China Part 3: Air Conditioning, Scooters, Rooftops, and Curtain Buttons

I present you with the final installation of my thrilling account of our adventure in China. You are on the edge of your computer chairs, right? (If you missed Part 1 or Part 2 check 'em out)

August 1.
August began quite unceremoniously with both Amy and I feeling quite under the weather.  The combination of the brutal heat and a congested head/chest (I guess I even snored, which I never do...sorry David and Will! haha) left us both functional but slightly zombie-like.  Our day, like most of the days we spent in Shanghai, was relaxed and meandering.  First stop was Tian Zi Fang art street - which is a mini Venice-like maze of narrow streets filled with artsy, eclectic shops and restaurants. Not in the best shopping mood, we stumbled upon a great find - a legit spa that was having a special on massages.  What sounds better to sweating, sick foreigners than a relaxing, air conditioned, hour long massage for less than $30 USD? you're right - nothing.  Rejuvenated, we bought tickets for that evening to see an acrobatic show that Shanghai is known for.  The afternoon was spent poking in and out of shops (mostly in, to stay in the a/c) with a great dinner at a cafe before going to the acrobatic show.  The show was pretty good - not particularly life changing, but it was still so impressive to see what people can do with their bodies!

Before the show

August 2.
Attempting to find Yu Garden, we failed but came across this beautiful park which took us right downtown next to People's Square yet again.

Another blistering day, we were desperate for a respite from the heat (notice a pattern?) and ducked into this museum - the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center. While it's about as exciting as it sounds, it did have a few interesting exhibits - pictures of the city comparing the past to now, a whole rendering of the city, half a fake boat to drive on a screen (not surprisingly, I loved this, but we were lost at sea), and a soaring-over-Shanghai type of video in a room where the screens surrounded you (also not surprisingly, this made me begin to feel motion sick within a minute so I left the room.)

rendering of Shanghai

Post exciting exhibition, we grabbed some lunch and eventually headed back to the apartment.  We had dinner plans with our wonderful hosts that night, and were meeting one of the guys, Will, near his work pre-dinner, so we went back to shower and get ready for the evening.  He works on the other side of the Bund right near Pearl Tower, so we met him and went up to the top of the Ritz-Carlton to a bar called Flare.  It was a gorgeous view of the city and our timing was perfect - we were able to see the view in daylight and then as the sun set, saw the lights began to turn on throughout the city.  Shanghai has such a beautiful skyline - I've never been much of a city girl and never really appreciated a city skyline until Shanghai!

Sadly, this is the only picture of the night!

The three of us took the subway back to their apartment to meet David and go to a late dinner.  At some point Will mentioned that they had planned on taking us on their scooters to dinner.  I'm pretty sure my eyes popped out of my head.  I've told a few friends that it was on my bucket list to ride on a scooter in Asia....and this was a perfect opportunity!!  I really wish we had taken more pictures that evening - we were just having too much fun and to be honest, pretty sick of whipping out our cameras all the time.  Riding on a scooter was just as much fun as you might imagine.  It's waaaaay different to ride on a scooter in Asia than in the US.  Scooters here seem to be part car, part bike, and part pedestrian. In other words, they follow very few rules.  One moment you will be driving on the sidewalk and the next zooming across an intersection with the cars.  Don't you worry, they were both very good drivers and I only felt nervous a few times. 

Dinner was spent at a Yannan Restaurant, which we learned was a region in China - each region has a different type of food their known for, and Yannan was delicious if the food we had that night was a fair representation. I really enjoyed getting to spend time with the two of them and not just feel like I was taking over a stranger's couch.  I hope that they felt as appreciated as we felt towards them for their hospitality and generosity!

August 3.
With the guys kind enough to let us leave majority of our stuff at their place, we packed a small backpack and took off for Hangzhou - a smaller, beautiful town with a huge lake.  For having such an easy trip so far, I think Hangzhou was the only time we hit a few snags, and even then, it was easy to move past them.  Narrowly missing our train there - we had to run to catch it and the doors closed probably a minute after we stepped on, we then had to get from the train station to West Lake area where our hostel (which Will had so kindly set up for us) was located.

