Shanghai Express, 2010

Haibao. So annoying. So ....bland & toothpastey & gumby-esque & everywhere.

My view while stuck in traffic in Shanghai.

These are everywhere in Shanghai. For the people who've been locked in a dark cell for the past few years, this is a replica of the massive Chinese pavilion at the World Expo.

As much as Haibao gets on my nerves, I made my annual pilgrimage to Shanghai last weekend. A lot of friends had mysteriously found themselves in the 'Pearl of the Orient' for the summer (that's for you, John), so it was going to be a fun weekend full of friends, food, and the World Expo 2010. Tony, a good friend from College Station, Texas, was wonderful enough to let me crash at his gorgeous apartment in the heart of the French Concession. They did a great job renovating the place and Tony and/or his interior designer has really good taste. :)

It was my first time staying in the French Concession, and I really fell in love with the place. Long streets, lined with these gorgeous leafy green trees on either side and shops of every kind. In a taxi one morning, we passed a corner bakery and this older european man leaned his head out the door to say something to a customer and I had to do a double-take to remind myself I was in Shanghai and not some European city.


I got in on Friday at noon to HongQiao airport. Great looking place now because the renovations are finished. I chose Hongqiao over Pudong Airport (where the maglev trains are---took them last year, woohoo) because I was hoping for a shorter taxi line/to avoid the Expo crowds and I needed to get into the city fast for a lunch date. Well, Hongqiao FTW. No lines at the taxi stand and within 5 minutes of de-planening, I was sitting in a taxi and zipping into the Shanghai city center.

After an amazing lunch date with lawyers galore on the rooftop at Element Fresh, next to the Portman Ritz Carlton...where there was actually a nice breeze (that was the last time all weekend that there was a breeze because then Shanghai became the hot humid mess I always remembered it being), I made a beeline to the closest spa. I'd always seen advertisements for Dragonfly Spa in Beijing but had never tried it out. There was one in the lobby of the Shanghai Kerry Center (where my friend Justin works), and I was in desperate need for some r&r. I hate flying (as many of you know) and the flight down to Shanghai had actually been kinda bumpy because of the thunderstorm clouds that had cancelled all flights into/out of Beijing the night before. I made the decision on that flight to go see a doctor or whatever once I get back to Durham and get a prescription for Xanax while flying. One of my college roommates and a couple good friends all have the same thing. I do so much flying in my life that I really have to do something about this feeling of death I get whenever I think about flying. ;)

But anyways, after a mani/pedi, mini-facial, and massage later---I felt more like a human being. Met up with Tony at his place, and then we headed to Cantina Agave--great little Mexican place with fantastic margaritas. While there, I met Tony's awesome friends, Sera & Ryan Adams (Canadians, hilarious, uber-smart, cutest couple ever, and yes, his name is Ryan Adams) and Yan, Tony's really sweet/pretty girlfriend.

Sitting at Cantina, we saw this guy go by on his bicycle carrying like 100 boxes. That's awesome.

I was getting pretty excited about the night of karaoke that Justin + 12 of his closest lawyer friends had planned for the evening. I can't believe that I've never done karaoke before. There was something seriously wrong about that, I felt like I was missing a part of my Chinese identity-- so I was looking forward to correcting it. I mean, I had watched my parents do karaoke when I was growing up. Nikki M. knows alllll about how my parents love to do karaoke in our living room, but it's like---super old Chinese songs. The place we ended up at on Friday night had an amazing song selection, filled with the newest Lady Gaga songs, etc etc.

After a quick dinner with Justin, Aria, and Tracy, we walked around and found bars that were showing the US/Slovenia game. They handed out US flag stickers that were impossible to peel. Have you ever seen drunk people try to peel a sticker? It was like they had asked us to prove nuclear fission on a post-it note. Impossible.

View from Justin's apartment. I'm such a big city girl. I can't imagine not seeing that when you look out your window. Don't get me wrong, I love the outdoors and Texas will always be home...but for now? The fast paced lifestyle of a major metropolitan area is the only thing that appeals to me.

Oscar the Orphan Cat, aka Mao, aka Justin's best furry friend this summer in Shanghai.

I don't remember how the US game ended (apparently 2-2 w/a controversial called-off goal at the end), but I do remember walking down the street towards the karaoke place. It was pretty dark by then, and Justin was walking by me. I saw a pot hole coming up, and when Justin stepped on it, he kind of jumped or fell or skipped or something and screamed. I SWEAR TO GOD I thought he was falling into the sewer. I must've screamed bloody murder because the girls behind us flipped OUT. It was a chain reaction of screaming down the street that probably woke everyone in a 3 block radius up. I was the only one screaming because I thought Justin was falling into the pothole; everyone else was screaming because they thought there were bugs on the street or something. I mention this because I laughed so hard after we figured out what was going on. It was one of those laughs where your whole body hurts because you can't even breathe you're laughing so hard and you can't even stand up straight. Wonderful. Love it, love vacation, love my friends, love my life.

