I landed at 3:30pm, Sunday, April 15th in
Shanghai. I was meeting my friend, Jeremy who was flying in from Atlanta and it
just so happened that we landed at the same time and ended up in the same line
at Immigration. Funny how things work out like that sometimes.
Once we had our bags we weighed our options for getting to
the hotel. We were nervous about getting ripped off in a cab but in the end,
with all our bags, it was the best option. Naturally, our driver didn’t speak
English at all so we had a little trouble showing him where to go on a map but
he managed to figure it out and got us to our hotel. The ride took almost an
hour but in the end it only cost about $35, which is way cheaper than it would
have cost in the US. So we were pretty happy about that. It turns out that
taxis are heavily regulated in China and it is actually very hard to be scammed
that way.
We were staying at the Marriott Courtyard in the Pudong area
of Shanghai for the whole stay. I had plenty of Marriott points from work
travel so it actually didn’t cost us anything for the hotel, but once we
checked in and got up to the room we saw that it was a single King sized bed
and a totally glass shower that is fully exposed to the whole room. Very modern
and nice but definitely not good for two platonic friends traveling together.
This was not going to work so we went downstairs to complain.
While we were in the lobby a man came through the door
shouting loudly and angrily. It was a little scary and the hotel staff even
seemed a bit freaked out by it. I’m not sure what he was going on about but
eventually the staff calmed him down and shifted their focus back on us.
We complained about the room and the staff was actually a
little rude and not super helpful. I pointed out several times that I have gold
status with Marriott (they are supposed to always upgrade me if I ask for it).
Eventually we got a manager involved and he upgraded us to a one-bedroom suite
with a roll away bed brought into the living room. We agreed and the room was
actually really great for us the whole time.
After we checked in we relaxed in the room for a while and
then around 7:30pm we decided we were hungry and set off into the city. Our
first stop being a very popular tourist area called The Bund. That area was
very crowded with lots of lights and a beautiful river view of downtown and the
very iconic Shanghai skyline. From there we found a strange thing called the
“Bund Sightseeing Tunnel”. Tickets were like $8 each and we bought them having
no idea what it was. As it turns out, the sightseeing tunnel is a tunnel that
goes underground connecting both sides of the river. There are these little
cars with glass around them that ride on a track with a group of 10 people or
so. As the car rolls slowly through the tunnel, lights and crazy painted under
water scenes pass by. Music is played and it is a little intense and creepy.
You hear growls of unknown animals, Chinese voices saying something unknown.
Occasionally it will speak in English saying things like “Acid Lava” (whatever
that means) or other random scary sounding stuff. It was like a low budget,
much slower version of the Willy Wonka tunnel. Why does this exist? I have no
idea…
After the tunnel we found ourselves in a business district
on a Sunday at like 9:30pm so everything was closed. All we saw was McDonalds,
KFC and Taco Bell. No thanks! However I will note that the Taco Bell
restaurants in Shanghai serve a full bar. That is pretty weird.
Getting desperate and increasingly hungry we tried to use
the internet to search some other areas. We got on the subway and found an
interesting street with lots of little hole in the wall restaurants that mostly
all seemed busy. We tried going into one but nobody spoke English. They
basically ignored us. We sat for a while hoping they would just seat us but
eventually we got tired of being ignored and left.
Feeling tired, hungry and defeated we got back on the train
and returned to the hotel. It was about 11:30pm. We went to a Lawson’s near the
hotel (basically a 7-11) and got some Chinese snacks, steamed buns and some
beers and ate it all in the room. We were tired and fell asleep shortly after.
Monday morning I woke up at around 8:30am but Jeremy was
still asleep so I just hung around reading and looking at my phone for a couple
hours. He had a much harder flight than me since he didn’t get any sleep the
night before he left. So I wanted to make sure his body got all the rest it
needed. Finally he woke up around 11am and we left the hotel shortly after
noon. We decided we needed to get some of Shanghai’s famous dumplings so an
internet search led us to a busy corner off the city with lots of little
restaurants, people everywhere, and everything in Chinese with no English and
pretty much no attempt on anyone’s part to communicate in English (even though
I’ve been told every Chinese person learns English in school and usually know
at least a little bit). Shanghai is definitely one of the most difficult places
I’ve ever tried to travel as a foreigner. Japan and Korea are both
significantly more friendly toward American tourists.
We failed to find the dumpling place that we were looking
for but instead we found a random restaurant that had a pretty friendly guy outside
who asked us to come in and eat there. It was frankly the most welcome we had
gotten up to that point so we went with it. The menu was HUGE! Like 20 or more
pages. It had pictures and some funny English translations (“Spiced flesh of a
donkey” was our favorite). We didn’t order that though.
What we did have was:
-
Pork dumplings (also not bad)
-
Bone-in chicken in a sauce of chili oil, soy
sauce and brown sugar (that’s just my guess on the sauce but it was so good!)
Feeling satisfied with our lunch we headed back out in
search of just a fun/cool neighborhood. We ended up in a neighborhood called
the French Concession, which is basically like the rest of Shanghai but with
slightly more European looking architecture. There are a lot of higher end
shops in that area and you see a lot of upper class people looking stylish.
Also lots of dogs fully clothed and with shoes. It is kind of amazing!
We wandered around for hours until our legs hurt from
walking and finally decided to have dinner at a place the internet told us was
good called Sichuan Citizen. It catered a little toward tourists but the food
was so good. We had:
-
Dan Dan noodles (easily top 5 noodle dishes I’ve
ever had. It had almost a peanutty sauce which isn’t super common for dan dan
noodles. A+++)
-
Wontons in chili oil (amazing)
-
Cumin dry rubbed ribs (they were ok. I’ve had a
lot of cumin dishes from Sichuan places before and it is never as good as I
want it to be so maybe it is just my personal taste)
-
Beef in mala sauce (Mala means numb [ma] and
spicy [la]. So it is the combination of Sichuan peppercorns and chili peppers.
Basically my favorite flavor combination and this dish was truly spectacular)
- Green Beans w/ chili peppers
-
Basil drop martini (this is like a lemon drop
but basil instead of citrus. It also uses an egg white foam on top that is
somehow infused with the basil flavor. I know it sounds a bit crazy but it is
so incredible I would suggest that anyone who goes to Shanghai not miss out on
trying this unique cocktail. Or this restaurant in general, but especially this
drink).
After that most excellent meal we were super tired from jet
lag so we headed home early, stopped back by Lawson’s for some snacks and just
relaxed in the hotel watching Chinese TV. There is some pretty crazy stuff to
see on there! I don’t think I could even begin to describe it in English words.
However, they also have CNN in English which is nice because I can get a little
taste of what is happening in the news back home.
Tuesday morning we weren’t sure exactly what we wanted to do
so we decided we better just get out there and explore some more. We took some
suggestions from the internet and set out again. I couldn’t tell you what the
neighborhoods were called that we went to but we found ourselves in some
beautiful parks where older men and women were doing tai chi, and playing some
sort of version of badminton and young couples walked around hand in hand while
local workers on a break napped on benches. Chinese people seem to really take
good advantage of their parks.
Along the way we went into a Chinese bakery and bought a
bunch of different breads, egg tarts, pastries and other goodies. We actually
loved everything we picked out except for this one bread that had a salty/sweet
cream filling (imagine mixing sugar into mayonnaise) and topped with what could
only be described as powdered squid flakes. It was… not good.
