Arrived in Shanghai on Monday, March 23, and found Caitlyn’s apartment
without difficulty. It is right next to the main campus of the International School and just a few subway stops from
the Preschool-K-1 campus where she teaches.
Her apartment is a nice size and very nicely furnished. As soon as I settled in, we headed for the
Bund, the heart of the British concession in Shanghai along the Huangpu
River. It is a stunning sight – this row
of elegant Edwardian stone buildings on one side of the river and on the other,
in the Pudong district, all the brilliantly lit modern office towers that
represent the real Shanghai economy today.
There is still something lovely about the old piles of stone, however, and
the interiors of the art deco Peninsula and Peace Hotels are simply stunning.
The weather was lovely and sunny, though cold, with a breeze
that has kept the usual air pollution at bay since my arrival. After walking around a bit, Caitlyn and I had
dinner at Lost Heaven featuring Yunnan folk cuisine, which tends to be on
the spicy side. The best dish we had was
cod cooked in banana leaf – an exquisite mixture of flavors.
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| Caitlyn and her class |
On Tuesday, I had the privilege of visiting Caitlyn’s school
and participating in her first grade class room -- quite a mix of students, many of them bi-racial (e.g. Chinese and Icelandic). I left Cate after lunch and headed back to
the Bund area to wander the shopping district – a long pedestrian mall on
Nanjing Road.
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| Nanjing Road shopping |
All the major Western
brands are present in abundance, but so are Chinese department stores and,
down the side streets, it is possible to glimpse what retailing once was
like.
I also visited, on the far side of
Suzhou Creek, the Shanghai central post office, built by the British but still
in use.
For dinner, we joined several of Caitlyn’s
friends and some other visiting relatives at Pure and Whole, the
best Western style vegetarian restaurant I’ve probably ever sampled.
By my third day in Shanghai, I felt I was really getting the
hang of getting around.
I took the
subway to the People’s Square station, in which I found a little corner dedicated to images of 1930’s Shanghai, an unexpected treat.
I met with Meg and her son Jeff at the
Shanghai Museum in People’s Square, a vast expanse that houses not just
this museum but also a major concert/opera theater and several other museums as
well as City Hall.
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| Shanghai Museum |
Much of the space is
devoted to simple yet beautiful gardens that, on this sunny day, were
full of pedestrians, among them many small children, most escorted by their
grandparents.
The Shanghai Museum contains
treasures of Chinese art and artifacts – jade, furniture, ceramics, painting,
calligraphy and examples of traditional regional dress.
After a lunch of dim sum (oh, so easy to love), I made an
excursion to Xintiandi, a district that is a combination of traditional and
modern Shanghai architecture.
On one
side of the street, one finds a restaurant row, housed amid high rises and
shopping centers that might be located in any city in the world.
On the other side are the lanes that characterized
Shanghai in the early twentieth century, many in disrepair and threatened with
urban renewal, some – especially the house where the first meeting of
the Chinese Communist Party was held – beautifully preserved.
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| Lane Neighborhood, Xiantandi |
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| Dongtai Road Antiques Market |
Not far away are two extraordinary markets,
tucked off the main streets down narrow lanes – the Dongtai Road Antiques
Market and the Wanshang Bird and Flower Market, where one can find birds,
turtles, crickets, and many varieties of plants for sale.
On Thursday, Meg and I visited the old Chinese quarter and
were ‘ripped off’ in the nicest possible way.
As we stood at an intersection getting our bearings, two very nicely
dressed young people asked, in English, if they could be of help.
They said they were cousins, students from
another city, and were just on their way to a tea tasting.
Would we like to go along?
Caitlyn had warned me of this scam, but I
hadn’t the presence of mind to realize what was happening and so we fell for
it.
The result was one of the nicest
hours I’ve ever spent anywhere.
Our
‘hosts’ were utterly charming and the teas the most glorious I’ve ever tasted –
pricey to be sure, but superb.
I don’t
regret a minute of it.
We later wandered
through the old city and visited the City Temple, bustling with worshippers.
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| The Old City, Shanghai's "China Town' |
In the afternoon, Cate and I strolled through the French
Concession, with its tree-lined streets and somewhat lower density.
There are some modern high rises and shopping
malls, to be sure, but this is a much more accessible part of Shanghai and the
Fuxing Garden is one of the most beautiful public parks I’ve ever encountered.
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| Fuxing Garden |
Thank you, Caitlyn, for the extraordinary experience of sharing this wonderful city with you!!