However, all we had was a phonetic writing of how to get there in Chinese, and even when a young man helped us and explained to a cab driver in Chinese where we wanted to go, it was a stressful cab ride.  The cab driver was angry, rude, and made it the worst cab ride I've ever experienced.  We arrived in one piece, bade him farewell (hopefully for life) and then by process of elimination as we walked around the lake, found we had been dropped off a 20 minute sweltering walk from where we needed to be.  Oh well, it was gorgeous, who can't deal with a little sweat, and we were still in China, for crying out loud!  Our hostel turned out to be perfect for what we needed and we lucked out and got a private room because someone had just cancelled.  After cooling off for a bit, we spent the rest of the day checking out the area around the lake - a huge pagoda, little shops, and that evening, had a great dinner and enjoyed the lights while walking around the lake.

The pagoda we went to the top of

sweaty, but happy!

people lighting incense for Buddha

In the pagoda gardens

It was hazy, but views of the city from the top of the pagoda.

Our quaint, little hostel.

courtyard at the hostel

 I think it was good for us to get out of the city and just take a night to relax and enjoy the natural beauty of China.  It also brought us back to reality that we were in a country where English isn't the primary language and we were guests there (as we are guests in Korea...it's easy to forget that when in cities like Seoul or Shanghai where so many speak English!)

August 4.
In the mid-morning, we caught a train back to Shanghai and because we're silly and still haven't learned to bring umbrellas, were promptly caught in a downpour.  We left the subway near the apartment and were instantly thoroughly soaked.  Most people were smart and of course had umbrellas, so we were quite the sight.  At one point we were running across a street (the man was green for us to go, I promise!) but because we were in China and driving basically just has suggestions, not laws, we saw a huge truck turning toward us.  Amy and I both shriek, I just run faster (but am in slippery flip flops, so not that fast) and she stops in the middle of the road.  Apparently we were a hilarious spectacle and a Chinese family was cracking up at us as we [narrowly] safely make it across the street. 



Still soaked, we met a friend of a friend of Will's (Shanghai was all about making friends through connections) who was visiting Shanghai and had lunch with her - Cassandra.  She was really sweet and we had Shabu-Shabu for lunch - actually originally a Japanese cuisine, it is now popular around Asia (I had unknowingly had Shabu Shabu that time I went with the teachers and had the whole mini octopus).  It's hot pot, where they give you broth on a burner and you order what veggies, thinly sliced meat, etc. you want and you just keep adding and eating.  It's inexpensive, healthy, and delicious!

 Cassandra was meeting her friends after lunch, so Amy and I went on a quest for Yu Garden once again.  On the way, we found a little gem where older Chinese women were power walking around in tiny circles in a corner park - so funny!

We also stumbled upon a street market where we saw an overweight butcher just in his underwear standing in front of piles of meat. hahaha Needless to say, we turned around and kept focused on finding Yu Garden. Yu Garden was originally built in 1559 during the Ming Dynasty by a son who was trying to impress his father, a high ranking official during that time.  It now is beautiful lit up at night and has a ton of little shops surrounding the actual garden area.

Famous storyteller

 Yu Garden finally checked off our list, we realized we were near the Bund and went for a last view of the skyline.  It was a much clearer night than the first time and was gorgeous.

The Bund.

 My stomach was not happy with my food choices that day, so we headed back to the apartment with thoughts of showering, packing to leave the next morning and sitting out on their balcony to enjoy the view of the lights.  We accomplished the first two and were heading out for the balcony and mentioned it to Will who had just come back to the apartment.  He told us to instead go up the stairs on the balcony to the rooftop and gave us a blanket to sit on.  I thought it would be like my rooftop in Korea, but no, it was literally the roof top with a flat cement area near the stairs.  The view was phenomenal.  It was a perfect way to end a wonderful week in Shanghai.

on the rooftop.

the view.