We wandered into a super touristy shopping area that seemed
to be built out of very well preserved old style buildings. It is rare to find
the old architecture in Shanghai because the city modernized so fast in the
last 20 years that nearly every part of the city has become ultra-modern and I
don’t think very good steps were taken to preserve the historical buildings, unfortunately.
However, this area managed it although it felt more like a mall than an old
neighborhood and because of that it had an almost Disney-esque feel to it. It
was way too crowded and a million people kept coming up to us and offering us
to come into their shops to buy fake watches. Not even trying to pretend it is
real, they just say “you want fake watch?”
That area had a lot of interesting food stalls and food
courts with tons of options but it all just felt too touristy for us and way
too crowded so we decided to wander away from there and head back into the
French Concession as it was pretty close by and we figured we could maybe find
a bar or something there to sit at for a while and rest our feet. At this point
we had done basically nothing but walk for our entire trip. Great exercise!
Once back in the French Concession we found a little café
with outdoor seating that seemed friendly enough so we went there and sat down.
We ended up having several beers and while we sat out there we were served
these incredible peanuts that were lightly tossed in chili oil and fried flakes
of Sichuan peppercorn. I guess you could call them mala peanuts. I found bags
of them at the grocery store and bought 3 huge bags to take home. It still
won’t be enough. I need these peanuts in my life every day.
While sitting at the café we laughed a lot at the craziness
around us. We saw a lot more of those crazy dressed up dogs and when you see a
dog fully clothed and with 4 nice looking shoes on you can’t help but feel your
spirits lifted. I wonder if there is a dog shoe store somewhere… like where do
these people get all these dog clothes from?
At this point let me make a few observations that we had
realized about China:
-
People have much different manners than we are
used to. Lots of very loud throaty hacking sounds followed by the hocking of a
huge loogie. That happens everywhere all the time. You will see some normal
looking person just spit disgustingly onto the ground and nobody bats an eye.
Even in the subway stations people just spit on the ground, and do so very
loudly. Also burping. I had an old lady burp directly in my face as I passed
her crossing the street. It was disgusting but we regularly laughed about it
during the whole trip. I can only imagine people are also farting everywhere
but I didn’t hear as much evidence of that. Jeremy insists he did
-
Scooters everywhere. Almost all the scooters in
Shanghai are electric, which is great but in an effort to save battery people
rarely use the lights. They also seem to have no separation between road and
sidewalk. So you might be walking down a sidewalk at night and a scooter will
whizz by like torpedo in the dark. Sometimes they will come right up behind you
and just honk at you until you get out of their way. Bicycles are everywhere
also and they do the same thing. It is honestly just chaos on the streets.
There is absolutely no sense of right of way between pedestrians, cars,
scooters and bikes. Whoever gets there first, goes first and that is it. So
basically you are always about 5 seconds away from being hit by some sort of
vehicle at all times. Even when traveling in Thailand, which is notorious for
having crazy streets, I felt a lot safer than I did in Shanghai! You really
need to be alert.
-
Personal space is not a very important thing to
Shanghainese people. Lines and queues are more suggestions than anything.
People will be right up behind you waiting to get on the train and as soon as
the doors open they will just push past you and get in front of you. It is
survival of the most aggressive for sure. If you do manage to get on the train
and see an open seat, forget about it, just before you sit down some business
man is going to just sneak in right under you so that you practically sit on
his lap instead of the seat, then he will just look at you. Also when you go to
a restaurant (at least smaller ones) you will get sat wherever there is room.
So if a table has 4 seats and 2 people are sitting at it already, they will
just sit us with those two people at the same table. I don’t really mind this
but it definitely was a little weird the first couple times it happened. Also,
you might be in a mostly empty café reading a book or quietly looking at your
phone and a family with crying babies or something will come sit at the seat
directly next to you. Like they could choose any seat in the whole place or
even leave the customary one seat buffer like we do in the US, but nope… they
are going to sit right on top of you and not think anything of it.
So anyway after we felt thoroughly relaxed from the café we
figured we should get out and find some dinner. It was getting to be around 6pm
already. We headed back to that same downtown area where everything was closed
on Saturday night and found it was a lot busier than previously. We wanted to
go checkout the rooftop bars of some of the tall buildings and try and eat
there. We ended up going to the top of the Grand Hyatt Shanghai. It isn’t the
tallest building but we were on the 87th floor, so that is pretty
high up there. Shanghai is home to some of the tallest buildings in the world
including the 2nd tallest in the world, which we had a great view of
from where we were. It truly is an impressive skyline. The bar itself was
pretty swanky and the staff was very hospitable. In order to sit by the window
we had to pay a deposit of about $100, but that would go toward whatever we
ordered. So we were tasked with spending at least that much while up there! It
turned out that the food options weren’t really great. So we decided we would
just get expensive cocktails and then eat somewhere else. Well as time went on
and since we had empty stomachs we ended up getting kind of drunk. The jet lag
was really getting to us as well so by the time 9:30 rolled around we could
barely keep our eyes open. We managed to spend up the money and instead of
looking for food we just went back to the hotel and ate snacks from Lawson’s
again. Admittedly not very healthy but definitely a very fun night! Too bad we
were so tired from jet lag or it would probably have been a lot more fun.
Just a brief aside to mention that China has an abundance of very odd flavors of chips. It is always fun to learn a little bit about a culture based on the potato chips available.
Wednesday morning we slept in as much as we could but still
both woke up around 8:30 am. We hung around the hotel for a long while but
eventually lunch time started to roll around and we were feeling bad that we
had not accomplished our task of having really good dumplings yet so we went
back to the same area we first tried to get dumplings and this time actually
found the place we were looking for. It was a tiny hole in the wall with no
English and a line of Chinese people out the door. The inside had only about 8
tables and they were all packed. We felt like we were not going to be able to
accomplish this meal but knew we had to get out of our comfort zones and just
try. In the end the lady at the counter was pretty friendly and we managed to
communicate to her that we wanted the crab soup dumplings and the crab/pork
soup dumplings. We got sat at a table with two other individual people enjoying
their lunch who both laughed at the amount of dumplings we got. Turns out each
order had kind of a lot so we had like three big baskets of dumplings. No
problem! We ate them all happily! Fun fact: soup dumplings are called such
because a soup is made that congeals at room temperature and that is inserted
into the dumpling. Then as the dumpling is heated and cooked the gel inside
melts into a soup. So you basically have a dumpling that is filled with liquid
soup! It is insanely hot so you have to bite the top off and carefully but
loudly slurp the soup out. If you wait too long it will get cold and congeal
again. The slurping actually helps cool it as it enters your mouth so it
doesn’t burn your tongue. So it may actually seem like people are just rude
eaters when they have soup dumplings but it is truly the most practical way to
eat them.
After our dumpling lunch we were feeling very sleepy and had
some big plans for that evening so we decided it would be a good idea to go
back to the hotel and take a nap. I am very glad we did because we both managed
to sleep a little over 2 hours and I think that made all the difference in the
world with us getting over our jetlag. After that we were pretty much on
schedule for the rest of the trip.
