Nanjing Lu

Yesterday I decided to walk the whole length of Nanjing Lu, which is the biggest shopping street in Shanghai. The west end is a large city street, with tons of designer stores. Beautiful clothes, but if I did want them I'm under the impression everything comes in a size S or XS.
The west end is a pedestrian mall, and decidedly more funky. I was accosted constantly, again with the "Hey, lady,watches, bags, t-shirts?" I pretended I didn't understand a word they said. I'm not sure what pegged me as American anyway, as opposed to, say, Swedish, since I wasn't wearing a T-shirt, baseball cap, or sneakers, which in my opinion all scream "American!". I did find a very cool arts and crafts store, where I found rice paper for a friend.
I ate lunch at a lovely restaurant at the top floor of a mall. Dim sum is such a fun way to eat, like Chunese tapas. I started with a nicely seasonee broccoli soup. second was fried wontons, which were more like potstickers to me, filled with bok choy and accompanied with a chili-garlic oil sauce. Really hot but tasty. Best of all were the fried shrimp balls, nothing like what I expected. they actually looked somewhat unappetizing. They were chopped shrimp, held together with just a little batter and very lightly cooked. The sauce looked dubious, milky and gelatinous. The whole dish looked just too white. But wow. the sauce was made from wasabi and something sweet, maybe coconut. Delicious! The little fruit plate that came at the end had a segment of orange carved like a goldfish.
Note to Toni: I untwisted the goldfish and drew a diagram. I'll show you how it was done when I get home. Too cute.
My time on Nanjing Lu was quite the exercise in crossing the street. People pretty much wait for the walk signal. The walk signal does not, however, mean traffic needs to yield, so you really have to keep your wits about you. My technique was "middle of the cluster". Even if it was only three people, I stayed in the middle, so that if a bus scraped the bunch of us, I would not be the one picked off. There are uniformed foot traffic officers, but they reminded me of hall monitors in elemtary school, because people pretty much ignored them.

Last night Jim andI went to a place famous for steamed dumplings. They're made with a paper-thin dough, and the most popular are filled with seasoned chopped pork and broth. They come to the table in a steamer basket and are extremely hot. You nibble at the dumpling a little to vent it, then put the whole thing in your mouth, where it explodes with flavor. Jim ordered steamed buns filled with sweet red bean paste to end the meal, just to try the most traditional dessert. The dough reminded me of unbaked bread dough and the filling was unimpressive. I can say I tried them. The buns are about four inches in diameter. BecauseI'm so inept with chopsticks, I lost my hold on mine and it fell to the table and rolled across. Nice.

Every day so far has been cold, windy and rainy, and that's mostly why photos have been scarce. The weather in Hong Kong looks nice, and we leave for there tomorrow morning, returning Sunday night. We're not taking a laptop, so I'll get caught up Monday.

Ways to Get Around Shanghai

Jim has a driver, whose English name is Jack. He speaks very little English, but we manage. His job is basically to drive Jim or me wherever we want and wait for us. He drives a Honda Oddysey, which is comfortable and safe. That's important because traffic in Shanghai is INSANE.
I remember as a child seeing photos of China and throngs of people on bicycles. There are still a lot of bikes, but in the past 16 years private citizens have been allowed to own cars. That means the crowded roads are full of people with 16 or fewer years of experience behind the wheel. Drivers seem to have an intolerance for any uncovered pavement. It's normal for 4 cars to be squished into 3 lanes, and there is a constant jostling. It would all move more smoothly if everyone was content to stay in their lane and go forward, but no. Add to that all sort of contraptions along the sides of the road -bikes, electric bikes, scooters, small motorcycles, and a certain kind of bicycle I don't know how to name. It's 3-wheeled with a bed on the back, oftentimes loaded to defy physics. Sometimes it has a plastic tent to act as a rickshaw. i've seen it rigged with some kind of benches to hold 4 people, enclosed with plywood and plastic. I thought it was homemade, but then I saw a few others. I guess they could be the product of one entrepreneur. I still haven't figured out the rules at intersections. Everyone, on/in whatever vehicle seem to just turn in front of each other with no regard to safety. This morning I rode to Cooper Tire with Jim and people were running across the road near the plant amidst the crazy traffic. Even though no one was actually bouncing off one another it reminded me of Brownian motion. I'm grateful that Jack has excellent reaction time and chutzpah.
I don't like the idea of being so dependent on Jack. I have a card on me with the address of Jim's apartment, so I could get a taxi if I had to. Buses look too grimy for me. I think I'll eventually get comfortable with the subway system. In the meantime Jack has instructions from Jim not to lose me.

