Last day in Shanghai

Another quick post because I have to pack. I'm sad to be leaving, but I'll be glad to see my friend Kate in Japan. My cousin was in Shanghai yesterday, so we went shopping and out to dinner. I hadn't seen him since he was in grade school. Now he's graduating from college. My mom tripped on the sidewalk on the way to dinner last night and broke her arm. Ouch!! So it hasn't been a good day for her. I feel really bad. So I don't have time to write much now. Next post will be from japan.

The picture above is another local market. the food looked fresh, but the atmosphere was kind of gross. there are more pics on my flickr page. these are some of our restaurant dinners. I didn't feel compelled to photograph our home dinners. The service in Chinese restaurants is awesome. There's always wait staff around, and you can call on any of them. They all welcome you at the door and thank you when you leave.

Everyday Shanghai

This is just a quick post because it's late. Here's a few photos of regular places and food vendors. The one above is was taken on the ferry to cross the river from the Pudong area of Shanghai. Motorbikes, bicycles and pedestrians all together.
This one is just some laundry. My dad likes to joke, "Do you like all the flags?"


Fresh veg stand. Chinese love their leafy greens.


Train station waiting room


More food vendors...

This woman was selling roasted corn and potatoes. The next one is a Muslim street vendor selling some kind of cake or bread.


Papa Johns - Free delivery

Good Foods

There's lots of stuff on Chinese menus that might seem strange. It's not so much the duck lip that makes me laugh. It's that it's Extremely savory duck lip. And the crab dishes cardiac atherosclerosis....they must have used a medical dictionary to translate that one. haha...

One of my favorite foods (and I have many) is Lanzhou pulled noodles. I had them today for lunch (again). We go to the local eateries for these, where you can get a delicious bowl of beef noodle soup for about 60 cents. Local eateries are no-frills places to eat. They're usually tiny and dark, clean-ish, and instead of napkins they might have a roll of toilet paper. But the food is good and cheap. And you usually get to see them making food at the front of the shop. They cook the noodles in big pots out front and you can watch them make your noodles. This isn't my video, but it's exactly the same type of place. There are lots of them around.

Just like that...dough to noodles in 30 seconds. They also have knife-sliced noodles where they take a chunk of dough and flick slices of noodles directly into the pot. These are Muslim eateries, so there's no pork on the menu. China is largely atheistic, mostly due to the communist government I believe. Buddhism has the largest following, followed by Islam, and then Christianity. My brother had brought a stack of news magazines to read, and this was one of the factoids I read.

Here's a potsticker shop.


This was taken on one of the local shopping streets. For those who can't afford to go to Wal-Mart, this is where you can buy your food. Yeah sure, it's gutted on the street, but it's fresh. I like to look, but we don't buy from here (much).


Tsingtao. Cheers!

Fake Market

This is one of the fake markets in Shanghai. My brother and I each walked away with a jacket. Mine's a North Face, which you'll see in later posts. It came out to roughly $25 I think. We probably could have bargained lower, but the girl was nice. Usually they're super pushy and I hate that. This was before the new year so business was slow. It's mostly westerners that frequent these markets, and most of them had gone home for the holidays.

I also got one of these "I am NOT a Plastic bag" totes.


There are also markets where you can go get clothes made from scratch to your measurements. Lots of people have suits made. You can pick your fabric and styles depending on which tailor you chose. The hard part is picking the right tailor. Prices vary, but I think a suit jacket and trousers runs about $50 or $60ish. My dad and I have both had wool coats made. Supposedly they're cashmere, but I don't know. They are soft though.

This was one of the large hypermarkets in Shanghai on new years eve. It was crazy busy.


I love going to supermarkets when I visit foreign countries. You can go shopping at H&M, Uniqlo and benetton in different countries, and they'll all have the same stuff. But supermarkets are always different and full of cool stuff, especially here.
The rest of these are from Carrefour, another very large (french) supermarket chain. There's a much larger selection of produce than back home, even compared to Whole Foods. And most of it is fresher because a lot of it is grown locally. Not to mention a surprisingly large selection of organic produce.



This is the fresh noodle and steam bun station. Yummy!

Lazy Blogger

I've been a lazy blogger...my first week here involved a few days of traveling, and my parents were moving to a different apartment, so internet access has been spotty. My brother left yesterday to spend New Years Eve in Paris before flying home. Check out the view from the new place! It is amazing!!