After the nap it occurred to me that I had access to the
Executive Lounge at Marriott hotels so we went up to the top floor to check it
out. Boy had we made a mistake not going there before! The place is really nice
with beautiful 360 views plus a full spread of food and drinks! This would
become a bit of a sanctuary for us for the rest of the trip whenever we needed
some peace and relaxation away from the craziness of the streets of Shanghai.
We sat up there for a bit. Jeremy had a coffee and I drank some sparkling water
and we just chatted until around 5pm when we headed off to the meeting location
for a food tour that we signed up for.
The tour company is called Untours and I highly recommend it
to anyone going to China. They do tours in Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and Hong
Kong. We met the group at 6:45pm on a specific street corner. There were two
guides (Chelsea and Lauren). Chelsea was the main tour guide and she was from
China but her English was as perfect as any native speaker. Lauren was from
Florida but had lived in China for 10 years. They were both super nice and fun
and very knowledgeable about the food and culture of Shanghai. The tour brought
us to 6 different restaurants all from a different region of China so we could
explore various cuisines.
There were 8 other people on the tour with us and they were
all pretty fun and easy going so we all had a great time. All of the stops were
within walking distance of each other, with maybe a 10-15 minute walk between
each. At each restaurant we sat at a table and lots of dishes were brought out
that we all shared and sampled. In the end it was LOTS of food and drinks. So
much fun! Here is a breakdown:
-
First stop was called “Fresh Bread Roujiamo”.
That is where we got a stewed pork sandwich that has also been called a Chinese
hamburger. Imagine a loose patty made of stewed pork inside a bun that is sort
of a crispy philo dough type thing. It was incredible. Probably in the top 5
things I ate on the whole trip. That is specifically a Shanghai style dish.
That place is actually just a little window that you order from so we just stood
on the street and ate them. It is very much street food.
-
The second stop was a place called Golden
Phoenix, which is from Zhejiang province, just south of Shanghai. Here we had:
o
A roast
meat platter (duck, chicken, lamb, pork belly)
o
Beef fried rice noodles
o
Pineapple bun
o
Mango pudding
o
Yellow wine & a local beer
-
The third stop was a place called Ningbo
Old-Style Restaurant, which is from Hong Kong. Here we had:
o
Fried yellow croaker & seaweed
o
Fried bamboo with shrimp & duck (my favorite
from this place)
o
Stir-fried rice cakes
o
Mashed favas (also super tasty)
o
Baijou (a traditional Chinese liquor. We bought
the whole bottle and carried it with us drinking some at all the other
restaurants)
-
The fourth stop was a place called Shy Pepper
Restaurant, which is from Sichuan province in central China. This is probably
my favorite cuisine from anywhere in the world so I was super happy about going
to this place. Here we had:
o
Rabbit in mala sauce
o
Cowpea noodles
o
Chili wontons (mouth is watering just thinking
about them)
o
Rice cakes
-
The fifth stop was a placed called Sapar
Xinjiang Expedition, which is food from Xinjiang province in Northwest China.
This was super cool because I had never even heard of this type of food before.
All the people that worked there are from that region. They are near
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and all those other –stans. So they are
Muslim Chinese and all wear those little white hats. They look like a perfect
mix of West Asian and East Asian people. Here is what we had:
o
Lamb with naan
o
Ding ding noodles
o
Cucumber salad
o
Fried green beans (these are like crack and I
want them right now)
o
Sugar coated and fried apples (these were
amazing. The sugar is actually maltose, which is a thick sugary syrup kind of
like Karo syrup but thicker and so when you pick up a piece of apple the sugar
stretches off like taffy. You dip it in water, which immediately hardens the
sugar so when you eat it you sort of get a candy apple type experience).
o
A local dark beer that almost tasted like a flat
Coke, but it was actually really good.
-
The last place we went to was just a bakery for
dessert and Chelsea went in and bought a bunch of stuff and brought it out to
us, which we ate up.
After the tour we were stuffed to the gills. We went back to
the hotel and promptly fell into a food coma that lasted until the morning.
Thursday morning we ate breakfast in the Executive Lounge at
the hotel, it was a late breakfast so we sort of skipped lunch that day. Around
noon we walked about 20 minutes over to an area that Jeremy had discovered
while researching a bit, which was just a bunch of art galleries all in this
sort of concrete compound. It was really nice and picturesque. The galleries
were really incredible and it was a very high level of art. Way out of my price
range, however I did find a print I really liked so I bought that. We ended up
spending a good 2 hours in there walking around and looking at all the art. I
would say it was one of the highlights of the trip for me to be honest. The
compound itself had some really cool graffiti as well and really cool old doors
and archways and stuff like that.
After our little art walk we went back to the hotel to
freshen up. It had started to get pretty hot during the day so we were feeling
super sweaty and stinky. After a bit of a refresher we went back out to meet up
with a friend of a friend who had helped us make dinner reservations for that
night. We invited her along and she accepted. Her name is Yajing and she is
super cool! She is in her early 30s and speaks really amazing English despite
having never lived outside of China. She loves American movies and culture and
is really into rock music and indie music and spends a lot of time with
foreigners I think so it kind of makes sense. We really liked her though.
We arrived at the restaurant a little early so we went to a
bar we found nearby called Beer World (I think… can’t remember exactly). It was
pretty cool though! The neighborhood was upscale and this place fit right in.
Very polished and with just cooler upon cooler of bottled beer to choose from.
Beers from all over the world. This place had a selection that rivals any place
I’ve been to in the US, and the prices were a little better than you would find
in the US. We drank a really nice Belgian sour beer and sat on the patio until
it was time for the reservation. So we walked over to the restaurant and met
Yajing outside. This is where things take a turn for the weird.
The restaurant is one that we discovered in an article about
off the beaten path things one can do in Shanghai. The place is called
“Pyeongyang Restaurant”. It is a restaurant fully run by the North Korean
state. There are actually a bunch of locations in several different countries
including 3 locations in Shanghai alone. While it serves as a restaurant, its
real purpose probably has more to do with propaganda than anything.
When we arrived in front of the restaurant there were two
Korean girls in rather cheap looking hanboks standing at the door welcoming us
in. No English was ever spoken by any employee but they all spoke perfect
mandarin so Yajing was able to translate for us. The two Korean girls looked to
be in their early 20’s. They we’re cute but in a sort of too-much-makeup kind
of way with permanent smiles that were so consistent it seemed awkwardly put on.
They were like some sort of Korean marionettes that had come to life but kept their
static facial expressions.
The girls brought us into the restaurant, which was located
on the second floor just up wide curved staircase and through a door. Once inside
we discovered a fairly large dining room (by Shanghai standards) filled with
large round banquet style tables in the middle and standard rectangle 4 seaters
on the edges. In the center of the dining room along the back wall was a stage
with lights on and instruments set up ready to go. We were told that a
performance would begin in 30 minutes.
Other than our table, the restaurant was entirely patronized
by Chinese men. I’d say around 80% of them were between the ages of 40-60. In
contrast to that, the entire staff of the restaurant were Korean girls in
hanboks. 90% of them had to be in their early to mid 20’s. A handful were a bit
older and probably managers as they had nicer looking hanboks on. It became
quickly apparent that this is the type of place older men like to go to
basically be flirted with and attended to by younger, attractive girls. Think
of it as a North Korean Hooters perhaps.
