Shanghai Day 2
After getting my ticket to ride,
took the metro to a station close to the French Concession which does meet
expectations in being a low rise oasis among the taller buildings occupying
most of the city. And, yes, it does have some interesting early 20th century
French architecture but nothing you would give a second glance to in France . The
downside is that almost all the shops
are devoted to women's fashion. Since, like most men, I don't pretend to
understand the obsession of most young women with clothes and fashion, this
left me rather cold. Although it was fun to see the clothes arriving at expensive
looking, chic boutiques, baled up in plastic sheeting like yesterday's
newspapers, and the expensively attired boutique owners and their assistants
hacking them open with box cutter knives. On the plus side, I found Para 's
coffee which did me an excellent sandwich, an iced coffee, and provided a comfy
chair to relax and use their WiFi. All with very pleasant and friendly service.
Later on came to an area with
several restaurants and decided to come back for dinner in the evening.
Isn't it amazing how you can look
at an area in the afternoon and see that it has loads of restaurants but when
you come back in the evening specifically intending to eat, the options become
vanishingly small? Do I really want to eat expensive Italian or French food in Shanghai ? Yes, the wine
bar tries very hard to be "authentic" but it never will be and I
didn't come to Shanghai
to eat at an extortionately expensive American style steakhouse with a load of
expat bankers. So I end up in Tsui Wah, a no frills, chain restaurant catering
mainly to young couples and groups. The sizzling prawns with fried noodles are
certainly sizzling, almost jumping off the plate, and the lime sherbet is very
refreshing. Not such a bad choice.
Dr Beer looked a great place for
a drink at lunchtime, and I am sure it is since it is packed solid but I don't
fancy being a beer drinking sardine so get the metro back to the hotel.
While looking round Shanghai came across some interesting signs:
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| Got the right idea about small children |
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| Until now the idea had never crossed my mind |
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| Got this one right. But it makes you realise how illogical English is. Child minders "mind" children. Why do we need to "mind" the gap? |
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| Wish I'd learnt Chinese |
Yes, I agree that the areas with all of the nice restaurants turns into just one or two places with barely acceptable menus by the time I return at 8pm. This happened numerous times during The Great Meander. Eventually I started looking at the menus in detail when I passed earlier in the day and then I would stick a small round red sticker onto my street plan for any where I would definitely find something tempting to eat. Stickers of other colours identified the post office, ATMs belonging to my bank, internet cafes, museums, and so on. It was a much better system than just asking at the tourist office where they usually wrote a big "X" against each place whose location I requested - meaning that I emerged from the tourist office with a map covered in blue kisses but no idea what each one represented.
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