Sunday, May 01, 2005
It’s time to share my experiences during my Shanghai trip from 9/4/05 – 13/4/05 finally. The whole free and easy trip was planned by my eldest aunt who opted for an indirect flight to Shanghai with a stopover at HK. With my first aunt, third aunt, third aunt’s friend, my mom and myself in tow, even though it may seem like 5 days holiday, in actual fact its 3 days only.
Saturday 9/04/05
The whole day was spent traveling on Boeings, Cathy Pacific and Dragonair. Only arriving in Shanghai at around 7pm in the evening, there’s no time difference. As we were exiting from the arrival hall, there were many people leaning against the barriers flashing placards as if fans receiving their idols. Haha.. what royal treatment we received. We whizzed past and exit at door 5 which we were suppose to meet the tour guide and driver who would sent us to our hotel. After waiting for close to 45 minutes, there was still no sign of her. My third aunt went to called up and found out that she was waiting inside all along together with the others who flashed placards! We were supposed to spot her holding a misspelled company name on an A4 size paper among other eye catching placards. She was supposed to spot us with the company’s stickers and not spot her mah…Anyway, in terms of service minus marks le. Rested for night doing nothing but tv.
Sunday 10/04/05
Arise for breakfast in Xin Kai Fu Hotel. The breakfast was horrible and its considered a 3 star hotel. Porridge was not in a pot but in a metal basin that looks as if it’s a basin for washing feet in the olden days…=.=’ It’s ok, upon tasting the porridge, its tasteless. Other food I tried was fried kway tiao and rice, taste was ok but the kway tiao was like drenched in oil. Tea that tasted like plain water and orange juice that’s warm. I guess the only edible were toasted bread and orange.
After the horrid breakfast, we met my third aunt’s colleague’s friend, a Shanghainese who brought us to the Shanghai Pearl TV Tower. We became tourists taking photos outside without setting foot inside. We did some supermarket shopping which delight my aunts and mom. Picking out longans, apples and oranges.
We were brought to Bi Feng Tang located at Nanjing Xilu, which served cheap dim sum for Y13 to Y25. There was an air-conditioned restaurant and walkway full of bamboo like cubicles outside the restaurant. We were lead to a table outside. It has a nice ambience as each table has a overhead umbrella and every two tables its surrounded by bamboo to construct a cubicle, giving some privacy. We ordered xiao long bao, shrimp dumpling, kalian, peking duck, wanton, egg tarts, century egg porridge and doubled boiled soup. The xiao long bao was steaming hot that tasted soupy and sweet. The shrimp dumplings were generously wrapped with 2 to 3 fresh and tasty prawns. The kalian came with no leaves but stems with oyster sauce that crunch between our teeth. Amazing…The peking duck together with the sweet and sour plum sauce was heavenly. The juices from the crispy duck complement well with the plum sauce when biting…hmm…even though is oily. I can bet there isn’t such quality duck like this back home. The egg tarts were warm when served and it’s the best time to munch on them. The pastry was soft and light which seem to melt in the mouth. The century egg porridge was far cry from the one served in our hotel. This porridge was thick and smooth with visible century egg. Cantonese who loves soup, the double boiled soup was a bliss which contains pork, chestnuts, carrots and sugarcane.
After this sumptuous lunch, we proceeded to Xiangyang Market with many stalls of fakes goods. I managed to buy a pair of fake Puma shoes for Y90 down from Y230 but to my disappointment when I wore it back home, the shoes gave me cuts. I chanced upon a glass globe and immediately love it. From www.wofs.com, a crystal globe can energize the study table for better study luck. I know glass and crystal is a bit far, but can’t be help mah…poor. Always offer 1/3 of the quoted price when purchasing and firm with the bargaining or else became carrot heads that easily get chop. As women, who don’t carry handbags so its natural we would go into shops that sell fake branded handbags. While shopping, there was always someone occasionally who would approach us whether we want to buy handbags. We were taken to a back lane just across the road into a 3-4 storey shop-house. The way it operates resembles the ones in HK. From what my aunt observed, the goods in the shop house were not super grade as the surfaces of the bags and zips weren’t smooth. We were led to another shop house where we had to walk into a legitimate shop selling Hello Kitty products and climb up to another storey! The best place we found was a shop in Xiang Yang market. We spent up to 45 minutes bargaining for a Prada A4 size bag from a price of Y350 to Y100. That was an incredible feat! Dinner was at Ding Tai Feng again.
