The Bund (Zhongshan Lu) is a famous area of Shanghai where there are many, old foreign banks and financial buildings, symbols of the western commercial power that thrived in the heart of colonial Shanghai. The view, as seen from our night cruise on the Huangpu River, was spectacular.
The Shanghai Museum, with over 120,000 cultural relics from 5,000 years of China’s history, was an interesting 3 hour stop on a very rainy afternoon.
Old Shanghai is where Rui taught me the fine art of haggling. She helped get me a gorgeous black pearl necklace and matching earrings for about $15.
Nanjing Lu is Shanghai’s foremost shopping street — six miles of shopper’s paradise. Note how the scooters and bikes are parked on the sidewalks. There are thousands of them everywhere.
Wujiang Lu (Snack Street) – the people in Shanghai snack constantly all times of the day. Everyone walks and eats. There are fast food kiosks with tantalizing smells and store fronts with bags of preserved treats: sweet, sour, salty, and savory. Rui and I stopped at a very popular stall and watched them make “xio long bao”, broth and meat-filled steam dumplings (also called baozi or in English “buns”). We ate two each and then stood back in line and each got two more! To wash them down we bought large cups of Pearl Tea, or bubble tea as it is sometimes called. Large, black chewy ,translucent balls of pearl tapioca sit at the bottom of the cup and you sip the fruity, milk tea with a wide straw.
View of our hotel, The Shanghai Oriental Riverside Hotel, as seen from our night Huangpu River cruise.
Donghtai Lu – the antique market, where I soloed in negotiating for a souvenir.
The Oriental Pearl TV Tower is a Shanghai icon and it was a homing beacon for us to find our hotel.
Hutongs – are back alleyways within the city where residents have lived for hundreds of years. Much revitalization is taking place in the city and these areas are fast disappearing. Because I love history, I was absolutely fascinated by these areas although many just see them as slums and avoid them altogether.
-
Hi – Susan this is wonderful! Thanks for sharing so much with all of us. The steamed dumplings are what RaeAnne loves!! She wants to learn how to make them from one of her friends. How are they reacting to your red hair?
1 comment
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link: http://maxonweb.net/chinablog/2008/10/shanghai-blurbs/trackback/