We were sat at one of the 4-seaters and (as has happened
pretty much everywhere we have eaten) they only gave us one menu. So we asked
them for more and they brought us just 1 more, which they came to take back
about 10 minutes later. People seem to really be protective of their menus in
China for some reason. Are people stealing menus or something? I don’t understand
this at all.
The menu itself was huge. It had probably 15 pages and a
vast array of options. Some of which got pretty pricy. Looking around at the
other tables it was obvious that food presentation was important as there were
many different types of dishes all ornately presented.
In the end we ordered:
-
Sea Urchin puree served in the shell (just
incredible)
-
Kimchee salad (not nearly as strong as the stuff
you get in South Korea, very mild but tasty)
-
Garlic pork belly (good because it’s pork belly
but nothing too special)
-
Beef & vegetables (sort of a bulgogi type
flavor but not as sweet)
-
Spicy mushrooms and onions (how could it not be
good?)
We asked for a drink menu as well and they brought out what
is easily the most incredible looking menu I have ever seen. It had photos of
all the different bottles of liquor one could buy. All presumably manufactured
in North Korea and brought over to be sold in the restaurant. These bottles
ranged from about $20 all the way to around $500. The more expensive bottles were
these unbelievably ornate yet almost evil looking bottles. They looked like
something that would be found in a pirate’s treasure chest on top of a pile of
gold coins. Or something that Bowser would drink out of. It looked like if you
rubbed these bottles a genie would come out but he would be an evil genie who
just traps you in the bottle in his place. We wanted one of those fancy bottles
really bad but they were so expensive and we figured US customs might have
something to say about us trying to bring back a product from North Korea,
especially one that looks like it contains some sort of magic potion. So
instead we both bought one of the $20 bottles and figured if they get
confiscated it’s not much money lost. To jump forward a little I will say that
we both had no problem getting the bottles back home and now our liquor
cabinets look slightly cooler. We also bought one bottle to drink there. Jeremy
had about 60%, I had about 30% and Yajing 10%. Our levels of intoxication at
the end of the night were definitely reflected in those percentages as well.
The liquor was supposed to be soju, but it tasted like no
soju I have ever had. It was like a hybrid of soju and pure grain alcohol. Very
strong, like a soju flavored vodka. The first two sips made me practically gag.
Then I decided I liked it and proceeded to refill my cup constantly. I guess
it’s a very quickly acquired taste?
Shortly after the very yummy food and drinks were brought
out, the lights dimmed a little and the show began. It consisted of some of the
same girls who were serving food (there was staff everywhere. So many employees
and they all looked so much the same). These girls had changed into different
outfits for the show though, which was a knee-length red dress with a little
black ribbon tied in sort of a bow tie at the top. At the beginning of the show
there was a girl on drums (our personal favorite), a girl playing keyboards, a
girl playing bass guitar (our second favorite) and a girl with an accordion.
The show lasted about an hour and it was just a series of songs with
coordinated dancing. As the music progressed different girls would come through
a curtain at side stage with different instruments, so that there was just this
constantly changing of music with different instruments coming in and out. At
one point or another there would be various singers in ornate dresses,
tambourine players with ribbons on their hats, big standing drums, dancers in
various outfits, trumpets, violins and probably more that I am not remembering.
It was a long show.
Near the end of the show some of the dancers started coming
out to the tables and presenting different men with full bouquets of fresh cut
flowers. They were also giving out little pin wheels (Jeremy got one of those).
At the end they started taking audience members by the hand and bringing them
on stage for a sort of audience participation karaoke type situation where the
guys were singing along in microphones and everyone did coordinated dances.
Jeremy just smiled and hopped along and did his best to follow along with what
everyone else was doing. It was pretty hilarious. He looked to be having a lot
of fun.
The songs, according to Yajing, were mostly propaganda songs
and the particular song that Jeremy was dancing with everyone to was a song
celebrating how China helped North Korea fight off the American invaders during
the Korean War! We all got a good laugh out of that irony.
As soon as the show was over everyone went back to their
seats and the girls came around and took back all the pin wheels and flower
bouquets that they gave out. I guess they were not gifts but just a strange
part of the show.
As we finished our meal various girls kept coming by and
asking lots of questions. It was like being interviewed over and over again.
“How did you like the food?” “What was your favorite dish?” “Do you want to buy
one of these extremely expensive bottles of liquor?” “Do you want to buy North
Korean cigarettes?” “Did you like the show?” “What was your favorite song?”
It was actually pretty annoying how persistent they were,
and always with that blank stare and fake smile. At one point Yajing had a
conversation with one of the girls that went something like this:
Girl – Where are they
from? [pointing at me and Jeremy]
Yajing – They are
American
Girl – Oh really? They
don’t look American
Yajing – Why don’t you
think they look American?
Girl – They have blue
eyes. That is a European characteristic. They look like they are from Sweden or
Norway. Americans don’t look like that, they don’t have blue eyes.
At that point Yajing just sort of smiled and shrugged.
By the time we got done eating the restaurant was closing
and everyone was leaving. So we paid up and made our exit with everyone else.
The same two girls who greeted us stood at the door waving goodbye to everybody
and smiling big as always.
We we’re feeling in pretty good spirits and felt it was a
very successful dinner but wanted to go get some drinks and Yajing wanted to
show us this bar she really likes so we headed over to Specter via taxi.
Specter is sort of a dive bar of sorts that has kind of a rock and roll thing
going on. The walls are all decorated with these cool images of famous
celebrities heads superimposed onto bodies of 80’s style punk rockers. It seems
cheesy but it is done in an interesting way that just works. I could spend a
lot of time just looking at the walls in that place. The drinks were strong and
cheap and all the bar tenders speak perfect English. It is definitely not a
tourist spot at all but a place where a lot of ex-pats hang out. I’d say at
least 50% of the people in there, including the staff, were non-Asian. There
was a DJ in the back playing some pretty decent indie rock music.
We spent a while here having several more drinks until it
got to be about 1:30am and we were all getting super tired. It took us like 30
minutes to be able to hail a cab, which was kind of annoying but in the end we
got one and Yajing gave the driver our address in Chinese so he would know
where to go. She said bye and got her own cab home but we made plans to meet up
the next day.
When we got back to the hotel we were just drunk enough to
think we wanted more beer so we walked over to Lawson’s and bought a couple
bottles and some tea eggs (hard boiled eggs cracked and marinated in tea. You
can buy these practically everywhere in Shanghai). The tea eggs were
disgustingly dry and we opened our beers and had about two sips before promptly
passing out. Classic mistake thinking you are actually going to drink that last
beer you open.
Friday morning was a bit rough because despite staying out
late and drinking the night before, we set our alarm for 6:30am so we could get
up early and go on another food tour! We signed up with the same company as our
night eats tour (Untour). This tour had a similar format as the night eats tour
but it was all about breakfast foods. We got to the meeting place at 8:30,
which was just outside a park in the French Concession. Our tour guide was
named Li and he was very knowledgeable and friendly.