Monday 11/04/05
This morning we strolled along Nanjing Lu and managed to buy a dizi, a bamboo flute. Hopefully in time to come I can learn this instrument too. We past by shops and when I caught sight of a cd store, I was elated because I can start buying animes, dvds and cds. I happen to see the entire set of 棋灵王 and was tempted to buy but restrained as I thought I might need some cash for other stuff. Somehow I regretted my decision later..zz..I tried looking for the shop but to no avail, I guess if it’s not meant to be yours then it’s not yours…Before we reached the centre shopping action, my mother had stomach upset and had to be coop in the hotel for the entire afternoon. My third aunt bought lunch for us from Nanjing Hotel which consisted of peking duck and two vegetables. Ahh..peking duck is always excellent in China. It’s a must try when anyone visits.
Time flies quickly and it’s dinner time. Now it was my third aunt’s turn to meet up a colleague she hasn’t met for at least 5 years. She brought us to a up market restaurant in the CBD of Shanghai.
新吉士酒楼 served Shanghainese food which usually consists of sweet and salty food. There were dishes like salty chicken, red dates with glutinous rice filling, Chinese white cabbage (xiao bai cai), shanghai seasonal vegetables, fish soup, braised pork, xiao long bao and a dish with scrambled egg, crabs and sea cucumber. The taste was much mild than the dim sum served in Ding Tai Feng except for the fish soup. It was not surprised that we went to Ding Tai Feng at least 3 times during our trip there.
Tuesday 12/04/05
Half a day was reserved for the city tour arranged by the tour company. First stop was at 城隍庙, that’s where the streets of old Shanghai look like. The architecture of the buildings was old as they have pagoda like roofs and pillars. It was completely different sight from the modern buildings of Shanghai. This place had been turned into a tourist attraction which featured shops selling trinkets, food and collectibles for tourists to purchase and have a piece of Shanghai. One can lost in this huge shopping area and always take note of significant shops as the buildings look identical. As we had a time frame to adhere to, we quickly browse through the shops and end up eating in a food court. As Singaporeans, how can we miss out on food. It was selling all kinds of dim sum which were displayed on the counters for customers to pick and pay at the cashier. Among the items like vegetable dumplings, glutinous rice wrapped in crispy bean curd skin and Buddha Jump Over the Wall. It was the latter that was the best. With just 30 minutes left before gathering, we managed to browse at a boutique, Ichiban (shop selling sweets, chocholates etc) and a shop selling silk scarfs and cashmeres. I got myself cashmere to cover my precious guzheng! I was little sad that we had to leave so quickly as there was much to do here.
Next up, we were led into a lift in one of the buildings. I thought we were lead into restaurant for lunch but I was so wrong. The lift door opened from the other side and what we saw were rows and rows of showcases of jade! But green jade don’t really interest me maybe the one Chixue dangles her blood red jade on her waist, I’m interested…ha….ok jokes aside. Of course whenever one is lead into a jewelry shop, the shop assistants would probably be busy explaining and showcasing the jade when you look interested, right? But no leh…they led us to an oblong shaped table with chairs around just like what u will see in a meeting room. We were invited to seat and served with hot tea. Just nice, 1 side of the table was occupied with a group of Taiwanese uncles and aunties and the other side was occupied with Singaporeans. After roughly about 10 minutes, a smartly dressed man who introduced himself as the boss’s son came and sat at the “director’s seat”. He introduced himself and explained briefly about the beginnings of this company and his qualifications. According to him, his father was a geologist who knew about rocks. He bidded for a rock that he believed at that time, it contained untapped jade. He bought it and made a fortune after discovering first grade jade inside this insignificant rock. That was how the company was formed. Then he proceeded to talk about his life, he narrated so convincingly that the Taiwanese were so absorbed in whatever he had to say. He explained why he had a Taiwanese accent because after studying in a top Chinese university, he went to Taiwan for a few years and stayed there. This sort of created familiarity with the Taiwanese. As they were so fully absorbed, he turned to us Singaporeans and proceeded to say that he was a Chinese lecturer in NUS before. Wah lah..as if for real. My aunt whispered to me that if we were to ask him who was the dean of NUS, I guessed he wouldn’t be able to answer, I thought as I sniggered. We can observed that he targeted the Taiwanese and engaging them because every lady wore a jade bangle and we Singaporeans wore no such jewelry. After all the bonding and building of 关系, his staff brought out a few jade pieces and placed them in front of the boss’s son. Then he mentioned some myths of differentiating fake jade, he highlighted that it was believed that when a hair was wound around the jade and a fire was used to burn the hair and the jade. If the jade still remained unharmed after the hair was burnt, it was real. He refuted this claim because jade or glass it would still be the same. Another myth he mentioned was by looking at the jade through the