Initial Impressions - Downtown

Bombastic, glitzy and busy are among the words that come to mind when describing Downtown Shanghai. A mixture of the most classic contradictions, the city is world class in every way, and doesn’t fail to impress.

I’ve been downtown twice so far. The first time was during the week, to attend a meeting with a design agency. The second time was on Saturday, with several new friends from Anting New Town.

First Time

My first visit to Shanghai was disorienting. Traveling from the office to the agency at 1500, we hit rush hour traffic. Despite all the cutting and weaving our cabbie attempted, the normally 40 minute trip took around 1.5 hours. The freeway cut through many overpasses and 70-story condominiums to bring us into the city center. Our meeting was in the old part of town, in an unorthodox office building, which was an old converted house. The meeting was cordial and ended relatively quickly, with the typical Chinese niceties, although we dealt with an expat, which was nice.

Afterward, my manager brought the team over to Oscar’s, a sports bar. During happy hour at Oscar’s, which lasts until 2000, it’s buy one get one free. Of course, people didn’t factor in the free ones and ordered the normal amount. You can imagine what happened afterward (yeah it’s a hard life). Eventually, it came time to empty the toxin out of my system. My manager told me to go “enjoy myself” in the washroom. I didn’t really know what he meant until I got there:


Pretty classy, isn’t it? I went twice.

The conversation was great. Being diverse group (British, Austrian, Australian and Canadian), we ended up engaging in political discourse. We progressed to talking about the USA’s numerous problems, to the dismay of the American who turned out was sitting behind us. My impression is that it’s fairly unfortunate to be an American in Shanghai, which seems to be rife with an undercurrent of domestic and international anti-American sentiment.


We then went to Zapata’s for “real” food. Honestly by that point I was stuffed with beer, but I still had a fried chimichanga stuffed with chicken and cheese. As Mexican food, one would think it’d be cheap. Try 90 kuai (by comparison street food is 5-10 kuai), and I ordered relatively conservatively. The reason is that Zapata’s is a favored expat hangout. There’s a thatch roof and a bar in a hut, encased in an old fashioned fence, which cries exotic. As well, there are many tables outside and a large courtyard for people to mingle. The expat/local makeup there was about 50/50. My food was decent, but a bit on the greasy side. The whole scene rang hollow to me, but probably a more fair statement is that it didn’t fit my normative idea of what Shanghai should be. In fact, Shanghai for much of its history has been characterized by its adaptation of foreign trends.

We then proceeded to another pub to see an ex-coworker off. I think that was honestly the first time I’ve ever had a beer I didn’t enjoy. The cab ride home cost 160 kuai (Anting is far from downtown), which I luckily split with a coworker. I’d classify the whole evening with one word: excessive.

Second Time

The second outing to downtown yesterday was much more enjoyable. I went downtown with three German coworkers who have since become fast friends. Anting New Town has a free shuttle bus that goes directly downtown, so we hopped on at 1330 and got to the Zhongshan Park stop around 1415. I’m glad ze Germans called me up, as I was debating whether or not to head out due to the typhoon warning. Fortunately, I went anyway and it wasn’t bad at all (we did have to duck under a bridge for awhile though).

I did not see any nature at Zhongshan Park; it was just a corner adjacent to a road intersection. We walked through a mall to get to the subway station. The subway in Shanghai is a like a tree that has grown out of control, but is modeled on Hong Kong’s MTR, complete with use of the “octopus card.” There are some tracks that are used by multiple lines, so attention has to be paid to which line stops into the station. The subway system is still undergoing massive expansion; last year there 4 lines, this year there are 8. Although it looks convoluted, nearly every line passes through People’s Square, which is the centre point of the entire network. Our first stop was to the tailor, as my friends had ordered some suits last week.

About a 15 minute ride later, we arrived at the Lujiabang station at the Huangpu District and got out. There was some street food there, so we all had some lunch. I picked the xiao long bao (first ones of my stay here) and these wuo tip filled with vegetables. Once again a bit greasy, but still excellent for 10 kuai. My friends had noodles and wraps.


Across the street was a tailors’ market, filled with many tailor shops. We went upstairs to a shop that is favored by people from my firm. Apparently, experienced employees often bring new employees there to get suits made, so the dividends from previous bargaining negotiations carry over. However, I still had to bargain as they gave me a more expensive rate than my colleagues. Nice try! I ordered a gray suit, an extra pair of pants, and two shirts for 790 RMB (first quote was 930 RMB). Although I brought a suit over, it’s quite nice and I don’t relish the thought of it getting worn out on a daily basis. It’s also a bit hot to wear for now. They had this tiny changing booth in the shop that was taken up by someone else, so we just all stripped down in the store to get measured and try on things. So much for Asian modesty!

Afterward, we split up into two groups. One group went to the Science & Technology Museum area and I followed a friend to Liujiazai.

We went to a shopping centre there, which was first rate by any Western standard. The most symbolic of all American inventions, the mall has been readily adopted in Shanghai. Stores like Calvin Klein, Zara, Nike and others are all there, featuring international prices (a Ben Sherman, “Cast No Shadow” tee was 360 kuai). Kurt Cobain promoted sneakers:


China’s burgeoning middle class is growing, and although international prices are still a bit expensive for the local populace, all the shops we visited were packed with browsing, buying Chinese.

We capped off the day with a meal at Ajisen Ramen, a popular franchise in HK (there is also one at Parker Place in Richmond, although it’s not as good). The prices ranged from 25-35 kuai for a bowl of noodles. At 1930, we took the bus home.

Alright, I’m tired after attending church. That’ll probably be my topic after I go for the second time next week.

Dialogue

- Cat, you got a haircut? I want to see!
- Vespertine, the pollution isn’t too noticeable, but I do have to breathe a bit harder here. And lunch is provided free of charge by the company (although we need to present a lunch voucher we get at the office).
- Hilda, assimilation is inevitable- hence the title of the blog. Guess you’ll need to learn how to squat!
- Jason, you need to watch The Office. Lol, I’d like to be Dwight.
- Andrew, your pictures will have to do until mine are published.
- Connie, the rough conversion rate is 6 RMB:1 CAD (Thanks for catching that, Snerk). The time difference is indeed 15 hours, which sucks.