Thanks, Shanghai!

Brian Noble

Gratefully in Recovery
Joined
Mar 23, 2004
So, I just got back from a visit to the University of Michigan -- Shanghai Jiao Tung University Joint Institute. Yes, I was in Shanghai less than two weeks before the Park opens. Worst timing ever. But, the trip was fantastic. If you do decide to visit the park here, I can recommend a few other things to do while you are there. Unfortunately, my picture-taking skills are lame, and don't have much in the way of documentation, but that's what google image search is for.

In two different trips, I've done two different food tours by the UnTour folks. Both were great. In November of last year, we took the Dumpling Tour, a mid-day event that includes several different varieties of dumplings from various storefronts. My favorite of those is the steamed Shanghai soup dumpling, xiaolongbao, but the pan-fried version is also very good. While it is not a dumpling, the jianbing is also excellent. The jianbing place tends to move; it's a cart, not a storefront, and not necessarily licensed, so it never stays in the same place too long. It was already in a different place now than it was in November when we last went. This tour ends with a session where you learn to make pan-fried soup dumplings. Note: the Chinese are not shy about offering correction, and chef will let you know if you are screwing up. She was a total hoot!

We have about 55-60 students from Michigan studying at SJTU-JI for the summer term. Many of them take a Chinese language and culture course while they are here, and one of their "assignments" is to visit the same cooking school to make a variety of traditional dishes. We had a ton of fun, particularly the students who wanted to spice things up. Dumping spicy oil into a hot wet wok will aerosolize the oil, and drive anyone not used to it out of the kitchen! If you are going in a larger group, this would be a great activity. Very English-friendly.

This trip, we did the Night Market tour. This one requires that you be a bit more adventurous. For example, it includes battered, deep-fried snake. (What does it taste like? Something battered and deep fried, and therefore delicious.) There were also crawfish, which if you've visited NOLA you've already done, down to sucking the heads. Plenty of beer on this tour, but also a chance to try baijiu, an interesting if not entirely foul substance. One notable stop was a Uyghur restaruant that has delicious grilled lamb skewers. But, the highlight was a Sichuan storefront that had the most amazing ma po tofu. Now, if you are contemplating a trip to Shanghai, you've probably eaten ma po tofu before. But, you really haven't---or at least, you haven't unless you happen to live somewhere with a significant Sichuan immigrant population. That's because most renditions might be hot, but they do not have the mouth-numbing effects of Sichuan peppercorns. This isn't actually a pepper; it's the seed hull of a citrus-like plant. It combines citrus, heat, a salt-like sensation, with a numbing effect. It's almost like an acid trip for your taste buds. We got to sample them directly from the owner's private stash. The word that came to mind was "revelatory"---which our tour guide handn't heard before, but thought was exactly the right word.

We did two museums, and both were interesting. The first was the China art museum. This is in the building that served as the China Pavilion for the World's Expo 2010. This museum focuses on Shanghai (and was previously the "Shanghai art museum") but has some broader exhibits. The most impressive was a digital recreation of the scroll painting, "Along the River during the Qingming Festival." We probably spent 20-30 minutes in this hall alone. There was also a nice mix of paintings pre- and post-Western influence. The second museum we visited was the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center. This is a bit more esoteric, and might require that you spend some time in Shanghai before you go, but if you have an interest in learning how the city grew to present day, this will give you some great insight. The highlight is a scale model of the center city, including the Bund, the downtown riverfront area. The Bund is the section of Shanghai you see during Reflections of China in Epcot.

I did not go on most of the shopping excursions---I have a limited need for (knock-off) Jimmy Chu shoes or Micheal Korrs handbags---but I did join the group at Yuyuan Gardens. This is in the center of "old Shanghai" and was a hyper-stimulating environment much as a theme park might be. Sights, sounds, smells, the works. I did buy a few things here. Shopping in Shanghai is mostly a negotiation exercise. If the price is not posted, it is negotiable. But, if it is posted, generally that's just the price. Some of my companions were expert negotiators, but I confess I don't enjoy it much.

You probably do not want to drive in Shanghai unless you've driven elsewhere in similar circumstances. This is a crowded city, and the drivers are aggressive in a way that makes Bostonians look downright charitable. There are rules---people don't seem to hit each other---but I do not know what the rules are, and can't figure them out. We had a driver for most of our "official" trips, and he was a maniac, which is to say outstanding. Taxis are quite affordable, but none of the drivers speak or read English, so you will need to have the Chinese characters for your destination. Most hotels have taxi cards with common destinations and, most importantly, the name and location of your hotel in Chinese. So, if you ever are hopelessly lost, you just hand that card to a driver and you'll be back at your home base. If you are traveling at rush hour, it can take a long time to get where you are going by road. Even so, I think my most expensive taxi ride (which took ~an hour) was less than $10. The subway system is easy to navigate, clean, and safe. I have not taken the bus system yet.

China is mostly a cash economy; most people will not take credit cards. Western hotels and restaurants do, but the locals deal in cash. ATMs are plentiful and I had no problem using my US bank card to withdraw money a few times. Usually, an ATM will give you one of the better deals on exchange rate, and your bank hopefully charges reasonable fees. Even though you won't use it much, it's worth having a credit card that doesn't charge fees for foreign currency transactions. Most AmEx cards do not, as do a few others.

I'm looking forward to my next trip---which will hopefully include a visit to the park. If you plan to go, definitely see some of Shanghai proper, and not just Disney's version of it.
 
Thanks for sharing! Some great tips there - now I'm feeling disappointed that I won't have time to see any of Shanghai! Sorry you missed Disneyland, but it sounds like you'll be able to get there again :thumbsup2
 

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