As you will know if you read my last blog post, I have been on holiday to China (hence the lack of blog posts for the last few weeks). This was a holiday that we were looking forward to for such a long time, so its nice to finally be able to write about it! The reason we were going to Shanghai was for our friends wedding, which was very very exciting. We thought we would make the most of the trip and travel to Beijing for a few days after our time in Shanghai. We flew to Shanghai and spent four days there, before getting the train to Beijing for another four days. As there is quite a lot to talk about, I have split it into two blog posts. This one will cover Shanghai and next week will be all about Beijing. Here is what I got up to……….
Tianzifang Market and Local Food
We arrived in Shanghai around lunch time and after some bank card drama at the airport (more on this later), and a long taxi journey, we arrived at our hotel around 3pm. We were travelling with a group of friends who were coming from different countries, so everyone ended up arriving at the hotel at different times. As this was the first evening in the city and everyone was pretty tired after flying overnight, we just wanted to take it easy and have a pretty chilled out evening. One of our friends knew somebody who lives in Shanghai, so with the welcome help of her local knowledge we ended up sampling some local food and taking a stroll around Tianzifang. Tianzifang is a very interesting market style area in the French Concession part of Shanghai. The area is famous for traditional residential buildings which have been renovated to boutique shops, bars, restaurants, trendy art studios, craft stores and narrow alleys while preserving the local shikumen architecture.
The renovation has been very cleverly and tastefully done. Whilst the area has a market feel and the narrow streets consist of buildings of different shapes and sizes (some of which are in very bad condition with electric cables exposed all along the streets), a lot of effort has gone into making it look very attractive. There was beautiful planting EVERYWHERE. Some of it was real and some of it not so real lol, but nonetheless it made the place look very pretty, and gave it a calming feel. You could pretty much buy (and eat) anything here. From ice-cream stalls to perfume shops, they had it all. Despite most of the shops appearing very rough and ready from the outside, there was the odd boutique shop dotted around the streets and they were beautiful.
The layout of Tianzifang is also very interesting. Historically, the development of the area grew from the inside of the block outward, and as a result it is almost hidden from neighbouring streets. From the outside, you would have no idea what exists inside and I think this adds to the very modest feel of the area.
My favourite finds were the Teahouse and this very cute perfume shop called One Scent One Chance. I am a real tea-aholic (like most Irish people). I love tea of all kinds so when I came across the Teahouse, who were selling every single flavour of tea imaginable, I just had to go in. This was one of the prettiest shops I have ever seen and to make it even better, all of their tea was sold in the cutest little tins, and they were ridiculously cheap…….so of course I stocked up! I think I will use some of the tins to plant little cacti and succulents in once the tea is gone ?.
The perfume shop was also absolutely beautiful. They had the most gorgeous smelling perfumes in very organic and natural scents. I got the Magnolia Bamboo Eau De Toilette and its smells sooooo good. The packaging of this perfume was also stunning. It came in a glass bottle with a pretty gold lid. It is very simple but classic, and came in a box which was wrapped beautifully.
This shop also sold gorgeous room diffusers and scented oil. I bought the lemon oil and the wood scented oil. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the wood scented oil (well I thought it might smell like wood lol) but it smells EXACTLY like the Terre D’Hermes fragrance by Hermes which Dan wears and I absolutely love! Why wouldn’t I want my home to smell like that too…… so needless to say it went straight into my shopping bag! Because I bought two oils I got the diffuser and sticks for free, which was a lovely surprise.
All of the products in this store felt very luxurious, but they were so so inexpensive. This was definitely my best find of the holiday! I would go back to Shanghai for this shop alone!
