Day 1
After sleeping 13 ½ hours on the flight (China Eastern direct to from JFK), I awoke with announcements that we were would be landing at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport shortly. My flight landed before 5am, and the flight attendant announced that it was 84ºF… AT 5AM! As I disembarked along the short jetway, I could feel the heat. It was sticky… and almost wet. The airport wasn’t much of an improvement. Air conditioning is not powerful.
With my minimal Mandarin language skills (from listening to Pimsleur’s Mandarin Chinese Units 1-11 for two months), I made my way to my favorite budget hotel ever, Motel 268 (and a bit nicer than it's sister hotel Motel 168). I felt awake but needed a good stretch to refresh. I met my co-worker Margot for a day of non-work fun. We got into a cab and made our way to the Urban Planning Museum, which depicts how Shanghai will be developed in 2020. It’s pretty amazing to see the plan of growth and modernization, especially when the residents have modernized so little.
I will advise anyone heading to Shanghai to have some Mandarin under their belt. Most people, even hotel and tourist attraction employees, do not have, even minimal, English language skills. My Mandarin, sad as it was, got us pretty far. We found a vegetarian restaurant Godly at 445 Nanjing Xi Lu (it's really called Gongdelin Su Shi Chu) about five blocks from the museum. It felt like hours getting there. The heat was just unbearable, especially on your first day.
We ordered hot & sour soup, a spicy noodle dish and a tofu & mixed vegetable sauté. It was delicious and an enormous amount of food at only 61rmb (at time of visit, conversion was about $1 = 7.55rmb). We lingered over the food for almost two hours, dreading the thought of going back out into the heat.
I wanted to go to H&M because I was curious to see if they had a different styles than H&M in NYC. We accosted a young girl on the street, and fortunately she spoke English and wrote the cross streets for H&M in Chinese on paper, which we, in turn, showed to the taxi driver. Huaihai Lu & Sinan Lu (I think - the address is on the H&M website). Anyway, they did have different styles, and the sizing was different as well. I am generally an 8 in H&M – here I’m a 10-12. I bought a shirt and some much needed hair clips (to keep my long hair off my sticky, sweaty neck) for 99rmb.
We started to walk to find a taxi, but cold air wafting from the doors of mini malls lured us inside, and I ended up finding an adorable pair of flats on sale for 249rmb (about US$32). We finally found a taxi, and I came back to my well-air-conditioned hotel room and showered. Twice.
That night, our fabric dealer, a born and bred Shanghainese fellow, offered to escort us to dinner at a delicious spot Jade Garden, in a hotel on Yan’an Lu (1121 Yan'an Zhong Lunear Huashan Lu, Metro Line 2 Jingan Temple Station; 延安中路1121号近华山路, 地铁2号线静安寺站). It was bustling, and the food was delicious. We started with cold jellyfish which was perfect texturally, with both a chewy and crispy bite, marinated in a light sauce, and drunken chicken, a steamed chicken marinated in Chinese wine and then chilled, which was also light and fresh. He ordered some xiaolongbao (soup dumplings), which is one of my favorites, and these were good, with a good thin skin; however, the soup inside could have used a bit more flavor. We had a spicy beef dish with peppers that was rich with heat, and although I don't actually love the taste of peppers, I loved this beef that was perfumed with these peppers, plus a dish called thousand-layer pork, which was basically thinly sliced pork belly wrapped around pork and veggies in the shape of a pyramid, and braised until the fat is practically melting off. It was gluttonous, but I enjoyed every second of it.
Day 2
I got a bit sad that it was Independence Day, and I was in a city that really didn’t care. If I were home, I would be sailing with friends, BBQing and watching the Macy’s firework show from my (or someone’s) roofdeck. Instead it was hot and rainy, and I scoured the streets surrounding my hotel on a rampant search for good street food.
I walked along Jiangsu Lu
to Xuanhua Lu, and found a teeny restaurant that had pictures of dumplings outside of it. I went in and there were a number of people seated inside, most of whom were not eating. I tried my poor Mandarin, but it was sad. The older woman, however, was determined to help me, and I pointed to a delicious-looking bowl of dumpling soup and said “Yi”, which means 1. I was served, and I requested “La gio ja” which means chili sauce, and that impressed her. She also gave me some vinegared soy sauce, and I was golden. The soup was quite good, but the dumplings tasted overpoweringly of hot dogs, which began to make me ill. I left some dumplings behind, but finished the soup and paid the elderly woman who was so helpful “san quai” which is 3rmb, approximately US$0.40. Afterwards, I wandered into a bakery, partially to get out of the rain, partially to check out what I could find. Now I know why China's my kind of place... they sell bacon
at the bakery. Delish.
