Egg tarts and dragon dumplings could be the new crème brulee

Food is the perfect focus for a traveller. Normally easy to access and very portable. Quality can vary widely, but that is part of what makes it interesting, and the styles and the actual things are such good mirrors for a culture. On our 2010 trip I had a wee bit of a focus on crème brulée. It was a very worthwhile and enjoyable focus and set me in good stead for restaurant experiences and memory jogging when we came home. It could be boring to repeat the focus – note I say could be, as I think it would still be a very worthwhile focus, but changing tack could also be good.

We set off to explore Shanghai. It was Saturday late morning and the streets were busy with people looking happy and relaxed. Obviously some were in working mode but many had weekend faces. We crossed the road in front of the hotel in a relaxed way as the lights indicate how many seconds you have before you have to run for it. So long as you do not have really slow people in front most roads can be crossed safely by keen kiwis even with 8 secs to go. 

As we arrived at People’s Square there was a fast food stall. I am a sucker for such things as good ones can be excellent. Just a wee snack was required and this is where the egg tart search began. 

Busy places often have very fresh food and these were gorgeous. Light, flaky, not too sweet and just over a mouthful.  There are numbers of reviews of street food in Shanghai and I am stunned that I had not explored them before we went. What was I thinking!! Lack of dedication.

Feeling slightly   recharged we could start looking at the world we were in. I heard music which seemed to be “Happy Birthday” smiled and looked round and realised it was coming from a street cleaning truck. I was confused and am still not sure if that was the actually sound I could hear but considering where I was I could believe it. We wandered into People’s Square to do some sightseeing and people watching. A large gathering of people sitting round all with umbrellas in front of them protecting their displays. A market, goody? Well it was a market but we were not the market being aimed at. It was a marriage market. Displays of eligible women and some men and their agents or mothers etc. ready to respond to   RFP’s. So many people on offer and looking at the offers and the tiredness of some of the displays possible reflected the state of the market. Not a happy state of affairs for those offering their lives.

The custard tart effect did not last long enough for our kiwi systems so we headed to somewhere close and maybe safe. Safe but horrible was the result. The place was busy, pictures of the food available looked edible and the signs said “natural ingredients”. I should have known. Janice said on our  restaurant hunt in Torla in 2010  - “never go into a place with pictures of the food --- It will not be good.”  She was right. Cheap but not cheerful and Geoff increased the lack of cheer by suggesting that the ice in my tasteless iced coffee may have more to do with natural ingredients than I would wish.

Lesson learned. You do not eat McDonalds at home so why would you go near something  even slightly similar anywhere else even if it is advertised as being a meal for 2 for Y53 including some pretty ugly tasting dumplings. I was on  a dumpling hunt and these were definitely not the prize.

 We needed City information and decided that a bus tour of the hop on hop off style would fit the bill. Sitting up high, watching the world, learning and bit and getting places. We chose the Big Bus option – partly because it was close and about to leave.  The reviews on Trip Advisor are not particularly good but we enjoyed the commentary, the buses were not overcrowded, the fresh air at the top was wonderful and the routes fitted with where we wanted to go. It would have been good to have been able to see the bus stops easily but the distance between places was not so far that we couldn’t walk if we missed one of the 30 minute passes of the buses. It was worth the Y100 each for 24 hours we paid although we did miss out on the boat ride but in hind sight we are not sad about that either.

People watching and listening is fun. At one stage on the bus we had two women in front of us. One young and beautiful and the other older and a bit more worn and weary looking. The older one was talking about her travel experiences in Copacabana in the 70’s. She had just left home in the UK and gone off travelling. She needed a break and no one would go with her so she went alone. The other woman’s response was “I am so impressed Mum, you have done so much travelling in your life.” And the questions followed – in my head as well as from the daughter. I wondered how come the daughter did not know of so much of her mother’s life as she asked where else her mother had been and why and when etc. I wanted to know more!

  Shanghai was a tidy city and aside from the happy street cleaner there were the men removing hoardings from lampposts etc. their bamboo ladders were perfect, incredibly light to move from pole to pole and pick up and carry away to the next work site.

