Shanghaied on the Mainland

Since free hotel rooms might be the greatest job perk ever invented, Patricia and I have decided to align our weekend destination travel map with the map of Shangri-La hotels. Shanghai seemed like the obvious place to kick off what promises to be a year of epic destinasians.

Shanghai, PRC: only a 3 hour flight from HK, no vacation days required to enjoy the greatness of this cosmopolitan Chinese city.

One of the first things we noticed was how large and sprawling the city feels, especially coming from HK where everything is so conveniently compact. It's so big that taxi drivers don't even know their way around, or at least that's the way it seemed after every taxi ride ended miles away from our desired destination. It's highly probably that cab drivers only speak Shanghainese - possibly one of the most jibberish-sounding languages I have ever heard. English probably would have only gotten us to the airport and back, so Patricia's savvy Mandarin skills were a life saver (outside of the taxi situation).

We explored the French Concession neighborhood which was quite charming - the Shanghainese have definitely "asianified" this once very European district, but lots of interesting culture, trendy eateries and shops, although the best find might have been the 30 cent steamed buns from the street vendors. Who knew that the Chinese [vegetarian] street food could be so exceptional, key word being vegetarian.

PK ordering our favorite tsai bao from the street vendors.... 30 cent breakfast

Avian Flu on the sidewalks of Shanghai

We battled the cold and rain to check out the historic Bund district and the up-and-coming JingAn neighborhood, dodging phlegm bullets all along the way (if this confuses you, spend an hour in China and you will understand). We finally made our way to the famous Old Town which was filled with tourists but definitely a sight worth seeing. Being self-proclaimed food snobs, we spent most of the time enjoying and critiquing the cuisine offerings - from "stinky tofu" to hak zeeh ma (black sesame) desserts, to crab ovary dumplings. We finished off the weekend with $10 massages at the Fountain Palace Relax Body Club, mmm.

Old Town

Probably one of my favorite photos from the weekend: cabbage carnage - clearly didn't make the cut for the dim sum menu

"DUMPLINGS STUFFED WITH THE OVARY AND DIGESTIVE GLANDS OF A CRAD" (yes, crad)

More so than Hong Kong, Shanghai boasts a striking contrast between old and new, third world and first world. The skyline is oversaturated with cranes - there is no end in sight to all of the development projects - and the pollution factor might be on the verge of lethal. Nevertheless, all of the hype around Shanghai is valid - it is truly a vibrant and fascinating city.

Conclusion: Although Shanghai might think she's the Queen of Asia, she still needs a few more years at charm school before she outclasses Hong Kong.