I walked on, and took a little side street into a market where I found a guy rolling dumpling skin rounds and filling them with a salted cabbage mixture. I watched for a while, until I got the nerve to ask for some in my really bad Mandarin. I pointed to the dumplings, and asked for 6 (lio), but somehow I got 12. While they cooked, the younger boy asked me if I was Chinese, and I said in Mandarin that I was Korean, so he greeted me in Korean “Ahn young ha seh yoh” and then we both smiled, since it was nice for him to try to communicate with me. I paid my two quai for the dumplings (see photo) and was off. I ended up somewhere around Dingxi Lu, where I saw a stand where my beautiful xiaolongbao were being steamed. Again, I only wanted 6, but they gave me 12. Plus a small scallion biscuit, all for only 5 quai (approx US$0.65). I had yet to eat any dumplings so I made my way back to the hotel, with a minor unintentional detour along the way – basically I got lost.
I ate like a dumpling queen in the cool air of my room, and then Margot called and asked me to accompany her to lunch. Although I wasn’t hungry, I thought a walk would be nice, so we found a nearby vegetarian restaurant Wu Guan Tang Su Shi on Xinhua Lu, but I barely ate the mushroom noodles, the gross pumpkin soup and the rather good vegetable curry (Japanese-style) -- the food wasn’t very good, certainly not like Godly, which must be the most famous vegetarian restaurant in Shanghai, since everyone I asked knew about it. I did drink about 30 glasses of tea though, and I was brimming of tea and heat by the time we left.
That night, we decided to head to Xintiandi, a relatively recently developed area filled with many foreigners, for some non-Chinese food to commemorate the 4th. We went to Kabb, and sat outside, since it had cooled down with the rain, where we enjoyed the sounds of different languages, primarily English. French fries, Mediterranean dip platter, cheese quesadilla and spinach pasta were a nice celebratory meal (even though nothing actually tasted good). We met an Aussie couple who had been here for 4 years, and they were kind and entertaining. And even at this nice restaurant in an affluent area, dinner with 2 drinks each still only cost 430rmb (approx US$56).
Day 3
Our American factory rep, John, met us the next day and brought us back to Xintiandi to
Wagas for sandwiches. Then we walked to
Starbucks and did some work, taking advantage of their air conditioning. While we waited for a cab to go back to the hotel, we saw this sign on a busy city street.
That evening, we met my friend Caleb who lives in Shanghai at the Four Seasons for drinks, where we nibbled on risotto balls while sipping strong cocktails. We then headed to the CJW Jazz Club on the 50th floor of Bund Center where the view was exquisite and drinks were expensive, even by NY standards. But it was fun, and we soon were headed off to another spot, The Velvet Lounge on Julu Lu near Changshu Lu, where we had a few drinks more and then ended up calling it a night.
Day 4
Awokened by a terrible hangover, I started my day with a lot of water, Emergen-C and ibuprofen. I was famished so I went down the street and got a meat bun, with what seemed like meatball with gravy inside. It was good enough, and I wasn’t about to ask what kind of meat was inside. I also picked up potato chips for me and Margot, and we tried to recover until John came to get us for our meeting.
We headed back to Xintiandi to a restaurant I’ve heard so much about: Din Tai Fung, a Taiwanese-based restaurant chain that serves famously amazing xiaolongbao. And although expensive by Shanghai standards, the food was delightful. The crabmeat and pork xiaolongbao were delicious and delicate. I generally like intensely flavored broth in my soup dumplings but because the crab was so tasty, it was a nice balance to have a light broth in these soup dumplings. The skin was the most impressive part of the dumpling, since it’s so common to find thick skin housing the soup and filling. This skin was quite thin, almost translucent, which made the difference. Other food was also good, a cold chopped bean curd and greens dish was wonderful. Noodles with preserved vegetables and pork hit the spot, although if I were not hungover, I may not have enjoyed them as much. We had a lot of sautéed greens, which were good, but common. Margot said the veggie dumplings were quite good, but I found them to be bland in comparison to other veggie-only dumplings I’ve had in the past. The xiaolongbao was really the centerpiece of this meal, as it blew away all of the other xiaolongbao I’ve tried so far here.
After a long day at the factory, we had dinner on our way back at a Korean restaurant in Hongquiao, I think called ChunWun Garden. Our Korean factory rep called ahead and requested a dish I had been wanting, kalguksu (noodle soup); it was very kind of him to ask and very accomodating of them to make (it's not on their menu). They made all sorts of special requests for vegetarian Margot. And we ate like kings and queens again. I had a banchan that I’d never tried before: sautéed bamboo shoots, thinly julienned. It was delicious.
