Days in Qingpu without seeing another foreigner: 8
Teaching days in which I have not used the school squatters: 6
I went to the “big city” this weekend (aka Pudong)! Talk about crowds and smog! While it was quite impressive and it was fantastic to see the rest of the group, it made the three of us appreciate the “rural” community of Qingpu!
We got to Pudong mid-day on Saturday. It was a two hour trek from Qingpu. We were quite the sight when we saw our first “foreigner”. We were just as excited as the locals! We took the subway straight to People’s Square, one of the main attractions in Shanghai. While I don’t think we actually saw People’s Square yet (I think it’s a big, open, cobblestoned space with a fountain), we did see a lot of People’s Park. After treating ourselves to Haagen Daz, we ventured into the park only to find ourselves surrounded by strings and strings of what looked like ads. Any desperate singles out there? Any parents reading this that want to marry off their child? Well, have I found the place for you! Every weekend, parents and grandparents flock to People’s Park to look at ads and resumes of eligible future husbands and wives. Ads line the pathways and older folk are hovered around binders of ads finding a suitor for their child or grandchild. Some even have their miserable child in tow, showing them off to possible suitors (and by child, I mean my peers). The ads are all in Chinese but I was happy to see at least SOME had pictures! The rest of the park consisted of ponds, green spaces, an art museum, men gambling around stone park tables (and they drew notable crowds), gazebos and a children’s amusement park. Oh, and like 3 Starbucks.
From the park we went to Nanjing Road, famous for its shops and malls. Highlights included a little old man in a Chinese Olympic suit on roller skates who took a liking to Alyssa (he tried to skate around pop bottles but knocked them over half of the time. Cute either way), the biggest Forever 21 you’ll ever see, a car that almost took Alyssa out (this is supposed to be a walking street), a little tram-like vehicle that ran up and down the street playing “I’m a little tea-pot” OVER AND OVER, eating Subway (you can get a sub with a giant hot dog cut in two) and running into friends!! Liam the Blond and Thomas the Tall kind of stood out from the crowd and were fairly easy to spot. We quickly realized that this tourist trap was too expensive for us so we headed off to an underground market we heard about to see what kind of deals we could swing.
Shopping in a Chinese market is a life-experience I think everyone should have. The market we chose was HUGE but almost everything was repeated from shop to shop and absolutely everything was a knock-off, but that’s half of the fun! A typical visit to a shop goes something like this:
You are walking by a shop and hear (over and over), “Want a bag pretty lady” or “Would you like a beautiful watch?” (This is starting to sound like a scene from Aladdin).
Finally, you wander into a shop and something catches your eye.
“How much?” I ask (in English, mind you. I forgot to ask in Chinese. Using Chinese gives you more leverage).
“Ohhhh for tourists I say this much,” the shopkeeper says while typing something like 1200 into his/her calculator (roughly $200 Canadian), “but for you, only this much!” (showing something like 650 on the calculator).
Laughing, I say, “No no no. Waayyy too much!” I begin to walk away.
“It’s real leather! How much you want? Say your lowest price”
“120!”
“You cwazy! You cwazy”
“No, that’s my lowest price.” This goes on a bit as they lower their price, but not to what you asked for. Eventually, you walk away. Usually they run after you saying, “Ok! Ok!”. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes, they tell you your friend is crazy and that you shouldn’t ask them for advice (Sara). Either way, if there is something you want, you think about how much Canadian you’d pay for it, times it by 6 (exchange rate) and quote that. Most times, you’ll get it for that price. And if you want the best deal, you bring Sara. She can bargain like no other and can spot defects like a pro!
The best line of the day came from a purse/bag shop. Sara and I were helping Alyssa get something like a 600 RMB bag down to 120 or so. Alyssa told the lady her price. The lady, visibly getting frustrated trying to convince us she had a real leather Jimmy Choo bag, said “Lady, you are beautiful but your price is sooooo ugly!”
We did manage to swindle some deals, the most notable being $6.50 (knock-off) Toms. Great for kicking around!
We met as a full group for the first time since landing in China. The only place that would take all 14 of us that we could find was a fancy restaurant that served western food (no complaints from this girl!). I thoroughly enjoyed both the company and my $20 burger with 10 fries. Jason, I thought of you when I saw the $30 “Atlantic Fish and Chips”. It’s worth noting that this restaurant was in an area of the city where expats hangout (foreigners).
Sunday marked the end of the Chinese New Year. This day is marked by the Lantern Festival. On Sunday, the Chinese make a certain kind of dumpling, hang lanterns and set off fireworks. The biggest lantern festival display in Shanghai can be found in Yu Yuan Gardens. I tried my darndest to get there but it was too hard to coordinate the group and I didn’t feel right straying on the first weekend. I did rile up some troops to head over but we got there too late and did not make it as far as the gardens. That said, we did see an adjacent street lit up BEAUTIFULLY and the atmosphere was great! We also managed to swing good deals in a few of the shops. If I lived in Pudong, I would have gone back Sunday night to see the real deal.
