Kim and I arrived in Shanghai two weeks ago today.
There hasn't been a great deal of sight-seeing as we've already become immersed in orientation at school and preparing for the arrival of the students next week. However, we have been able to make a couple trips downtown, and here are some of the highlights:
Our First Meal : We took the shuttle into Gubei, which is a small town on the edge of the city. The shuttle dropped us off outside of Carrefour, which is sort of like a giant wallmart/supermarket type place, and the perfect place for the newly arrived to get some basic necessities in a familiar environment. Even though I'm not a big fan of these superstores, I have to say, that the familiarity has helped ease the culture shock. Downstairs from the store is a small shopping mall with a giant food court. Unlike American malls, the food here is amazing, very cheap, and there are a lot of choices. Many different styles of Chinese cuisine, as well as Japanese, and Thai can be found here. There's even a small Shabu Shabu restaurant in the food court! Kim and I didn't discover that on our first trip, and its not the same as our favorite place back home (we miss Minnie's Shabu Shabu in Flushing, Queens), but it hit the spot.
The Flower/Fish Market: : There are lots of these little markets all over Shanghai. This particular one had many beautiful plants and flowers as well as aquarium fish. I thought it was a bird market as well, but didn't see any birds for sale. I've been told that many people aren't buying birds because of the fear of avian flu- so either the bird sellers weren't around anymore, or we just didn't find the right alleyway. Its a big market.
The Fabric Market: Here you can see Kim haggling to have a shirt of hers copied in a nice orange fabric that she found at one of the stalls in this three story building crammed with vendors. The haggling for price is quite an interesting process here in Shanghai. This is the way it works: The vendor gives you a price, and then you raise your eyebrows and exclaim that the price is way too high. They then hand you a calculator (if you don't speak Chinese well) and you type in your own price (usually a third of half of what they offer you). They then look at the price and act like you just insulted their mother, and shake their heads vigorously. Then they type a new discounted price into the calculator. You shake your head and type in another number. They laugh and shake their heads. You start to walk out. Then they type one last price, and you agree to pay that. The idea that you are expected to argue about the price takes some getting used to- the first few days I was worried about offending them by making too low an offer, but its all part of the game.
The DVD Store: This was the first thing I thought of when I started listing the highlights, but I decided to put it a ways down so that Kim wouldn't make fun of me. Apparently I am nurturing a small addiction to a little bootleg DVD shop where you can get your movies for between one and two dollars a pop. I bought a whole bunch of DVD's on our first trip here (including a few box sets), and the store rewarded me with their gold VIP card, which apparently is supposed to take some time to earn. I'm not sure if I should feel proud or embarrassed...
The Cricket Market: We haven't quite found it yet, but I'm listing it as a highlight anyway because I'm quite excited about it. Here people raise giant crickets in tiny little cages. Some people also fight them, but it's illegal, so I doubt I'll be reporting any cricket matches anytime soon. Coloration or marks on the crickets are supposed to signify strong fighters, and different regions lay claim to crickets of varying strength and ferociousness.
Here's Kim with some friends. In front, our friend and colleague Misao who works with me in the tech department. The woman on the right, we met on the boat - coincidentally, she is moving to Astoria (!) to go to F.I.T. (Kim's Alma Matter!) next week. Small world.
Afterwards, we headed out to get a late dinner. Impressively, we managed to find the one Chinese restaurant in all of Shanghai that was out of rice. After much deliberating with the waitress and amongst ourselves, it was decided that we would go next door and get some take-out rice to bring back. I think we ended up with two confused sets of restaurants staffs, but we got to enjoy our dinner in the end.
