, most recently in 1999 to repair the damage from the Cultural Revolution. It is a tranquil and calm spot to start the day amongst inspiring architecture.
From here I zig zag roughly north through the Shikumen laneways – the Shikumen houses developed in the last century as the city population explosion meant that groups of larger houses got subdivided again and again into many dwellings crammed around narrow laneways, with a style that almost seems to be a mix of Dutch and Chinese architecture. Later in the 20th century these became virtual slums in many places, now whole blocks have been demolished and are bare, while others are now renovated and trendy, and some are still worn and homely.
Shanghai’s Old City MarketThe remaining inhabitants live as much in the communal alleyways as they do inside the buildings, and walking through these laneways it feels like I am in their laundry, their produce market, their bike repair shop, their corner café and their kids playground.
Towards the northern end I turn left onto Dajing Lu, the location of a famous outdoor market, a chaotic mix of people, vegetables and live chooks. At the end of the market I reach Henan Lu, do a quick dog-leg right and then left over this busy road, and pass under the big Chinese Gates into Old Street – an ironically named street lined with modern replicas of Ming buildings – a ‘theme mall’ if you like. But it is a pretty useful place for souvenir shopping, with all things Chinese old and new available to haggle over here.
A few blocks up this street and I arrive at Yuyuan Bazaar, a palatial Ming architecture mall for even more upmarket shopping. It is part of the Yuyuan Gardens, which also contain some real historic gardens and the Huxinting teahouse pagoda. Surrounded by a pond, it is only accessible via a feng shui designed zig zag bridge, and inspired the pagoda shape on traditional Chinese blue and white china.
Little mouthfuls of heaven
There is another good reason to come to Yuyuan gardens, it is also the location of reputedly the best xiaolongbao in Shanghai, at the Nan Xiang Steamed Bun Restaurant. I had been warned that I would have to queue, no matter what time of the day or day of the and so I do. I also discover that I can only order in minimums of six, but I want to try more than one flavor, so its looks like I am going to have to do some serious overeating.
I order the Spicy & Peppery Crab meat dumplings, the Fresh Pork meat dumplings, and the Prawn dumplings. With my chopsticks I raise a slippery transparent dumpling to my lips, and try to hold it still while I take a tiny bite out of the side, quickly suck out the hot broth and then bite into the perfect pork morsel in the middle. The first one worked perfectly but not all attempts went so well, sometimes spraying hot broth onto my face or shooting the slippery dumpling off the chopsticks and onto the floor before I got to it- lucky I had a good supply of paper towels.
The Bund, the Huangpu and Pudong
On one riverbank, the modern skyscrapers, all glass and metal shaped like bottle openers and balls on spikes, glowing a rainbow of neon and lights (Pudong). On the other riverbank, the impressive colonial architecture with its eclectic mix of roman arches, baroque pillars, Victorian gothic, and Ionic columns (Bund).
Fifteen years ago Pudong was still rice paddies, now it seems like 100 skyscrapers have been built since and it has taken over from the Bund as the Financial Centre. In the meantime the Bund has become mainly top notch bars, restaurants and luxury stores. To my mind, there are three ways to enjoy this area, and all are best done at night.
First I take a cruise on the Huangpu, where for a couple of hours I have a perfect view of both sides of the river as I float up and down – the Bund side artfully bathed in white light, the Pudong buildings a riot of color. I book a tour for the river cruise, which also picks me up from my hotel, and I am grateful for the organization. On a Saturday night the ferry terminal has about a thousand people queuing to board a range of ferries, and hundreds of booths to buy tickets from – but with no English spoken I am not sure how I would’ve picked a ferry or known which ferry I had purchased a ticket for. Or when it was boarding.
The skyskrapers of PudongThis is a good time to not be too independent. The second method is to then visit one or more of the bars atop the Pudong skyscrapers, and with my cocktail of choice in hand, I sit back in luxury and enjoy the view. And then for a twist, for the third method I cross to the Bund and visit more bars (on this side they are just 3 or 4 floors off the ground, not 30 or 40,) and gaze back in the other direction.
This can take more than one evening of course. An alternative is try one of the world-class restaurants along the Bund, but remember that some of them are more focused on the food than the view. Continuing my resolve to sample all styles of local shanghai food, I dine at the Whampoa Club, which has a luxurious old boys club meets classy boudoir fit out. From an adventurous menu I have glutinous dates with fried foie gras, followed by Sichuan beef. But perhaps the most unusual (and delicious) choice is the dessert, two flavors of icecream – coriander and roasted sweet potato. And I swear roast sweet potato ice cream may well be the best ice cream flavor I will ever have.
The French Concession
This is where I really fall in love with Shanghai. The French concession feels different to every other part of Shanghai, and the name explains why – the impact of the colonial French expats remains today. Wide sweeping streets lined with canopies of trees and impressive old villas. And amongst all this old colonial charm beats a heart of the young, trendy and arty.
Another great walking area, and at every turn I find arts, crafts, shops, boutiques, cafes and bars, so hip that it hurts. A fun place to start is the Arts and Crafts Museum, the displays are interesting but the real charm is that it is housed in one of the few French Concession villas open to the public, and it is not busy, so I waltz around imagining what it would’ve been like living in this. After a few more hours of walking, shopping and sipping, I stopped in at one of the ubiquitous spas for a well-earned foot reflexology massage.
Hidden secrets of Taikang Lu
And then on the edge of the French Concession I find the epicenter of Shanghai cool – Taikang Lu. This is a series of narrow laneways and alleyways, old Shikumen, that have been converted into art studios, wine bars, musician’s hangouts and a whole range of unique shops and boutiques.
On a Sunday afternoon it is packed with locals, relaxing, catching up with friends and families, chilling out. The entrances to the laneways look like, and are, narrow alleyways between buildings, and you have to walk down them and around the corner before all the secrets of Taikang Lu are laid out in front of you.
Historic water towns
The countryside around Shanghai is dotted with water towns – historic old towns and villages that are located on canals, like tiny Chinese versions of Venice. I chose to visit Zhujiajiao as it is one of the closer ones, about an hour out of central shanghai as long as you are not travelling in the rush hour (although one local tells me the traffic rush hour is 24 hours a day and he may be right). Perhaps because it is so close to the city and therefore attracts many tourists, Zhujiajiao feels almost like a film set.
This is partly because the only employment in the village seems to be tourism, and every front room of every house seems to be selling souvenirs, and partly because the village buildings on the canals look like a Hollywood backdrop to a kung fu blockbuster set a couple of thousand years ago. Actually given how many movies have been filmed here, I shouldn’t be surprised.
In spite of those reservations, it is a delight to visit, a visual feast, particularly when I rent one of the little wooden canal boats and tour the village by water, ducking under stone bridges and peering in the windows of mahjong dens. I take a break from picturing myself as the victor of a spectacular sword fight, and buy a zhong from a street-side stall – glutenious rice stuffed with roast pork and wrapped in bamboo leaves, steamed for hours. Deliciously, messily, finger sticking good.