On Sunday, we made it back to Qingpu after another stop at the market to use up whatever cash we had left haha. Back at the apartment, we made ourselves some dumplings (we have a couple hundred of them from our schools) to celebrate the Lantern Festival and to eat free food! Verdict: some were good (folded over with scalloped edges) and some were just plain disgusting (round eye-ball looking ones). We ended up picking the insides out of the round ones because the insides weren’t bad. The outsides, though, really did make me think of “glue pudding.” After dinner, it was back to the grindstone….or so we thought….
Snuggled up in our bathrobes, we all started cramming; we three settled in for some lesson planning. When out of our windows there arose such a clatter, we sprung from our beds (beds/futons/tables) to see what was the matter (speaking of matter, I have a student named Matter)! And in front of our wondering eyes did appear but a blast full of light that soon did appear! Then another and another they surrounded the room, then disappeared with a thundering boom.
Ok, enough of that. What I was getting at is right after we settled in to get some much needed lesson planning done, it sounded like we were in a full-blown war zone! Fireworks were going off everywhere! They actually went on for about 3 hours. All across the Qingpu skyline were countless numbers of fireworks. We would think the big ones were gone and we’d head back to our computers then BANG! one would sound off right across the street. They were even being shot from apartment windows. Every time an impressive sounding one would go off, we would run around the apartment looking for the window with the best view. We were seriously like kids at Christmas with our “oohs” and “ahhhhhs” and “COME SEE THIS ONE!!” We were so so happy to be on the top floor with a 270o view last night! The Chinese really do fireworks right!
One final note about the weekend: The subway system had guards (short walls) along all the edges of the platforms so that people did not fall onto the tracks. This makes complete sense and I’m not sure why more systems in the world don’t have them. This is the first time I’ve seen them. That said, if any system needs them, it’s this one! You’d think you were in the middle of an elephant stampede sometimes trying to get on/off the subways here!
Oh! I lied! One final thing: I realized how ‘isolated’ Qingpu was in a way when I was in the Subway in Pudong on Sunday and heard two men speaking English behind me. I instinctually spun around, it threw me off so much! I’m like a local now!
Teaching days in which I have not used the school squatters: 6
I went to the “big city” this weekend (aka Pudong)! Talk about crowds and smog! While it was quite impressive and it was fantastic to see the rest of the group, it made the three of us appreciate the “rural” community of Qingpu!
We got to Pudong mid-day on Saturday. It was a two hour trek from Qingpu. We were quite the sight when we saw our first “foreigner”. We were just as excited as the locals! We took the subway straight to People’s Square, one of the main attractions in Shanghai. While I don’t think we actually saw People’s Square yet (I think it’s a big, open, cobblestoned space with a fountain), we did see a lot of People’s Park. After treating ourselves to Haagen Daz, we ventured into the park only to find ourselves surrounded by strings and strings of what looked like ads. Any desperate singles out there? Any parents reading this that want to marry off their child? Well, have I found the place for you! Every weekend, parents and grandparents flock to People’s Park to look at ads and resumes of eligible future husbands and wives. Ads line the pathways and older folk are hovered around binders of ads finding a suitor for their child or grandchild. Some even have their miserable child in tow, showing them off to possible suitors (and by child, I mean my peers). The ads are all in Chinese but I was happy to see at least SOME had pictures! The rest of the park consisted of ponds, green spaces, an art museum, men gambling around stone park tables (and they drew notable crowds), gazebos and a children’s amusement park. Oh, and like 3 Starbucks.
From the park we went to Nanjing Road, famous for its shops and malls. Highlights included a little old man in a Chinese Olympic suit on roller skates who took a liking to Alyssa (he tried to skate around pop bottles but knocked them over half of the time. Cute either way), the biggest Forever 21 you’ll ever see, a car that almost took Alyssa out (this is supposed to be a walking street), a little tram-like vehicle that ran up and down the street playing “I’m a little tea-pot” OVER AND OVER, eating Subway (you can get a sub with a giant hot dog cut in two) and running into friends!! Liam the Blond and Thomas the Tall kind of stood out from the crowd and were fairly easy to spot. We quickly realized that this tourist trap was too expensive for us so we headed off to an underground market we heard about to see what kind of deals we could swing.
Shopping in a Chinese market is a life-experience I think everyone should have. The market we chose was HUGE but almost everything was repeated from shop to shop and absolutely everything was a knock-off, but that’s half of the fun! A typical visit to a shop goes something like this:
You are walking by a shop and hear (over and over), “Want a bag pretty lady” or “Would you like a beautiful watch?” (This is starting to sound like a scene from Aladdin).