light, if the jade was clear and greenish, it was real. He refuted this claim and told us that with such technology advances in this era, the colour of the jade can be injected into a glass. Finally another myth was by listening to the sound of the jade, he said that even experts could be fooled by it. After listening to interesting insight, he continued his two cents worth of expertise that the best and the worst jade were from Taiwan. After that, he make it a point to mentioned that the jade pieces were high quality jade and they can put down 10 thousand doubts about it. Wah..such a round about approach at complimenting their jade.. When someone asked whether how do we know if the jade they sold were real, he gave an vague answer leaving us to guess which was, “If u appreciate the jade, no matter how high the price quoted you would still be interested.” That leaves us guessing…Then during his explanation, he pointed to a jade necklace quite often that this ancient jade he was wearing can help in overall health and is a good investment. When jade is worn for a long time, the value of jade appreciates and don’t depreciates. He even emphasized that how high the price he wouldn’t even sell this but because the Taiwanese people look so interested, he immediately added another sentence that since you are my friends I don’t mind letting go of this jade necklace at a good price. Then he introduced another ancient jade bangle which a Taiwanese lady was so memorized by it that the boss’s son told her to give it a try. After all the “bulls*******”, Singaporeans side were bored stiff and we left to browse at the showcases. When we came back, the lady who tried the ancient jade bungle, was signing for credit card purchase. As well for another Taiwanese man who bought that jade necklace that was worn earlier by that boss’s son. After talking to the Taiwanese lady, we found out that at first the price was Y40,000 but she paid for Y4,000. The price “deflated” so much….wah…Before leaving, there was a “quarrel” between the boss’s son and a shop assistant. The latter explained to the lady that the price was the lowest and no further discounts and added that it should be more than Y4,000 and not Y4,000. Then the boss’s son came into the picture and scolded that shop assistant to get out of the way and say the price is fixed as his agreed price. Then he smiled at that Taiwanese lady and escorted us to the elevator. Such drama at that time with such convincing acting sia, the whole episode was to let that Taiwanese lady happy that she got such a good deal lah…This trip to the jade factory was entertaining and funny but wasted so much time, I’ll rather go shopping downstairs at Cheng Huang Miao.
We had a quick lunch and proceeded with the second half of the city day tour. We visited Soong Chi Ling’s former residence and its this place she entertained famous guests like Mao Zedong, Russian President etc. Upon entering, we had to wear plastic shoe cover similar to the ones in a pharmaceutical company. The building is protected and we were allowed 10 minutes inside. Of course we did what tourists do, take pictures. Following that, we went to Xiangyang Market seeking for more bargains. More handbags at Y100 after 1h bargaining.
From then, its our own programme. We proceeded to Nanking Hotel for a sumptuous dinner. Wah..its one of the most satisfactory dinner. We were served by that same lady who was so kind that help my aunt just yesterday afternoon. Omelette, peking duck with plum sauce, glassy prawns with asparagus, seasonal vegetables, steamed tofu mixed with egg etc. The waitress was quite young and her service was quite good yesterday as well as today and my aunt graciously tipped her secretly half a month’s salary! According to my aunt, their monthly salary was Y70. In all we spend close to In all we spend close to Y200 and it works out to S$40 with five people eating. That’s quite affordable for us but not to locals. After the heavy dinner, we went to the Bund to view the illuminated colonial buildings as well as gazed at the Oriental Pearl TV Tower on the other side of the bank of Huang Pu. It’s a spectacular sight! Crowds are always in sight with their picturesque smile upon the background. Street hawkers all ready armed with their Polaroid cameras flashing in your face. Peddlers selling plastic figures of Oriental Pearl TV Tower or glass souvenirs, plagued the whole area eager to strike up a deal especially foreigners. During the hour long or so admiring the scenery, interesting sights can be observed. Especially those peddlers, they quickly hide all their goods and siam to somewhere to blend with the crowd when ever a police officer walks by. Within seconds, they reappear again and continue business. There was this man who was selling a “dancing doll”, he sat down with his knees facing up and his feet on the ground, his right hand in between his legs and left hand covering his right hand. Then the doll stands and starts moving and dancing on his far left. Curious people came forward and have a closer look but ended leaving without buying. Its nothing special about it, its just controlling the string which is attached to the doll with the right hand. Other peddlers selling “lightable” plastic cups and “lightable” rubber porcupine keychains etc. The day to travel back to Singapore nears after tonight.
Wednesday 13/04/05
Back on Dragonair and Cathy Pacific to reach Singapore at 12mn. Home sweet home.
Dreams never come true
12:52 am
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