Another Busy Week In Shanghai

This past week has been another busy one, but of course exciting and fun-
filled as well! Wednesday night I joined Misha to meet a friend of his from
undergrad who also has a summer internship in Shanghai. We met Eric
and Eric's American roommates and several other friends of friends for yet
another fantastic dinner, but the main excitement for the evening
was the bar we headed to afterwards to hear Eric's roommate do stand-up at
an expat open mic night. I have never been to an open mic comedy night and
was a little unsure about it when we first arrived and there were only about
10 patrons at the bar and a really awkward "comedian" reading bad jokes off
of his iphone. After about two so-so performances, the acts started to pick
up and by the end I was laughing a good deal. The comedians, as well as
most of the audience, were all Westerners and the jokes centered around the
experience of living in Shanghai as a foreigner. It was entertaining to hear
many of the thoughts I've had as well as many scenarios I can easily imagine
being vocalized. Eric's roommate was among the best of the evening and I
was surprised and impressed to hear that it was only his second time doing
stand-up, how brave!  


At work, our hospital project doesn't seem to be on a rushed schedule,
allowing Brad and I to leave at 5pm most days and giving us greater
opportunity to enjoy different areas of the city in the evenings. Thursday,
Misha, Tina and I took advantage of our free time and headed to Old Town
to check out the Dongtai Road Antique Market. This outdoor market only
stretches over a couple of blocks but hours can be enjoyed here sifting
through the dusty piles of knick-knacks at the overflowing vendor carts. The
range of goods include colorful Communist propaganda posters, porcelain tea
sets, cracking leather suitcases, lacquered wooden jewelry boxes, ornate lion
and Buddha statuary, and much much more. Needless to say we all picked up
a few goods while perusing the stalls. 


After tossing around a few ideas of possible trips for this weekend, we
decided to stay in Shanghai. Between work and travel, we have been
incredibly busy and a free weekend without set plans sounded pretty nice to
everyone. Friday night we all went out together and got a taste of Shanghai's
nightlife. Shanghai doesn't offer the rich abundance of laid-back bars and
microbreweries that I take for granted in Portland, and "going out" generally
entails patronizing a multi-level, smoke-filled club with flashing lights,
expensive drinks, and thumping music hidden somewhere on the upper floor
of a high-rise. Although it is not likely to be a regular outing for me, Tina and I
did have a great time getting some exercise on the crowded dance floor!  


After enjoying a lazy morning on Saturday, I joined Misha and Eric for lunch
at a street vendor in the French Concession offering whole fried ducks. This
literal hole-in-the-wall take-out "restaurant" consisted of 2 men, 2 giant frying
vats, and a knife and cutting board. The duck was served in halves and was
literally 1/2 of the duck. After being fried, each duck was cut once length-wise,
(head and neck included), and then cut again perpendicularly about 6 more
times and each half thrown into a paper carton. It seems that the art of carving
meat is not known or appreciated here as I am rarely served a piece of meat
that I can identify as any recognizable anatomy. Although I have not picked
up the Chinese technique of eating meat served this way, which involves a
lot of gnawing and spitting, I managed to get a decent size lunch out of my 1/2 duck. All in all, lunch cost less than $3 USD per serving and was crispy,
golden, and delicious! 


I parted ways with Eric and Misha for the afternoon and enjoyed a little alone
time exploring a district called Hongkou in North Shanghai. A coworker
had told me about a renovated slaughterhouse turned shopping complex
in the area called 1933 that she recommended visiting for its interesting
architecture. Hongkou has been a hotspot for new construction in the last
few years but also offers some beautiful historic streets and lively markets to
explore. I used a map from my guidebook to locate various sights in the area
and spent a few hours walking around before heading to 1933 and a famous
historic street called Duolun Cultural Street. 1933 may easily be some of my
favorite architecture in the city thus far, although it was difficult to photograph
due to the overcast sky as well as the complex shapes and layers that make
up the building. The slaughterhouse was built in 1933, (hence the name),
and is a maze of concrete ramps, stairs, and bridges that connect a central
circular building with a larger rectangular building circumscribed around it,
with an open air 4-story atrium space between the two. The many ramps and
bridges had been used to funnel cattle through the building and passages
of varying widths were used to control the animal traffic. Even the concrete
lattice facade was functional as it served to keep the animals inside while still
allowing for adequate ventilation. The complex is so beautiful with its graceful
flowering columns and sculpted spiral staircases, that it is hard to imagine it
functioning as a slaughterhouse. I enjoy seeing architecture built so beautifully
for such a brutal and private function as a slaughterhouse. I can’t imagine
anyone spending any time or money on aesthetics for such a building today
but this initial investment has obviously paid off as the building is still highly
valued and has not been torn down like the surrounding neighborhoods have.


Saturday evening we were treated by some coworkers to another fantastic
Sichuan style dinner and Tina and I were treated extra specially with roses
because it was Chinese Valentine's Day. As evening approached, many
young couples filled the streets, all dressed for the occasion, and
the young women were parading around with giant fancy bouquets of
flowers and stuffed animals. Besides giving flowers, it is also common to
give bouquets of small stuffed animals such as teddy bears which I had never
seen before. Although it was cute, I’m not sure what I would do with a dozen
miniature teddy bears on sticks…


Sunday our employer Jun Li was again gracious enough to spend half of
his day touring us around Shanghai and as always, the tour ended with
a fantastic meal. The theme of this tour was “old and new architecture of
Shanghai” and we visited several historic buildings, a new high-rise designed
by Jun Li, as well as a newly renovated cluster of historic buildings turned high-end shopping district. Due to the forecasted typhoon that was supposed to hit Shanghai this weekend but ultimately changed its mind, the weekend was very overcast and rainy, which is not conducive to photography, but I tried anyways. The rain and wind was a welcome relief from the heat, although short-lived as temperatures were back to normal after the weekend.


As always, I have posted a link to pictures from this weekend, but I also posted an additional link to a compilation album I put together of some of Guillaume's photos which focus specifically on pictures of us as a group. I tend to focus mostly on the scenery and surroundings with my photos but thought you all would enjoy some more photos of us in action!