August5.

Our flight was leaving from an airport way out of town early on the 6th, so we had booked a room at a hotel out by the airport for our last night.  Agoda.com had hooked us up with a phenomenal deal at a super fancy hotel ($40 per person!) so the plan was to make our way out to our hotel, Royal International Hotel in the  Pudong Airport area in the morning and just lounge in our room. Packed up, we took one last picture of the balcony at David and Will's and then fought our way through morning rush hour on the subway with all of our bags. Not fun.

Their balcony by day.

After yet another stressful cab ride, we made it to our hotel.  I am not exaggerating when I say that it felt like we had finally made it to paradise.  This hotel was the most rewarding ending to an amazing trip.  Let's count the ways in which they proceeded to blow us away: 1. Most of the staff had fluent English 2. We barely had to touch our bags from when they left the taxi to when they made it to the room. 3. This pristine lobby greeted us:

 4. Hotel food was delicious, very reasonably priced, and the menu was in English.

Hotel Cafe (they also had a Chinese, Japanese, and Coffee/Bar)

5. The room was spacious, had a huge bathtub, TV in the bathroom so you could soak in the tub AND watch TV, regular shower (remember those are foreign to me now - I shower standing next to a sink in my apartment), wall to ceiling windows, and my two favorite things: comfy robes and buttons to close the curtains!!

After traveling for 10 nights with 4 of those spent on a couch, this was paradise.  Even the TV remote controls had leather holders.

Bathroom (don't worry, a button made a shade come down to separate it from the room)

super comfortable beds

buttons for lights, curtains, you name it!

I think you can imagine how we spent the rest of our day.... A long nap, a trip to the hot tub (which wasn't hot, so we left haha), a trip to a convenience store for snacks and ice cream, each taking a turn soaking in the tub while watching TV (Mr. Bean was the only thing showing in English! haha), then ordering room service which neither Amy or I had ever done other than on a cruise - but it was the same price as going down to the cafe! and watching Bourne Identity on TV while sitting on our beds in bathrobes eating room service pizza and salad. Are you jealous yet??

Room Service.

Ah, I could get used to this!

 Early the next morning, we took the free airport shuttle to the airport, checked-in and of course had to have one last adventure (but this was unintentional!) We had plenty of time and some money left, so we decided to look in some of the airport shops while making our way down to our gate, which was at the end of the terminal.  About 20 minutes before the plane was supposed to leave, we realize it and hurry down to the gate (I know Dad, I should know better...).  However, there was a note on our gate, Gate 23, saying it had been changed to Gate 16....which, yep, you guessed it, was at the completely other end of the terminal.  We were down to 15 minutes until take-off. Commence speed walking with random bursts of jogging which turned into a full-out run when I see the words "LAST CALL" flashing red at our gate.  Don't worry, we made it, but we were those people, you know the ones, that come flying onto the plane carrying shopping bags and you know they were just being irresponsible with time while buying unnecessary trinkets. The plane pulled away from the terminal probably minutes after we sat down.

You might call that cutting it close, but I like to see it as one last adventure in China.

Even with the minor snags of getting sick and slight, random transportation dilemmas, I couldn't have asked for more from this trip to China.  God seriously provided us with lots of laughter, amazing connections, great attitudes (and forgiving ones when they weren't so great), and chances of a lifetime.  If you would have told me 2 years ago that I would be blogging about a 12 day trip to Beijing and Shanghai, I would have said "yea right, I wish that would happen." Sometimes it's rough being this far away from home, but I thank God every single day for the travel, friendship, culture, once-in-a-lifetime experiences that living in South Korea is providing.

So to sum up my wonderful account of my trip in China, I will share a quote by a family member of mine...

Mr. Richard M. Nixon (Ex US President), visiting the Great Wall in 1972: "It sure is a great wall."

I agree, Mr. Nixon, I agree.