First Day in Shanghai

Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai, China — Yuyuan Garden view

I arrived in Shanghai this morning at 7:00am. The Shanghai Metro is well-designed, and I could take it from the train station to near the hotel I am staying at.

I am staying in the dorm at Captain Hostel, which, at Y70 per night, is very cheap in Shanghai. It is also probably the nicest dorm I’ve used in China.

In the morning, I went to Yuyuan Garden, which is a classical Chinese garden, and has a 500 year history. It was destroyed and rebuilt a few times, and also renovated many times. The picture above shows one view of the garden.

Yuyuan Garden competes with famous gardens of Suzhou. It is great! It follows the principle of “Don’t reveal everything at once”. As you stroll around, parts of the garden are partitioned by walls and pavilions. You catch glimpses of other sections through windows and doorways.

Window in Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai, China — Sublime Yuyuan view

Around Yuyuan Garden is a big tourist shopping area, in the “old town” of Shanghai (but it’s more of a “Disneyland old town” now). It has two Starbucks, within a block of each other. However, It did manage to have a rather expensive lunch of steamed dumplings, which is Shanghai cuisine. An old lady sat at the table and watched me eat. When I finished, she got up and left. I think she was waiting to see if I had any leftovers, and she wanted to take them and eat them herself (the restaurant, for some reason, tolerates this). Sorry, nothing left.

Shanghai Expo countdown, in Shanghai, China — Shanghai also has a countdown clock, to Expo 2010

I then headed up the Bund to see the historic buildings built by the foreign concessions, and headed for Nanjing Road, which is a major shopping street, after taking a brief nap at the hostel (which is very conveniently located).

Pudong at night, viewed from The Bund, in Shanghai, China — Pudong at night, viewed from The Bund

On Nanjing Road, I had to run the constant gauntlet of “We are art students, and we are showing our work at a gallery. It is free and will only take two minutes.” Response: “I hate art! I have no time.” If they persist: “Too many students, too many galleries. I have no time!”

I wear both my cheap Casio digital watch and my even cheaper Chairman Mao watch on my left arm. Now, when the sellers of fake Rolexes bother me, I show them that I already have two watches, and offer to sell the Mao watch for Y200. Some of them laugh, and it usually makes them leave me alone. I am also proficient at repeatedly chanting “Buyao, buyao, buyao!” (“Not need, not need, not need!”)

It really isn’t fun to walk around in the touristy areas, because you are constantly harassed by sellers and scammers! I just try to discourage them as quickly as possible.

If someone approaches who honestly wants to practice English, my trust level is so low that I just tell them that I want to be left alone. This is too bad, because there may be some honest people out there. But, then again, they may still be scammers.

Shanghai is definitely a more “consumer culture” city than Beijing. I thought Beijing had some fancy designer-label shopping areas, but Shanghai exceeds it by far! The shopping street has some huge department stores, and shops dedicated to all of the high-end designers.

Shanghai Department Store, in China — Giant department store

There are also some oddball brands: Pepsi Sport (athletic shoes, track suits, etc.), UCLA (ie. University of California, Los Angeles, which has casual clothes and “Est. 19XX” (whatever year the university started)). I guess these are licenced?