October 7, 2006 Shanghai

Day 2 in Shanghai, and it was quite a full day of activity. I woke up at around 9am…. Yeah, I know… early! And because of all the guilt in just eating all the time, I decided to hit the gym. I ran for about 30 minutes on the treadmill and that was enough to make me feel a little less guilty. We then met up with Lisa’s parents and went for lunch at a restaurant on Nanjing road… and had some more Shanghainese food. Lisa also ordered some snails, which were still in the shell and they sure didn’t look appetizing, but they sure tasted appetizing.

After lunch, we walked for about an hour to Yu Yuan which is a touristy part of Shanghai, populated with older character Chinese buildings.

Lisa’s parents insisted on visiting a garden there, which was very tranquil and quiet which was a nice change. After that, we ended up walking to The Bund, a shore side walk, reminiscent of false creek, just a lot busier.

By this time, it was about 5:30ish and getting dark… yeah, it gets dark really early in Shanghai. We ended up heading back to the hotel, but prior to going in, Lisa and I decided to go to a food store across from our hotel and discovered a gem. There was a stand there that was serving these deep fried dumplings. Aaaaawww man, so yummy… I have posted a couple pics here of them making it, and the final product. Yummm.. so gooooooooood.

After that, we went back to the hotel, chilled for a bit, then headed back out with Lisa’s parents for dinner. We took a cab to Xintiandi, which is the more hip/modern part of town.

X-pats are scattered all over the place, and locals are also present… just locals that are more well off. There are tones of western food restaurants such as Italian, steak houses, live music, pubs, etc. It really is a very nice part of town. There are large patios, filled with patrons, it’s quite impressive indeed. We decided to eat at another Chinese restaurant, for we were in China right? Problem was, I found this ‘higher’ class shanghainese restaurant to be disappointing. Why? Well, price for one, and secondly the food wasn’t really good. I would have had 3 yuan RMB Siao loong bao anyday of the week. After dinner, Lisa and I walked around the district a little more, and then decided to head back to the hotel. We were tired… today really was a full day.

Till tomorrow!