Day 5
We had an all-day meeting, and I was hoping John’s Chinese staff would order delicious Chinese specialties for us. Instead, we received Pizza Hut. Gross. I ate it only because I was hungry.
When we finally concluded our meeting, we found out that John had made a reservation for us at Lan Na Thai, the restaurant on the 2nd floor of the Ruijin Hotel Guest House. I left the ordering in the hands of John and Ling Fei, since I eat everything. We had some veggie spring rolls, which were greasy, but tasty. And beef satay, the sauce for which was good, but the beef was kinda weird. I ate it because I feel like my protein consumption has been minimal here. Then we went on to seafood red curry (delicious); pla Keow sam rod, fried Garopa fish topped with a sweet & spicy sauce (OK but kinda gross and sweet at the same time); and deep fried cuttlefish (better than I expected). It was nice to have a Thai meal, but I was still missing Chinese food.
We went to Face Bar downstairs afterwards and shared one drink; we wanted to sit outside since it had rained all day and cooled down a bit, but during our dinner, the storms came back and brought much thunder and lightning.
Day 6
Today was the best day. I woke up late, and we had no work scheduled for the entire day. We planned to go find DVDs, get massages and get eyelash extensions, in that order. But we received bum directions, and coincidentally ended up at the eyelash place.
For 99RMB, we got the best eyelashes ever at 57 inside this underground beauty center. We then got manicures and met up with Ling Fei, John's Shanghainese assistant.
Our next stop was this street near People’s Square full of street food where we went to eat tons of dumplings and try my first stinky dofu (see my 1/2 eaten photo).
After stuffing our faces, we walked to our favorite DVD store, Moviestar, where I picked up a few things (I’m not really a movie person), and then we headed to this place near our hotel recommended by Caleb for massage.
YiLi Massage is the best place ever. I took a card, but have since given it away because it’s so good. 50rmb for an HOUR.
Then we went back to the hotel, I showered, and we picked up Caleb and headed to Barbarossa, a lounge-ish spot at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Great drinks, great service, not-so-great food, at pretty expensive prices – this is definitely a foreigners’ spot. Somehow it ended up being really late, and we stumbled home around 2am.
Day 7
Since it was Margot’s last day, we rushed to get massages in the morning, and then we met John to go to the factory. John picked up sandwiches for us from Element Fresh, a tasty spot, but definitely not on my list of places to try in Shanghai (there’s one at the Ritz Carlton, if that says anything about the kind of place it is). We spent the bulk of our day there and rushed back to make sure Margot was able to get to the airport on time.
I was exhausted from the night before so I just picked up some nibbles at the hotel café. Noodle soup with pork and preserved vegetables; bamboo shoots; and some pan-fried leek dumplings. I could only eat the bamboo shoots and dumplings because I was so tired.
Day 8
I worked all morning from my hotel room, and ate leftover cold noodle soup while working. It was storming on and off, and I didn’t want to get lost and caught in the rain like my 2nd day.
John came to get me around 3:30pm and we headed to a different Element Fresh to work (they have free WiFi), and we nibbled on a smoked salmon platter while working.
Around 9pm, John was going to meet with GC on open issues that we had discussed, so Ling Fei and I went for a culinary adventure. Since I am very open-minded food-wise, she took me to a street for local food, which I was very excited about.
We ended up on these streets: 
I’m not very sure about prices, because Ling Fei/John treated, but I can tell you, it was inexpensive and amazing! It's a very strange system where you can order from any place on the street (using this menu system) and have the food delivered to the restaurant where you're seated. 
We had two baskets of crawfish, stinky dofu, grilled lamb, eel, scallops and oysters while seated in one restaurant.
On the street, despite being stuffed, we couldn't resist some grilled clams.
Everything was fresh and delicious, and the process was amazing. There were so many other food options, and not a tourist (besides me) in sight. This is what I’d been hoping to try since I’d come to Shanghai in April. It was awesome.
Day 9
My last day – it was a fast-paced day since my flight was at 6:30pm, and getting to the airport during rush hour would be a challenge in and of itself. I met with our fabric maker in the morning, and I had a mango “smoothie” which was really more like an ice slushie-type thing. It was eaten with a spoon.
John ordered sandwiches from Element Fresh again so after they picked me up, we headed there to pick up sandwiches and head to the factory again. This day was super productive, and I saw a lot of our SPSU08 samples especially our colored soles, which looked amazing.
We rushed out of the factory, and I made it to the airport in record time, despite Shanghai traffic, and even in enough time to get an order of xiaolongbao at the airport. It was beyond disappointing, after having Din Tai Fung’s.
I’m looking forward to my next trip in most likely September so I can try the other trumpeted XLB spot and continue my trend of eating more local food.