Finally, you wander into a shop and something catches your eye.
“How much?” I ask (in English, mind you. I forgot to ask in Chinese. Using Chinese gives you more leverage).
“Ohhhh for tourists I say this much,” the shopkeeper says while typing something like 1200 into his/her calculator (roughly $200 Canadian), “but for you, only this much!” (showing something like 650 on the calculator).
Laughing, I say, “No no no. Waayyy too much!” I begin to walk away.
“It’s real leather! How much you want? Say your lowest price”
“120!”
“You cwazy! You cwazy”
“No, that’s my lowest price.” This goes on a bit as they lower their price, but not to what you asked for. Eventually, you walk away. Usually they run after you saying, “Ok! Ok!”. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes, they tell you your friend is crazy and that you shouldn’t ask them for advice (Sara). Either way, if there is something you want, you think about how much Canadian you’d pay for it, times it by 6 (exchange rate) and quote that. Most times, you’ll get it for that price. And if you want the best deal, you bring Sara. She can bargain like no other and can spot defects like a pro!
The best line of the day came from a purse/bag shop. Sara and I were helping Alyssa get something like a 600 RMB bag down to 120 or so. Alyssa told the lady her price. The lady, visibly getting frustrated trying to convince us she had a real leather Jimmy Choo bag, said “Lady, you are beautiful but your price is sooooo ugly!”
We did manage to swindle some deals, the most notable being $6.50 (knock-off) Toms. Great for kicking around!
We met as a full group for the first time since landing in China. The only place that would take all 14 of us that we could find was a fancy restaurant that served western food (no complaints from this girl!). I thoroughly enjoyed both the company and my $20 burger with 10 fries. Jason, I thought of you when I saw the $30 “Atlantic Fish and Chips”. It’s worth noting that this restaurant was in an area of the city where expats hangout (foreigners).
Sunday marked the end of the Chinese New Year. This day is marked by the Lantern Festival. On Sunday, the Chinese make a certain kind of dumpling, hang lanterns and set off fireworks. The biggest lantern festival display in Shanghai can be found in Yu Yuan Gardens. I tried my darndest to get there but it was too hard to coordinate the group and I didn’t feel right straying on the first weekend. I did rile up some troops to head over but we got there too late and did not make it as far as the gardens. That said, we did see an adjacent street lit up BEAUTIFULLY and the atmosphere was great! We also managed to swing good deals in a few of the shops. If I lived in Pudong, I would have gone back Sunday night to see the real deal.
On Sunday, we made it back to Qingpu after another stop at the market to use up whatever cash we had left haha. Back at the apartment, we made ourselves some dumplings (we have a couple hundred of them from our schools) to celebrate the Lantern Festival and to eat free food! Verdict: some were good (folded over with scalloped edges) and some were just plain disgusting (round eye-ball looking ones). We ended up picking the insides out of the round ones because the insides weren’t bad. The outsides, though, really did make me think of “glue pudding.” After dinner, it was back to the grindstone….or so we thought….
Snuggled up in our bathrobes, we all started cramming; we three settled in for some lesson planning. When out of our windows there arose such a clatter, we sprung from our beds (beds/futons/tables) to see what was the matter (speaking of matter, I have a student named Matter)! And in front of our wondering eyes did appear but a blast full of light that soon did appear! Then another and another they surrounded the room, then disappeared with a thundering boom.
Ok, enough of that. What I was getting at is right after we settled in to get some much needed lesson planning done, it sounded like we were in a full-blown war zone! Fireworks were going off everywhere! They actually went on for about 3 hours. All across the Qingpu skyline were countless numbers of fireworks. We would think the big ones were gone and we’d head back to our computers then BANG! one would sound off right across the street. They were even being shot from apartment windows. Every time an impressive sounding one would go off, we would run around the apartment looking for the window with the best view. We were seriously like kids at Christmas with our “oohs” and “ahhhhhs” and “COME SEE THIS ONE!!” We were so so happy to be on the top floor with a 270o view last night! The Chinese really do fireworks right!
One final note about the weekend: The subway system had guards (short walls) along all the edges of the platforms so that people did not fall onto the tracks. This makes complete sense and I’m not sure why more systems in the world don’t have them. This is the first time I’ve seen them. That said, if any system needs them, it’s this one! You’d think you were in the middle of an elephant stampede sometimes trying to get on/off the subways here!
Oh! I lied! One final thing: I realized how ‘isolated’ Qingpu was in a way when I was in the Subway in Pudong on Sunday and heard two men speaking English behind me. I instinctually spun around, it threw me off so much! I’m like a local now!