A couple of weekends (and a week) in Shanghai

2011-01-07

My last trip to Shanghai was in August 2003 as part of a business trip. My friend from Seattle moved here in 2008 or so, and I've frequently promised to go visit him. So finally over the last couple of weekends, I've been able to make this all work and go visit him.

Shanghai is actually a bit nicer than I remember it (I had previously spent most of my time in Pudong, not Puxi, it seems), with way better traffic than Beijing, less bone-chilling cold, and generally pleasant architecture.

The downside to this are brutally hot summers and - the worst - no heaters in the apartments in winters. I absolutely froze to death for the week I was here programming, and had to completely retool my wardrobe to handle the indoor conditions (brr).

[Click on any photo for a larger view]

The city is a nice dense contrast to Beijing's insanely spacious feel.	There's a mix of old and new, as always in China.	Nanjing Lu, a famous shopping area here downtown.
	I don't think I ever made it to the Bund on my last visit, and even on this visit, I was never quite sure if I was in the right place or not.	But there's a river and a tonne of tourists, so it's probably about right.
	This is all with the iPhone camera, which was weird warping effects at the edges.	The river is actually the highest traffic area in the city!
Wedding on the Bund, baby!	Photo club outing! Work it guys!	Lots of restaurants and tour boats all moored for the winter, it seems.
	NO WAI!	I took the Maglev train to Pudong one night. It's pretty freaking cool, even in economic class.
It only goes 300kph at nigh, 450 during the day. It basically accelerates up to full speed just in time to have to start slowing down again.	I bought the coolest book ever here too.	Holiday lighting out in full force.
	My friend showed me these awesome fried dumplings called JianShengBao.
Next stop: TaiKangLu, an old historic neighbourhood with tonnes of restaurants (none of which are Chinese, oddly enough).	Need a map? We've got that.	Nanluoguxiang, Beijing's old / historic cum tourist trap street has two of these stores.
		This is the teddy bear Thai restaurant.

Italian.	We stopped for some (surprisingly awesome) Gl�hwein	... with cool blue lighting yah!
And then settled on Thai food for dinner.	Awesome -- no snow in Beijing, but tonnes in Shanghai.
Went and saw a movie inside a mall with this absolutely massive lantern festival display. Very impressive!
And all sorts of other decorations too.	Great Hunan food to top off the evening!
	Groan.	Some Canadian guy was stabbed to death while sitting in a cafe. D'oh!
Next night - Shanghai specialties with the husband of a colleague of mine.		The snow just kept coming.
Next stop - Yu Gardens. Also awesome.		More lanterns in preparation for Spring Festival
Some sort of Nanjing dumplings
Cool rabbit snowmen, year of the Rabbit coming up in two weeks!	Final meal; the most awesome Yunnan food I've had in some time. Super delicious.	And great atmosphere in here. It was pretty pricy, at about 25$ USD a head, but super delicious and cool.
	That's not a typical Whiskey Sour presentation, but the taste was spot-on!

Work it baby!	On the bund at night.
We finished the night off with some drinks. It was all good.