We like to do things like this at night.

We finally get to the karaoke place, and they tried to tell us our room was cancelled because we were a few minutes late. Given that it was a Friday night...the place was packed, but I mean....c'mon! Tracy and I decided to just start singing in the lobby area. Every single Chinese person there was treated to "Total Eclipse of the Heart" for free. They are welcome. After the manager realized there were 12 ppl there and we weren't going anywhere and Justin, being the amazing lawyer that he is, we were given our own room to go do whatever we needed to do. ;)

Justin & Edoardo. Currently in tense negotiations for a room that we were somewhat-contractually locked in to.

So I don't remember much of what happened next because it was a blur of songs, but I do know that "Bye Bye Bye" came up on the screen without words. People were freaking out because it's such a good song but no one knew the words....except me. Dang, I showed my boy band love like no other. I wasn't sure whether to be proud or ashamed that I knew every word to an N'Sync song, but let's just say, I at least kept my knowledge of the dance choreography of the video to myself. After a few hours of that and no voice left whatsoever, Catherine, Kay, & I left the crazy people at the place and dragged ourselves home. I don't remember what time it was then, but I do remember it took me about 15 minutes to unlock Tony's apartment door that night.

Grace and Justin, duetting, in love.

The next morning, I felt like hell when the alarm went off but I needed to go pick up Justin because we were going to EXPO like it was going out of style. I'll save the Expo post for later so just know that for the majority of Saturday, Justin, Tracy, Aria, and myself braved 97 degree heat, 4.5 trillion people, and a hell of a lot of acreage to go hang out at the World Expo. Totally worth doing again. We had a blast. I'll show you pics later. But, I think it was a once in a lifetime experience....as in, I wouldn't do it again. One Expo under my belt is more than enough for this life time on earth. ;)

I passed out on the bed after I got home from that experience, and even after I woke up---my head was still buzzing. After walking around in Shanghai weather for 6+ hours...it takes a bit to recover. I met Tony's upstairs neighbor, a very cool guy from Canada named Chuck who works in the wine importing business in China, and we all went to a Thai restaurant, Golden Bull, for dinner. This is remarkable because we took the subway there. ;) (PS: I also took the Beijing subway twice yesterday...let's just leave it at that.) Don't get me wrong, the subways are fine. They're clean. Most stations are super new, too. It's just--rush hour Beijing subway? BLAH. SO MANY PEOPLE TOUCHING YOU.

Post-dinner was this amazing multi-hour Rock Band/Guitar Hero & wine extravaganza at Chuck's place. Sera & Ryan brought a cake from Awfully Chocolate and it was awfully delicious. I had never played Rock Band or the like before...I remember my little brother playing it a while back, but I had never partaken. So I partook in a couple of songs. It's definitely not as easy as it looks, haha. But overall...great times. Our band name was the Cheesecopters. WE ROCK! I was hoping there'd be a U2 song in the mix, but we didn't find any that night. Although if we had, I probably would have missed every note on the guitar while singing along. The Edge, I am not. That party went well into the early morning, and it was a great way to spend the last night in Shanghai.

Here's a pic of the guitar hero awesomeness and shadows of the many bottles of wine that were drunk-ened that night. I took this via my blackberry which is the most awesome phone ever. The motorola razor comes in as a close second. iPhone what?

I was woken up the next morning by Justin calling for brunch at Balthazar, a cute little French place in this amazing area in Shanghai called Tai Kang Lu. It's a series of alleyways that are crammed full with tiny shops, art galleries, cafes, people, tourists, and it is just SO full of character! I couldn't believe I had never been before because this was my 7th or 8th trip to Shanghai. This area is a MUST SEE for anyone visiting Shanghai. My flight was leaving in the early afternoon so I really didn't have enough time to explore, but I will be back there asap the next time around. After a bubbly mimosa brunch with Kay, Catherine, Justin, and Chuck, we headed back to the apt/packed up/and I dragged myself back to the airport. All in all, a great weekend getaway.

My view during brunch.

Couple of snapshots I took along the way while looking for an ATM with Chuck. Can't wait to go back to this place & explore.

PS: For those going to Shanghai for the first time [ Rosalie!! :) ], there are a million things that I always used to do in the past that I didn't on this trip. You must walk up and down the Bund (aka Wai Tan), you must visit the old city, go to Pudong Island, take a boat up the river at night to see both sides lit up. Eat Shanghainese food. Take a day trip out to Suzhou to see the canals. Walk through the French Concession. Visit the historical spots in town like Chiang Kai Shek's old house, Zhou En Lai's quarters, the office were the CCP first met, Soong Mei Ling's summer home....and just walk around! Shanghai is such a beautiful and historical city, and I'm looking forward to seeing her again soon.