Yu Garden
The following day (our first full day in Shanghai) we headed to Yu Garden. This is a huge Chinese Garden located in the old city of Shanghai that was built during the Ming Dynasty in 1559. The garden covers an area of five acres and is divided into 6 main areas (Sansui Hall, Wanhua Chamber, Dianchun Hall, Huijing Hall, Yuhua Hall and Inner Garden). The Garden was the largest and most prestigious of its era. The six areas are separated by what are called “dragon walls”. Most of the buildings in Yu Gardens were built over large ponds and lakes, which made it really beautiful. This part of Shanghai felt like traditional China, with the area full of market stalls and buildings hosting traditional Chinese tea ceremonies. It was like a little world of its own just off the beaten track.
M on the Bund – Afternoon Tea
As it was our friend’s birthday on this day, we celebrated by having afternoon tea at a restaurant called M on the Bund. As the name suggests, the restaurant was located along the Bund (on the 7th floor of the Nissin Shipping Building). From here we had great views of Shanghai’s very impressive skyline in daylight as the weather was just perfect for sitting outside. The afternoon tea was very tasty too with some extremely buttery pastry!!
Wedding
The next day was the main event – THE WEDDING! I have never been to a Chinese wedding before, so I had absolutely no idea what to expect, but it certainly didn’t disappoint!! There were bow and arrows (which signify good luck in the future), a tea ceremony (where the bride and groom served their parents tea), cartoon horse racing competitions and prizes, fireworks and lots of dancing! The wedding was held at a beautiful venue along the Bund (Shanghai’s waterfront) which meant we got to experience the Shanghai skyline through the day and night this time. It was absolutely beautiful. An amazing experience and a highly entertaining day – just look at this view!
People’s Park
Needless to say, the day following the wedding we were not feeling up to doing very much. After a slow morning, we took a nice long walk along the Bund and up towards People’s Park. People’s park is built on the grounds of the former Shanghai Race Club. It was the leading horse racing track in East Asia, where the Chinese and British gathered to gamble on horse racing. These days the Park is famous for its reputation as a ‘Marriage Market’. Every Saturday and Sunday, parents with unmarried adults go to the park from noon to 5 p.m. to trade information about their children, with the hope of finding them suitable partners. Unfortunately, we were at the Park on Monday so we missed the marriage market in action, but usually the information exchanged includes age, job, income, height, personality, education, family values and Chinese zodiac sign. The information is written on pieces of paper and put on display for parents to read…… so interesting.
People’s Square
That evening we had a stroll around People’s Square. This is where Shanghai’s municipal government headquarters building is located. The square had impressive planting, greenery and buildings which made for a very pleasant evening walk (despite the drizzly rain!).
Xitang Water Town
The next day we ventured to the ancient water town of Xitang. To get there we spent about an hour on the world’s hottest bus! However, it was worth every minute of the journey. Xitang is absolutely incredible. It is one of the most interesting places I have ever visited. It is an ancient town which contains well-preserved groups of buildings of the Ming Dynasty. The town is divided by nine rivers so there are eight parts to the area. The different parts of the town are joined by beautiful stone bridges of all different shapes and styles (104 to be precise) and have pretty cobbled streets and narrow lanes. The town is famous for its large number of covered corridors, lanes and bridges. The whole covered corridor is more than 1km long, making it the most well known feature of the town and the main tourist attraction. The covered corridor stretches along the riverside providing shelter from the sun (and rain) for tourist and residents to walk the length of the town.
Many of the buildings in the town are built along the canal, and the town still contains lots of old residential buildings and temples. The rest of the buildings are used for day to day market trading. We saw some very interesting sights as we walked through the lanes of the town, including a man making a huge pot of chilli whilst smoking a cigarette (lol), fried scorpions and all kinds of bugs on sticks, chicken feet (yum) and groups of young local people singing songs while sitting at restaurants having their lunch. This place had such a lovely calming and relaxing feel about it and we found ourselves strolling for miles through the covered walkways along the canal watching boats pass by. Xitang felt so far removed from the hustle and bustle of Shanghai. There was something different to see on every lane and over every bridge. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who plans to visit Shanghai.