Here are the places we went to on our breakfast tour:
-
Stop 1 was Xiangyang Food Stalls
o
Potstickers
o
Jianbing (a sort of Chinese crepe. Very popular,
very delicious)
o
Soy milk & bread
o
Rice balls
-
Stop 2 was a coffee shop called Egg
o
I had a very good Turmeric latte
o
Jeremy and everyone else had cold brew coffees
that they liked
o
Brownie bites made /w Sichuan peppercorns (mmmm)
-
Stop 3 was Henan Pulled Noodles
o
Scallion oil noodles (watching the guy hand pull
them was really cool)
o
Bamboo tofu w/ peppers (fried bamboo is just
like chicken. Incredible)
-
Stop 4 was Donghu Wet Market
o
We just walked through but I bought several bags
of super fresh Sichuan peppercorns (one of my goals on this trip was to obtain
this)
-
Stop 5 was Soup Dumplings
o
Xiaolongbao (aka soup dumplings)
o
Wontons
Throughout the tour Li showed us some historical buildings,
and told us some interesting stories about the neighborhoods we were in. At one
point we saw a man doing “water calligraphy”, which is a practice where you use
a paintbrush dipped in water to draw calligraphy Chinese characters on the
cement ground. After a couple minutes the water will evaporate and disappear,
which symbolizes… something.
When the tour was over we were super stuffed but it was
around 12pm so we needed to find something to do. We had made friends with a
guy on our tour named Troy (he is from New Zealand) and he didn’t have any
plans for the day so we decided to stick together. We were close to the Sichuan
Citizen restaurant when the tour ended and we had talked up those basil
cocktails quite a bit so it was decided that we would go there and have one.
After we finished those up we walked down the street to the
Shanghai Brewery, which is a local micro-brewery in Shanghai that had
surprisingly good beers and ciders. The passionfruit cider was especially
memorable. While there we sat inside and watched some NBA games that were being
broadcast on the TVs in there. Yajing ended up meeting us while we were there
and we finished up our drinks and headed off to do something more productive
than sit in a bar.
Our first step was to get in a cab and head over to a place
called the 1933 slaughterhouse. This is a building that in 1933 was used as a
cattle slaughterhouse but has now been converted into a mixed-use
art/dining/shopping space. There were tons of young Chinese people taking
photos everywhere. The way the light enters the building does make for nice
photos, so it makes sense. The twisting corridors of cement we’re a bit eerie,
which added to the cool factor. The shops and cafes within actually left a lot
to be desired, but I think it is more about just walking around the place than
anything.
When we were bored of that we got into another taxi and
headed over to the Shanghai Jewish Refugee museum. This was a place I had been
wanting to visit since before I arrived in Shanghai and everyone else was happy
enough to join me. I was really hoping to find some info regarding my
grandmother and her family who lived in Shanghai as Jewish refugees during
WWII, but there really was nothing at the museum that I could find mentioning
their family. The museum itself was in an old building that was originally one
of the first synagogues erected in Shanghai after the Jewish settlers arrived.
The basic message of the museum was to tell the story of how the people of
Shanghai opened their doors to Jews escaping the Nazis in Europe and they very
willingly and openly integrated these new people into their lives and culture.
It is one of the few stories from that period of time that actually makes you
feel rather warm and fuzzy. Much of the museum was focused on Dr. Ho Feng Shan,
who was in large part responsible for paving the way for the Jews to make their
way to China. My grandmother included.
The bottom level of the museum was filled with artifacts
from that time period, and told some of the stories of different Jewish
families in Shanghai and what their lives were like. The top level had a
temporary exhibit all about the Anne Frank story and the Anne Frank house in
Amsterdam. As one might imagine, that was a much less heartening exhibit to go
through. We all felt pretty down in the dumps after we were finished going
through there and spent some time sort of walking around the neighboring blocks
processing some of what we had seen. The neighboring blocks were the row homes
that many of the Jewish families lived in during the war. It was hard to
imagine anybody other than Chinese people living there. The city has changed so
much since that time that it has basically been erased from the modern
configuration of the city.
Hunger was finally starting to set in for us so it was
agreed that we should probably go get something to eat. We asked Yajin what her
favorite cuisine is and she told us that Yunnan Province has her favorite food.
So we took the train to a Yunnan place. That is a region in south central China
near the Himalaya Mountains. It has a lot of yak products (yak milk, yak meat,
yak cheese) as well as mushrooms and other lighter, earthy flavors. We really
enjoyed it. We ordered the tasting menu and they just brought out an
unbelievable amount of food and it was all super delicious.
Some stand outs:
-
Enoki and Chestnut mushrooms (I think?) in a
savory sauce (you need this in your life)
-
Yogurt (maybe Yak’s milk?)
-
Thick coconut milk with bread dipped in it… an
odd but delightful dessert
-
Black chicken salad (one of the best dishes we
had at all during this trip. The meat of this type of chicken is naturally
black and it is paired on a salad which was super spicy and citrusy at the same
time)
After the very good meal we walked over to another place
that Yajin knew about that was this beautiful property with a peaceful court
yard specked with tables, some ponds and really nice trees. The property is the
former British embassy and has now been turned into a private supper club with
an attached bar/lounge. The bar/lounge is where we were and it is open to the
public, although it was mostly empty so we kind of had the place to ourselves.
The cocktails were well made and other than the odd Russian dude who was making
the cocktails and kept awkwardly hanging around our table and talking to us, it
was a really lovely experience.
Really enjoying the dynamic the four of us were having we
decided to keep the night going and made our way back to Specter for some
late-night shenanigans. Mostly we just had some drinks, played some games on
these little video game machines they had in the bar, and listened to the DJ.
That bar is a great place for people watching as there are so many different
nationalities and walks of life that like to hang out there. If I lived in
Shanghai I would definitely be a regular frequenter.
We stayed out pretty late once again, and coupled with our
early morning me and Jeremy were pretty dead by the time 2am rolled around. We
said our goodbyes to Troy who was leaving the next day and then got in our
respective taxi cabs home. Jeremy and I actually didn’t go to Lawson’s for
snacks that night, which means we really must have been tired!
Saturday morning we woke up feeling pretty refreshed. Seems
like we were finally over the jet lag just in time for the end of our trip!
This was our last full day together since Jeremy was leaving on Sunday and we
were both starting to dread the return trip home and subsequent time zone
adjustment that would be needed. But we didn’t want to let that ruin our day so
we put it out of our minds.
We decided we wanted to get some more of those Chinese
hamburgers we ate at the night eats tour so we got dressed and headed back to
that stall. We each at two pretty quickly. Our plan was to finish those up and
head over to Jing’an Temple but before we could I started doing some research
on record stores in Shanghai to see if any were participating in the 2018
Record Store Day, which was that day. Record Store Day is just a day where a
lot of limited release records get distributed to various participating record
stores around the world to try and promote supporting local community record
stores. It turns out that only one store in all of China was participating and
it happened to be in Shanghai so we made a plan to head out there instead. The
store itself didn’t open until 2pm so we had a little time to kill but by the
time we got on the train and made it to the store it was just about 2pm anyway.
The store itself was down in a dark basement that smelled
like stale urine when you first entered. It was empty when we first got down
there but found another white guy wandering the hall and he asked if we were
looking for the record store and then pointed us in the correct direction.
After turning a few corners we came across the shop. The shop itself is
actually just a series of rooms connected in a maze deep in this basement.
