Halloween in Shanghai

I kind of wanted to get out of the city over the weekend, but I was also a bit nervous about going somewhere by myself when I don't speak any Chinese.  I tried to make online reservations through Orbitz for a hotel in Hangzhou, which was the imperial capital during the Song Dynasty, and was visited by Marco Polo, who said it was "The City of Heaven."  But never mind, I couldn't do it, and I was super mad and frustrated.  Okay, I thought, I'll just be a tourist on Halloween in Shanghai.

My first order of business was to get a real American breakfast.  I do enjoy the breakfasts here, with their sticky rice "hash browns" and porridge made of rice, and hot soymilk and other stuff that I don't really know how to handle (like this morning they had some corn on the cob for breakfast, and also some pieces of tofu that seemed to have been soaked in grain alcohol, to put on your porridge -I gave those a pass).  I just needed some American stuff, okay?  I know I have only been here a week, but enough is enough.  So I took the metro up to this really ritzy hotel called the Puli hotel in the Jiang'an area.  I walked through the park there, watching the old people doing tai chi, and finally arrived at the most elegant, bamboo-screened, Conde Nast Traveler hotel where I ate eggs Benedict with smoked salmon, some fresh fruit, some toast with butter...aaah.  That will hold me over for a while.

Next, I decided to head over to the People's Square, which is the heart of the city, sort of the Central Park of Shanghai.  It was full of people, and not a lot of places to sit down, so that was sort of disappointing.  I did see an amazing sight, however:  hundreds (and I mean HUNDREDS) of middle aged parents with signs describing their kids, looking for boyfriends and girlfriends for them.  These "kids" seemed to have birthdays from around 1977 to around 1989, so they weren't youngsters - I guess they are past the point where the parents think they'll be able to find someone on their own.  I asked Sharron about it and she said that many younger people are so isolated, just going to work and going home, watching TV and so forth, that they aren't making friends or getting romantically involved.  So the parents take it upon themselves to be matchmakers.  I guess they don't have internet dating in China?  Anyway, the parents set up shop here and then stroll around looking at each other's signs and gossiping.  When they find someone they are interested in (or they think would be a good match for their kid) they write down the number and give them a call.  Are the kids on board with this?  Not really, apparently.  They don't appreciate their parents interference, and the success rate is "quite low," according to Sharron.  But I guess that doesn't deter them - or they just don't have anything better to do.

  My next tourist destination was the famous "Yu Garden," a run-down but lovely 16th century set of gardens, pavilions, ponds and bridges.

It was pretty cool, although also super crowded.  My favorite things were the old buildings with the giant stone monoliths.  The walkways were like a maze, and I found myself going over and over the same spots again and again before I found my way out.  There were some really ancient looking sculptures that caught my eye, too, and I sort of wished I had a better guidebook to explain them.  Sometimes I try to listen in when tour guides are talking, but most of the time they don't give much information, and it was so crowded that I just looked at the sculptures and tried to appreciate them for what they looked like to me.  

I finally found the exit and found myself in the YuYuan Bazaar, which was crammed with tourists.  I walked through some of the many souvenir shops, and even haggled with a shopkeeper (with the help of Sharron on WeChat) and got a sparkly pink hair pin for three bucks.  This all made me hungry again, and I found myself at the famous Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant.  Luckily, I had my trusty Google Translator app, all pre-programmed with the question, "Do you have a menu with pictures?"  This worked really well, and I ended up with some more indescribably delicious xiaolongbao.

Fortified again, I decided to wander down some back alleyways, just browsing in little shops and watching the people.  I heard some lovely guitar music and looked over at this delightful man in a CD shop.

 From there, I found DaJing road, which is nowhere near DaJing high school, but is an old back alley leading to the only remaining section of the ancient city wall, first built maybe 1000 years ago, most of which was torn down in 1912.    It was being renovated, but for five Yuan I went in and saw some incredibly cool statues! I am pretty sure this is Guan Yu, who is a Taoist god of war. I love the way he's holding his flowing beard! It's part of the DaJing Pavilion, but I don't have any more information on him, except that he was originally an actual general during the 2nd century.  The statue looked really new, and I thought it was a fitting end to my Halloween outing in Shanghai.

The next day, I got a call from the the Ma family, parents of my old student, Steven Ma.  They live in Shanghai, and wanted to hang out.  The first time I met the Mas, they were visiting Northwest School.  My Chinese last name is also Ma, which means "horse," so I thought it would be fun to dress up in a horse costume and go meet them.  I put on the costume and galloped over to where they were sitting in Ben Lee's office, shouting, "MA!  Ma?" and neighing, while laughing hysterically.  Truly terrified, they looked around for the men with butterfly nets, while backing away slowly.  Once I took the costume off and invited them to my class, however, they enjoyed themselves.  My ESL 10th graders were having a debate about whether or not the US government should follow the recommendation of the UN special rapporteur and return the Black Hills to the Lakota.  They had never seen a class where the students were so engaged, and after that we became friends.  They picked me up Sunday morning and we went to the French Concession neighborhood.  It was raining lightly, and the streets were lovely, lined with graceful trees, making me understand why Shanghai has been called "The Paris of the East."

The lovely Katie Ma in the rain

We strolled through the streets, looking at the European-style mansions where people like Ba Jin (aka Pa Chin, author of Family and other amazing novels) lived, where Soong May-ling married Chiang Kai-shek, and where her older sister, Soong Ching-ling, lived with her husband Sun Yat-Sen, and then continued to live there as a widow for fifty years.  The Soong sisters are like no others - I personally relate to the oldest, Ai-Ling, with whom I share a Chinese name.  Soong May-ling, or Madame Chaing Kai-shek as most people know her in the US, went to Wellesley, a fact I always point out to my female Chinese students (as I encourage them to go there).  But the most beloved of the Soong sisters is no doubt the middle sister, Soong Ching-ling, who married Dr. Sun and was the only one of the sisters who stayed in China.  We got to visit her house and I learned a lot about the life of the woman I had only known as Madame Sun Yat-Sen.

Finally, I must start and end this post with food.  The Mas took me to the most amazing, spicy Szechuan restaurant known to man.  You have not had spicy until you have tasted the subtleties of these dishes.  Mmmmm!  Every one was spicy in a different way that I cannot describe and won't try or your mouth would water even more than it probably is doing already.  It was the perfect food for a rainy day, and with all the amazing experiences I had over the weekend, I didn't regret staying in town after all.  Oh, and guess what?  The Mas are going to take me to Hangzhou next weekend!  I guess the horse costume didn't put them off too much.