My Bank Card Crisis
Funny side note to this day……I mentioned earlier that we had some bank card trouble at the airport when we arrived in Shanghai…… well basically, the HSBC ATM swallowed my card. After numerous (very painful) phone calls, I was informed that my bank card would be available for collection at the HSBC Shanghai Headquarters on this day (after 3pm but before 5pm…… very helpful). Time was slipping away as we perused the various streets and lanes of Xitang, and we realised that we didn’t have a lot of time left to get back to Shanghai central before the bank closed. We jumped on the hot bus again lol, and we were hitting Shanghai at rush hour (which we had not factored into our timeframe). Time was ticking by and it became clear that we may not make it to the bank before it closed at 5pm. The bus finally stopped and we then had to head to the metro station and change stops twice to get to where I needed to go. We were approaching our stop at literally 4:58pm. When the train stopped we raced out of the station (not entirely sure where we were going – following google maps on our phone to help speed up the process). We finally saw the HSBC tower in the distance so Dan ran ahead (he is much faster than I am lol) while our friend and I dragged behind. When Dan was back in our sights he signalled to us that the bank was CLOSED!! There we were, at 5:02pm, huffing and puffing outside the HSBC headquarters that has the doors closed and shutters down!! DEVASTATED!! We were due to leave for Beijing the next day so this was the only time I could have gotten my card back. Feeling somewhat deflated (and out of breath!) we stumbled into the mall which was attached to the bank. At this point our friend needed to use the bathroom, so I was just hanging around outside waiting when I spotted a lady wearing an HSBC name badge. I took a chance and asked her if the bank was closed (knowing full well that it was). Once I had gotten her attention, I explained my situation to her. I was thinking to myself, “it will be a miracle if this actually works”. Next thing I know, she is escorting me through the back doors of the branch and into the ‘closed’ bank! With a confused face she asked me to take a seat while they tried to located my bank card! The bank was absolutely huge and the lady did not come back to see me for about 20 minutes. There I was sitting in the HSBC Shanghai headquarters with the shutters down and security at the door, thinking that I was never going to get my bank card back, when suddenly I was summoned to the desk where a guy was filling out a form that had my card attached to the top of it!! Wahooooooo. I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT! Thank you to the HSBC lady coming out of the bathroom in the mall – I bet you wish you had never laid eyes on me! Lol sorry!
Shanghai World Financial Centre Observatory
Once we had retrieved the bank card, we found ourselves in central Shanghai with the whole evening ahead of us, so we thought what better way to spend it then to make a visit the famous glass floored observatory of the Shanghai World Financial Centre (better known as the ‘bottle opener’)?! We hadn’t booked tickets for this or anything, and at this stage it was already close to 6pm, so we weren’t sure if we would get in. However, once we got inside the building we approached the ticket desk and there wasn’t a single other person queuing! AMAZING! We went straight up in the lift by ourselves. The observation deck (on the 100th floor) is 474 m above ground level and the views of the Shanghai Skyline from this height were incredible!! Definitely one of the best I have ever seen. We were also really lucky with the time which we arrived as we reached the top during daylight but just in perfect time to watch the sunset which was absolutely beautiful. Once it started to get dark, we took a seat at the bar and had a drink while we watched the lights on all of the buildings below come on one at a time, which looked so so cool. This was such a memorable experience. I should really thank the bank card drama for the perfect timing at which we arrived lol. I have included a few pictures below but I don’t think they even do it justice. It’s so hard to photograph through glass!
This was the building from ground level……you can see why it is also known as the bottle opener!
This is the Pearl building – The iconic building that makes the Shanghai skyline so identifiable.
In summary, I think Shanghai is a really interesting, modern and cosmopolitan city…… not the China I was expecting if i am completely honest! It genuinely exceeded my expectations and I would definitely recommend a visit.
I’d love to hear if any of you have been to Shanghai or if you plan to visit in the future.
Next week I will share the details of our time in Beijing so watch out for that too 🙂