There were people EVERYWHERE. Mostly foreigners. It seemed that each little
room was set up by an individual who had their own personal collection for
sale. It wasn’t what I expected at all. We didn’t find any of the record store
day releases there and after about 30 minutes of wandering around the shoulder
to shoulder crowd (not to mention little kids running around unsupervised
everywhere and knocking into people without a care in the world) we decided we
wanted to get out of there. It was not a very good record shopping experience.
I think I’ll stick to buying my records in the US and online!
We felt a little defeated by that experience and decided to
make up for it by going back to that coffee shop called Egg. Along the way we
stopped inside this tiny shop we found that just sold tons of tiny pre-packaged
bites of food. The walls were just lined with baskets full of products. Each
item was something like dried nuts, or dried meat or dried fruit. Basically
just a ton of individually wrapped dried things. These stores are all over the
place but we had not gone into one yet. I picked out a whole bunch of random
things to try and bought them. We didn’t actually end up trying any of it while
in China because it actually looked kind of scary. However, I regret that
because after I got home I tried them and every single thing I bought was
incredibly delicious. Looking back I wish I would have bought huge bags of
stuff from that store to bring back.
When we got to Egg we relaxed a bit and ordered a “mala
Mary”, which we had noticed on the menu the first time we were there and that
was our main motivation for going back. I was imagining a Bloody Mary that is
super spicy and numbing like other Mala dishes. However, it was a little
disappointing. As far as Bloody Mary’s go it was fine, but it just didn’t
really have that strong of a Mala flavor.
The café itself is pretty legit though. All of the food
items on the menu are clearly well crafted and looking at the plates that were
coming out to people made our mouths water. It wasn’t really Chinese food but
mostly just standard brunch items, but definitely well executed.
After our Bloody Mary’s we we’re feeling just a little bit
lazy and tired so we headed back to the hotel for a quick rest. We relaxed for
a couple hours and then around 6pm Yajing met us at the hotel to check out the
pool, which we had not previously gone to inspect. We got on our bathing suits
and went down to the pool level but it was really not what we expected. The
locker rooms were pretty nice and there was a spa of sorts where I think you
could arrange to have a massage but the pool itself was basically just a lap
pool and already had people swimming laps in it. Not really the type of pool where
you would just hang out and swim. Plus they said you had to wear this crazy
plastic head cap in order to enter the pool. Like the thing professional
swimmers wear. We didn’t want to bother with all that so we just went back
upstairs and changed back into regular clothes and decided to go up to the
Executive lounge for a quick snack and some free drinks before heading to
dinner.
After a while of hanging out upstairs we decided we wanted
to try Hunan food since that is the province Yajing is from and she said she
knew of a good place we could eat. The restaurant was at the 6th
floor of a mall, which usually means it is not a super touristy place and
actually mainly occupied locals (not what you would expect by American
standards but that is how it is in China). When we entered the mall we noticed
a little shoe store that was selling these cool shoes we saw lots of Chinese
people wearing. In looking at the price it turns out they were only like $10!
We tried on many different pairs but mostly they didn’t make them big enough to
fit our huge American feet. Yet in the end Jeremy and I both found a style we
liked that we could fit into and bought ourselves a pair. I’m wearing them
right now!
We made our way up to the restaurant and Yajing basically
ordered everything for us since she knew what was good. Here is some of what we
had:
-
Stinky tofu (Don’t eat this. Stay away from it.
It is not fit for human consumption)
-
Fish heads in two different sauces – spicy and
mild (this is good. Don’t be afraid of a fish head. That meat is tender and
delicious)
-
Mushrooms (I’m a simple man. I see mushrooms, I
order them, I eat them)
-
Some sort of Chinese liquor thing that was
pretty good
After the meal we set out in search of some snacks to take
home as souvenirs as well as some bottles of baijiu (that Chinese liquor we
tried at the night eats tour) to bring home. We were not disappointed with how
cool the bottle looked! We also found some bags of those insanely good peanuts
that we had on the patio of the café in the French Concession. These peanuts
are pretty common everywhere in China and I can’t believe I never knew about them
before. So I bought three large bags to take home.
We went back to the hotel to drop our stuff off and then
quickly headed back out to attend a party that Yajing heard about that was
happening inside of a White Castle (yes, the fast food burger place). The party
was honestly pretty amazing. The invitation that Yajing showed us mentioned
that there would be several different types of bianjing served (those Chinese
crepes) but when we got there we were disappointed to find out that wasn’t the
case. However they were selling several new styles of White Castle slider but
we weren’t hungry and didn’t eat any of them.
The party itself was sort of jungle themed. So the whole
restaurant had fake cheetah print fabrics draped over everything and fake vines
and leaves hanging from the ceiling and all down the walls. There was a DJ and
an MC who were playing dance music and there was a projection screen behind the
DJ booth that actually had very interesting videos playing on it (mostly of jungle
animals singing or sometimes just jungle scenes with a big hamburger
superimposed over everything).
They were selling cheap beers out of crates for cheap prices
so we had a couple of those. For each beer you got a raffle ticket, so between
the three of us we racked up 6 raffle tickets. Each 30 minutes they will do the
raffle and the winner would get a tote bag. We watched a couple raffles go by
but didn’t win anything. The party was pretty fun all things considered but we
felt that the crowd was much younger than us (because they were) and started to
get a little bored so Yajing gave our raffle tickets to a friend of hers that
was at the party and the three of us departed for greener pastures.
We walked around for a little while until we came across a
little ally way that led to kind of a nook of bars with a small shared
courtyard in the middle. There were lots of people around and it definitely
seemed a little more my style. Yajing had an idea and said to follow her so we
walked with her into this one bar that seemed to be pretty crowded with lots of
people drinking and talking and playing some sort of dice game. As we passed
all that we went to a sort of side room that had stairs going up, which we
ascended. When we got to the top we walked to the end of an empty hallway that
had a phone sitting on a small pedestal. Yajing picked up the phone and spoke
in Chinese for a moment and then a hidden door in the wall opened and we we’re beckoned
in by hostess in a black dress.
Upon entering this new place we immediately noticed that the
music was a sort of light and relaxing jazz. The lighting in the room was very
low and there was a bar and a few tables. It was a very small place but not too
crowded and they offered us to sit down immediately. The bartender came up to
us and in very good English explained that this place is a speakeasy style
Japanese whisky and cocktail bar. He said there is no menu but he can ask us
some questions and make some drinks based on our taste. For mine he asked the
following:
Whiskey or cocktail? – Cocktail
Liquor preference? – Gin
Primary flavor preference? – Bitter
Secondary flavor preference? – Sweet
In the end, as I suspected, he made me a pretty basic
Negroni. I am not complaining, because it was very good, but I was sort of
hoping for something a little different and less predictable.
Yajing ended up with a sort of passion fruit mojito and
Jeremy had some sort of gin drink also with passion fruit.
We enjoyed our time in this bar. The format of having the
bartender surprise you was kind of fun and it was nice and peaceful and classy
compared to the sort of overwhelming and crowded scene happening at the White
Castle. We considered having more drinks there but they we’re pretty expensive
and it was starting to get late so we decided to call it a night.
Just as we were leaving Yajing got a text from her friend
who said that one of our tickets won the raffle! It turned out to be one of my
tickets so we walked back over to White Castle to meet her friend and get the
thing I won. It turned out to be a tote bag that had a White Castle t-shirt
(too small for me) and a White Castle baseball cap. Not something I ever cared
about owning but will always have a fun memory associated with it.
