Shanghai in Retrospect.

4 & 5 April 2008 (Day 1 & 2): Shanghai

I went to Shenzhen pretty early in the day and took the bus from the Kowloon MTR station that go directly to the Shenzhen airport. The bus went from the Shenzhen Bay checkpoint, and on the way there I saw these fishing farms that reminded me of the kelongs back in Singapore.

When I reach the Shenzhen airport, I was about 2 and a half hours early and I’ve already checked in while I was still in Hong Kong. So I decided to take a walk around the airport when I saw this:

The thing about China is that every airport or train station must have this huge board that tells the whole world that where this place is, and in this case, I guess the only people who wouldn’t know that this is the Shenzhen airport would probably be the blind. And with the two words of Shenzhen being so big, I think even the blind can see it.

Apart from the fact that the flight took off on time, there really wasn’t too many things to be pleased about the flight actually. Well I had a meal to go with as the flight was around lunchtime, but I thought I would not post the picture of the lunch up because it really wasn’t anything spectacular. I know meals on flights are normally not great, but the one by China Southern Airlines definitely take some beating!

When I finally reached Shanghai, some 8 hours after I left my Hong Kong house, I went to lunch with Renzhi, Gary and Geraldine. The dinner was at some Cantonese restaurant on Yan’an Road West and let’s just say that it was a great meal – me coming from Hong Kong and having Cantonese cuisine again! But of course, there is always a difference between good and bad Cantonese cuisine, and that was a great one that would probably put some Hong Kong chefs to shame. And the washing basin in the washroom was quite special too!

And then after the dinner it was off to a karaoke session, which Renzhi managed to call two of his other friends to join us, and the result is this group photo on Nanjing Road:

The great thing about Nanjing Road is that it just doesn’t seem to change – the neon lights are still as bright as ever, and it’s as if electricity is free:

I spent the second day in Shanghai and kicked off the day with a great breakfast:

The weather wasn’t actually very good as it was actually pretty foggy. I went to the Bund to try to see the scenery across Huangpu River, and the Pudong I saw was quite disappointing.

I was jokingly telling Renzhi that 2 of the balls of the Oriental Pearl Tower were missing and I was left with just one to see. I continued my walkabout around the area, and I somehow spotted the 四不像 that I frequently come across at the Tat Chee Avenue entrance of City University outside one of the shops on the street:

What are you doing here?

And I saw this on Nanjing Road (yes I was there again – well to see the Bund you probably have to walk through Nanjing Road anyway!) and I thought this ad was actually quite interesting. I mean, China is a place for advertisements and product placements, but this was a nice refreshing change from those really hard-sell ads.

Of course it has to be Yao Ming – I’m in China after all, and Shanghai is Yao’s hometown in case you didn’t realise.

I ended the day at Qipu Road, with the old tentage-style market being removed and made way for buildings.

The one thing that didn’t change was that Qipu Road is still full of shops selling clothing and textiles. Ever since the closure of Xiangyang Market, it seemed like quite a number of those stalls have moved over here. Judging from the number of shops that were selling fake shoes, clothing and accessories, I think that’s about right.