It felt less hassled and cleaner than India but my experience of India was 20 years ago and maybe it has changed as well. Maybe the people in Shanghai or the parts we were in at least are better off than those in India.  There were still beggars on the streets and as always you ponder on what to do in these situations. I vacillate between ignoring them and giving token amounts of money, between feeling concerned for them and wondering where there minder is while still feeling concerned. On this trip there was a man with a very creative wooden leg, a person in a cart being pulled along by another person, and the old man in the wheel chair. I saw one couple, a mother and baby, and some very large sacks of stuff and initially thought they could have been country people come to the big city. I later concluded after seeing similar sacks laid out on the ground displaying a wide range of goods for sale that they may have been from the country but the sacks were not necessarily their entire worldly goods. Still felt uncomfortable for them though.  What happens to people who rely on passers- by having cash in their pockets when more and more trading is done by card? Maybe they need a specific tap and go system.

The character of any city is often reflected in its buildings and how the people in the city use these. Shanghai has a history which has been based on a lot of international trade and diplomacy. The buildings are solid and many of the older buildings have strong European influences even if a lot of the architects were Chinese.

 We travelled on the Big Bus to the French Concession and hopped off for a wander and some lunch. It has been restored and rejuvenated into a mass of small lanes and alleyways. Some were the original passages but some have been created. It is beautiful and quaint and feels European or even a bit like the Lichfield Lanes which for a short time were a feature of Christchurch.  Lovely but just a bit sterile and safe. We  found a very good wee  Vietnamese  café and ordered a drink each. Geoff a beer and I leapt at the sight of Salted lime juice on the card. The waitress assured me it would be too salty so instead I had Fresh lime juice with a small jug of sugar syrup. It was delicious and I used very little of the syrup. So many memories of exotic places and this being the only drink apart from tea which was truly refreshing and restorative. Very good when your system is feeling a wee bit nervous. Geoff enjoyed his beer just as much.



 I found the shops in the area interesting but boring at the same time. I was looking for shoes to walk in and for a bargain at the same time. No luck. I did find a number of stationary shops and one in particular had a café attached, it also had a service where you could register and they would send out cards of your choice to your specified people for important occasions. You would either think was a good idea or a way of passing on responsibility for making the effort to remember which still could be seen as a good idea.

As the day cooled people in the back streets were making the most of their domain and food was being cooked and sold and the deck chairs were coming out. The road was their back garden and it was cooler in the early evening sun.

Our Big Bus ticket included a boat trip on the Huangpu river in the evening. “Be at the quay at 6pm but it will not leave until 6.20pm”. Huh!!! We walked very fast through the back streets from the hotel to get to the place marked on the map by the very young and fast talking Big Bus official. Couldn’t stop and admire things as we had left it a bit late but arrived on the Bund at the supposed place in time. No boat so we wandered again fast, to another alternative place. Still no boat although we could see them on the water. Gave up and decided to just enjoy the evening and people and skyline watching. Thousands of people pouring onto the Bund promenade – a constant flow. The buildings are stunning – on both sides of the river as the sun sets the lights on them come on and the reflections in the water and off each other are better than some movies. It is like a coordinated colour ballet although I expect there is less coordination and more competition especially in the newer buildings. 

What was missing though was a place to sit and have a beer and watch the lights. Those places were probably there but not where we could see them and not in the outside on the walkway the way you may get them in NZ.

Stan and Fe had told us about the Garden Bridge –it is a very old Metal bridge which is used in wedding photos for thousands of Chinese couples. Probably millions when I remember how many people live here.  It is a small bridge leading between two parts of the city and is busy. A bit difficult to rush in in your full regalia but many people do it. Not like us and on the day of the wedding necessarily but it is part of creating the “Wedding book”. As we walked across the bridge there were a couple of groups standing on the sides of the bridge ready to rush to the middle for the perfect shot and posing with the river view and we passed more groups walking towards the bridge along the Bund, long dresses and veils looking slightly the worse for wear bunched up under arms as the groups marched on their mission towards the bridge. Looking busy but not necessarily romantic and happy

We headed back onto East Nanjing Road against the flow of people.  We started to  believe we were missing out on something so I asked a young couple, rationalising that young people would be more likely to speak English,  what was happening. Nothing – just the view and the lights and this happens every night!! It reminded me of when we were young and would be returning from visiting our grandparents in Sumner on a  Sunday evening. We would try to persuade Dad to drive through town so we could see the lights and the coloured fountain in Victoria Square. He preferred the fast trip down Ferry road. This Shanghai experience was similar but about 1,000000000 times bigger.

 The compromise beer and dinner was enjoyed in a café in the middle of East Nanjing road watching people and avoiding shopping and being hounded by street sellers. Toy of the night was a set of rollers with flashing lights you could out on the heels of your shoes. Geoff did buy a spinning noisy thing for Duncan!!

The dumpling hunt could wait.

We retired to the hotel to sleep but this city was not going to sleep for a long time.