When we got to the hotel and we got out of the cab, Jeremy noticed that the meter had been covered up the entire time. Something we probably should have paid attention to previously. So Jeremy asks the guy "how much?" and he says "106 yen". That is the equivalent of about $18 but on principle we knew it was way too much. Jeremy just said "no, come on, that is way too much man. It should only be like 20 yen". We had only been in the cab about 5 minutes and we have been riding cabs around enough that we know what it should cost. That is where things started to get heated. The guy starts freaking out and yelling and getting out of the cab. The hotel night staff came out but did absolutely nothing to intervene (something I wasn't very happy about). Jeremy asks the guy for a receipt to prove that is the cost so he goes into the car and comes out with a receipt for 106 yen. However, upon closer inspection Jeremy notices that the date on the receipt was old. So obviously this guy was trying to use an old receipt to get us to pay him way more than he deserved.
At one point I decided I should take a photo of his driver number so I could maybe have Yajing call the taxi company for me and at least report this guy for driving drunk (something very illegal in China) as well as trying to take advantage of us with a bogus fare (something he would be fired for). So I leaned over to take a photo and as I'm snapping it the guy grabs me by the arm and pulls me away, yelling red faced at me. The photo was too blurry to come out so I didn't do anything with it.
In the end we paid the guy 50 yen and walked away from him. That is like $9. Still too much but truly not worth all the fuss. It was just really annoying and nerve wracking to go through that confrontation and have our really good night soured by such a bad experience. Negotiation is part of the culture of commerce in China without a doubt but negotiations regarding taxi cab fares is definitely not something that is supposed to happen. This guy sucked.
Sunday morning we slept in a little bit as usual. This was Jeremy’s last day so there was no more plan to really go out and do anything. We went upstairs to get our breakfast in the lounge and then I just hung out in the room for a bit while Jeremy went out to a Muji store (Japanese store that sells basic household items) to buy a suite case for some of his souvenirs and a neck pillow. When he came back we hung around just a little bit more packing up the place until around 1pm when we said goodbye and Jeremy took off for the airport. I was now all alone and needing to decide what to do with the rest of my day.
I decided I shouldn’t waste it inside the hotel so I got up
and took the train to Jing’an Temple, which is a place I had been wanting to
visit the whole time but had not yet found an opportunity to do so. The temple
was a sort of palace and was really beautiful. It had traditional Buddhist architecture
and many rooms filled with Buddha statues and other relics and works of art.
There are still monks living fulltime in the temple and you can see them
walking around. I even saw some together at a table in a room chanting.
In the central courtyard is a large shrine about 2 stories
high. It has a small opening at the top and people stand around the bottom
throwing coins at it trying to get them in the little hole. It is supposed to
be good luck if you can get a coin inside. I got it on the third try and people
around me clapped for me because it is actually kind of hard to do. Somebody
asked me in broken English how many attempts it took me to get it. I told him
three and he said that three is my lucky number today and I should try and do
things in three. Not sure I had any particular luck with the number three after
that but it was still kind of interesting to me.
After I was done at the temple I sort of wandered around for
another hour or so. I found myself in a new neighborhood I had not visited
before and it was very crowded with lots of foreigners and Chinese people
around. It seemed to be an upscale shopping area. I am not interested in
shopping so I found a patio of a restaurant that said it was having happy hour
and got a drink while I watched the people pass by. While sitting there I
contemplated what I would have for dinner and decided that the only thing I
hadn’t yet tried was hot pot. Now, hot pot is usually a meal had with at least
two people, but I was just by myself but figured what do I have to lose? So I
did a little research and found a hot pot place that was nearby. It was
actually on the top floor of a mall, similar to the mall where we had Hunan
food the night before. I decided to suck up the awkwardness and go there by
myself and hope somebody spoke English. Worst case scenario I could always
chicken out and go eat at McDonalds.
When I got to the hotpot place there was a smiling hostess
who spoke basically no English but she brought me to a table none the less. She
brought out a cup of hot water (you get hot water at every restaurant in China.
Never cold. It’s a Chinese thing). I managed to communicate to her that I would
also like some tea and she brought that out as well.
After a while a server came to help me but she did not speak
English and it was rather awkward for a moment as I tried to tell her what I
wanted from the menu. Thank god it had pictures. So she sort of walked away
after a while and then another server showed up and he spoke halfway decent
English. So thankfully with his help I ordered the following:
-
½ Spicy & ½ Mushroomy broth
-
A mushroom plate (like 5 different type of
mushrooms)
-
Beef tongue
-
Bamboo shoots
-
Lamb brisket
I noticed after a little while that people were all lining
up at this sort of salad bar looking thing so I asked my server what that was
and he told me it is where you go to get your dipping sauces. So I wondered
over there and saw that people were mixing different things into some small
bowls. I really wasn’t sure what everything was as there were like 30 different
things all marked in Chinese. I grabbed some green onions and a little chopped
garlic and put it on the bottom of my bowl. Then I poured in what I think was
chili oil, some type of vinegar and soy sauce. I dumped a bunch of sesame seeds
in and stirred it up. I think if I knew more about what everything was and didn’t
feel so much pressure from people behind me line I could have mixed up a much
better dipping sauce but I’m not too mad about my decision.
The food was all really good and I felt completely stuffed
by the time it was over. The mushrooms especially were very good. It was around
8:30pm when I was done and so I walked around the mall a little more to see if
I wanted to buy anything in particular. I didn’t but it was nice to walk off
the food.
After that I hopped on the train and made my way home. One
thing of note, I did have a fresh squeezed orange juice from a vending machine
in the subway station. Something I had been meaning to do the whole trip. These
vending machines are so cool! You can see all of the oranges inside and you
make your selection and put in the money (about $2.50) and watch as the machine
presses the oranges and collects the juice and then spits out a cup full. I
would buy this all the time if they had them where I live.
I got back to the hotel around 9 and spent a little time in
the lounge drinking some wine and reading my book before I felt tired enough to
go to bed. The next day would be my travel day home and I was feeling ready for
the journey back.
The next morning I really didn’t do much. I got my breakfast
in the lounge and made a quick trip to Muji and Daiso to buy some last minute
items I wanted to bring home with me. By around 1pm I was ready to go so I packed
up the room, grabbed my bags and went down to the lobby to check out. Then I
had the door man help me get a taxi and I was off to the airport!
When I arrived it was about 2pm. My flight didn’t depart
until 4:30pm so I figured I had plenty of time to get through everything. When I
walked into the main departures area for the airport it was a massive room with
about 15 rows of counters where people check in. I scanned the area and saw one
of the rows had tons of Air Canada counters and an insanely long line. Easily
the longest line for any other counter in the whole place. So I went to the
back of the line and waited. When I had been in line for about 20 minutes I got
up to a part where a guy was checking to confirm that people were in the right
line. He looked at me and said “what city are you flying to?” I said “Boston
connecting first in Vancouver”. He nodded and motioned for me to continue
forward through the line. So I did and spent the next hour waiting for my turn
to check in and drop off my bags.
When I got to the front of the line I went up to the counter
and gave my passport the attendant asked me “what city are you flying to?”