My New Coat

Pix aren't compressed. Sorry if it took forever to download. Jim and I will get this figured out. The photos are from the Shanghai Museum, which is full of antiquities, and this being China, I mean antiquities. The sign isn't easily read, but it's an example of Chinglish. I'll be finding much more amusing examples.

You can see a little of the Shanghai skyline in the background. As big cities go, Shanghai is pretty interesting architecturally, not just a bunch of big boxy steel and glass buildings. There is a ton of new construction going on, in particular because the World Expo will be here in '10. A lot of the pollution isn't industrial, it's construction dust. Rubble from demolished buildings is everywhere. Not unusual to see men hacking away at it to recover whatever metal might be inside. And they earn $1-$2/day doing that.

For lunch today we had the best Thai I've ever had. Most memorable was the "Rice Crackers with Coconut Dip." `The rice crackers were about 1/4' thick made with whole cooked rice grains and really crunchy. They sort of resembled thin Rice Krispy Treats in appearance. The Coconut Dip was pureed coconut with red curry and lime leaves. Unbelievably delicious.

This morning we went to the huge fabric market, floor after floor of stalls of peddlars selling silk, silk, and more silk, suitings , shirtings and coat fabrics. Samples hang around the periphery and are on mannequins. Alot of samples are very pretty but don't look like they'd flatter me at all. But I fell in love with a dark gray cashmere coat. After my closer inspection a tailor was summoned and lickety split he appeared. He was very thorough with his tape measure. In a week's time I will get a custom made coat that fits beautifully. Jim has gotten very nice suits, shirts, and a leather jacket made at the market. My double cashmere coat will cost $95. (Not a typo.)

I'm here

After 24 hours of travel I made it to Shanghai on schedule. I've had a hard time logging on to my blog. Jim thought it might be because of censorship, but I'm not sure. Therefore my posts may not be as regular as I had planned. No problem with e-mail, so communicate that way if you'd like.
On the way to Jim's apt. last night we had a typical Chinese driving experience. A pile of two-by-fours was in the highway, no doubt fallen off an overloaded truck "secured"with bungee cords. No hazard cones or indication of clean-up, but a trickle of lumber for about a mile.
Jim has a very spacioua and comfortable apt. in the Shanghai Racquet Club, which he inherited last summer. Soon he'll be moving to a more Chinese neighborhood. This complex is too Western for his tastes. It's full of ex-pats. We ate dinner tonight at a neighborhood hole-in-the-wall. Potstickers, eggrolls, stir-fry, etc. They didn't offer me silverware, soI did my best with chopsticks. I guess I've never gotten proficient with them because I've never had to.
earlier today we went to Pearl City shopping mall, where our favorite pearl store is, so the pearls are handled. All the proprietors have certain English phrases memorized-"Need a watch? Look at my purses". I got some good buys, but not all of my bargaining was successful. I'll have to go back...
We went to pick up groceries at Carrefour, which is French-owned Wal-Martish store. `The first time Jim andIi went into one, 2 1/2 years ago, was funny. As we were ascending the long escalator into the store, most of the heads descending out of the store turned to stare at us. It's not rude to stare in China.
The store had an impressive array of goods and was very clean and full of help. Someone pointed out the Woolite-equivalent to us. There was a case full of frozen meat parts and pieces. Just in the case with no wrapping. Just the thought of what that stuff could be exposed to-ew. One of the more interesting things was a duck carcass, all one piece, which was eviscerated and dried. It looked like as little duck suit. Not tempting to me today, but I bet it would be a good base for soup stock.
We had an excellent Indian buffet for lunch.
More later, as best I can.

So Far

So far seems an apt way to start. "So far" as in "up to now" and "so far" as in "so far" away. Jim is the Director of Asian Operations for Cooper Tire and is living in Shanghai. He left Tupelo last July 9, and so far we have rendezvoused in Cork, Ireland (an impromptu trip for me due to Mom's heart attack, Mom's fine), Alamo Car Rental at the Detroit Airport (both of us on the way to Ohio), and Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, one hour before the Bette Midler performance we had tickets for. This Thursday, the 19th, I'm on my way to Shanghai.