“Vancouver,” I said
“Vancouver? This line is for Montreal, not Vancouver”
“It is? Well can I check in for Vancouver here anyway? I
might not have much time left”
“No, this is row B, Montreal, you need to go to row G for
Vancouver. You still have time, just go over there and you can check in”
So I grab my things and run like a crazy person over to row
G, which is clear on the other side of the room. Over here I see there are even
more rows of Air Canada desks and further extremely long lines. It is now about
3:15pm so I figure I still have a little bit of time but not much. There is a
shorter line of people waiting to check in and a similar attendant checking
where people are going. “What city?” he asks, I tell him “Vancouver” and he
motions for me to go into the line. Another 20 minutes passes so by the time I
get to the desk it is about 3:35, exactly 55 minutes before my flight departs.
The attendant looks at me and says “I’m sorry but check in for this flight has
already closed. You must check in at least one hour before boarding and now it
is too late”.
“What?” I say, staring unbelieving at the guy “can’t you
make an exception? I am only 5 minutes late and the only reason I am late is
because an Air Canada guy told me to wait in the wrong line before I got sent
over here to this one”.
“I’m sorry but there is nothing I can do. Please call this
number and they will arrange another flight for you”.
I continued staring speechless at the fact that I am really
about to miss my flight. I grab the number he wrote down and step aside to make
the phone call.
I won’t recount exactly how that conversation went but it
lasted about an hour. In the end they told me that I would have to pay a total
of $600 in change fees and that I could not get another flight until the next
day. I was pretty stressed and angry and fought with them over and over
eventually getting the top manager on the phone (or so they said) but he was
totally unwilling to do anything. It didn’t matter to them that I was misled by
an employee… I was stuck with the charges if I wanted to get home.
I sat in a chair for about 10 minutes after giving them my
credit card number and re-booking my flight. I just wasn’t really sure what to
do. My new flight didn’t depart until 6pm the next day so I was still about 24
hours out and certainly wasn’t going to spend 24 hours in the airport before my
flight. So I went online on my phone and found a Marriott hotel about 20
minutes from the Airport that I had just enough points left to book one night.
So I did that and with my tail between my legs I went downstairs to catch a cab
and had him bring me to the hotel. I wouldn’t be leaving China that day after all.
At this point I was feeling very low and down on myself
about the whole situation. I was angry with Air Canada for being unreasonable
about the costs, angry with the stupid gate agent who so carelessly told me I
was in the Vancouver line when I wasn’t but mostly angry with myself for not
being observant and savvy enough to realize I was in the wrong line on my own.
I have traveled all over the world and been in many international airports…
this should not have happened and truly at the end of the day I only have
myself to blame.
The Marriott itself was actually super nice. It was next to
a large medical center and was a brand new property. In fact, some portions of
it were still under construction and not open yet, but the areas that were open
were very nice. The staff upon entering were 100x more friendly and helpful
than the people at the Marriott Courtyard where Jeremy and I stayed during the
trip. As I was checking in they thanked me for being a loyal Marriott customer
and brought me a glass of some amazing sweetened rose water. They upgraded me
to a suite (the hotel seemed mostly empty so this probably wasn’t a big deal
for them).
The room was modern and fancy. Everything was
electronic and controlled by buttons on the wall. It was the only place I went
to in China that felt very technologically advanced like it belonged in Japan.
Except the toilet was still just a standard porcelain throne like anywhere
else. Not the insane robot toilets in Japan that practically talk to you, play
music, give you a massage, tell your fortune, brush your teeth for you and clip
your nails. Ok I’m exaggerating
It was about 7pm by now and I was extremely hungry since I
had totally skipped lunch and had no time to eat yet. I grabbed my book and
went up to the executive lounge, which was even nicer than the one at the other
hotel! I sat up there and ate three full plates of food and 3 glasses of wine
plus a bonus plate of desserts. I just ate, drank and read for 2 full hours
before retiring to my room for the night. It was actually very peaceful and a
lot of the anxiety I had been feeling from my difficult day had melted away. I
went to bed feeling at peace with everything. The $600 won’t destroy me. The
extra day won’t affect work for me. I had enough points for the hotel room so
it didn’t cost me anything extra. I decided to just look at it as a bonus day
in China.
In the morning I had lots of time to kill. So much that I
was getting a little bored. I had breakfast in the lounge but mostly spent the
morning messing around on my computer and going through some work emails to try
and get a little ahead of the curve for when I would return and have to get
caught up on everything. Then at 1pm I made the journey back to the airport to
try again. This time I arrived at 2pm once again but since my flight didn’t
leave until 6pm I was 4 hours early! I wasn’t going to make the same mistake
twice.
My new flight was actually connecting in Montreal instead of
Vancouver so I went back to that original line that I accidentally stood in the
day before. As I was in line I overheard a girl talking to someone a few placed
ahead of me in line and she mentioned Vancouver. I tapped her on the shoulder
and said “hi, sorry I don’t mean to eavesdrop but did you say you are going to
Vancouver?”
“Yes, I am”
“Well I think you might be in the wrong line. I have made
that same mistake before. This is the Montreal line, I think you need to be in
row G for Vancouver”.
“Oh really?”
“Ya, if you look at those computer screens over there, they
show each departing city and where the check in counter is. You should go check
and make sure”
So the girl said thanks and walked off to look at the
monitors. When she came back she grabbed my arm and said “Oh my god, thank you
so much! I would have totally been waiting in the wrong line. How confusing! I
am so happy you said something to me!”
Just paying it forward I guess…
Anyway this time the line was just as long as before so that
it was almost 3:30pm by the time I got to the front of the line to check in.
For whatever reason they only have like 2 people working the counter for a huge
international flight. So it just takes forever. Very annoying because they
advise you to arrive 2 hours before your flight departs in the confirmation
email but that is not enough time, I would say 3 hours minimum if you are
flying Air Canada out of Shanghai.
So once I was checked in and got my boarding pass and gave
them my big huge bag I ventured off to the security checkpoint. This took about
another 45 minutes and between that and the distance to my gate it was about 30
minutes before boarding time. Pretty insane that I arrived 4 hours before my
flight and still just barely made it on time. I bet people miss flights at that
airport ALL THE TIME.
So I used my 30 minutes to buy a fridge magnet from the gift
shop and buy a little bit of soup and some salmon to tie me over before the
flight. To my surprise they brought out a little bowl of those peanuts with my
food. It’s the little things in life that matter…
The boarding process took forever and they had to cram
everybody onto busses that shuttled us to the plane where we had to enter by
walking up stairs. I’ve done this many times on smaller planes but never on a
Boeing 777 like this. It was kind of cool to stand at ground level next to the
massive airplane.
The rest of the story is basically unimportant. The flight
to Montreal was 14.5 hours and I watched tons of movies, slept a little bit and
read some. My flight from Montreal to Boston was only a 30 minute layover that
I just barely made and that flight was just 1 hour. The odd thing is that somehow
I never had to pass through US Immigration or customs. When I got to the Boston
airport I had just arrived at a regular domestic terminal. I just got my bag
from the baggage claim and that was it. Never even had to get a stamp on my
passport. I honestly have no idea how it is possible but that is how it
happened.
I arrived back at my apartment in Boston at around 10pm on Tuesday,
April 24th.
The end
