Top Marques (luxury expo)

My friend invited me to the Top Marques expo which is "The Most Exclusive Luxury Show in Asia". It was at the Shanghai Exhibition hall which I'd seen from the flyover but didn't know what it was until today! It is a very Western styled building with tall spires, like a church.

Security was very tight and scalpers were constantly getting chased out of the place. There was mostly cars, watches and jewellery and a whole section for property and even a stand for private jets! All very expensive and fancy but an experience I wouldn't have again so thought I'd just visit anyway.

It didn't take more than an hour to walk the two floors and so afterwards me and my friends walked over to the Shanghai Centre to eat at Crepes & Co. We then stole the wifi from Starbucks to buy cinema tickets for 44RMB to see some shark movie in 3D.

We walked along West Nanjing Road and spent some time in the Japanese department store before taking the metro towards Zhongshan Park. The cinema was located in a place a bit further than here so we took a taxi and found the reason for cheap tickets was the cinema was very old and in an awkward location. This brand of cinema is called 17.5 and is very run-down.

The movie was called Shark Bait or something and was very predictable. The 3D though was pretty good, not like a lot of movies where the 3D is added in and feels out of place.

A week of food, drinks, shopping and live music

Last week had been rather busy, mostly seeing my Indonesian friend before she left back to her home country. It feels rather sad that in Shanghai people come and go so quickly but I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to have met so many different people.

We went to have dim sum on Sunday after my HSK 4 exam. We went to Lynn's on Xikang Lu which is a modern Shanghainese restaurant and does an 88RMB dim sum buffet. It is quite reasonable price and food. Afterwards we slowly walked up to the indoor market on Nanjing Xi Lu which is the plaza where you can find all the fake brands.

I had been before last time I was here but I was on my own and rather scared so to be here with my confident friends was a completly different experience. We were led through one shop's hidden back door to a "cupboard" where they sell glasses and fake Ray Bans etc, then further in a "cupboard" is full of fake rolex watches and LV handbags, Prada etc. The amount of foreigners they brought into here was crazy.

After we finished shopping we went to have chicken in a clay hot pot in a very small restaurant near where I live. For 5 of us we paid only 30RMB each (£3!). The food was good and the service lovely, run by a husband and wife who are very kind.

 

I'm not sure why but the weather got really strange last week and the pollution got so bad that I'd read news online that we were being advised to not even go outside. For a while I couldn't even see outside my window! Luckily it cleared up after a day and things went back to normal.

 

On Tuesday night my friends and I went to Hai Di Lao on Beijing Lu. I didn't know but apparently you can ask for a free apron (one per group). The service is great as always and you can get your nails done, shoes polished, play cards, board games, make origami birds and stars etc as you wait. 

 

I went back to Nana's Green Tea for some lunch after class one day and thought to try something new. The Hokkaido noodles in carbonara sauce was really nice, like carbonara soup!

On Friday night my classmates invited me out to the House of Blues and Jazz located near The Bund on Fuzhou Lu. It was 50RMB cover charge to enter and was soon packed and the band started playing at 10pm. Drinks are expensive here but service isn't as bad as the reviews I'd read are. The bar felt very American/Irish and I quite enjoyed listening to jazz. I was so tired though so afterwards I didn't stay too long.

Very social week and my birthday ^^

My new classmates invited me out to join them. I had no idea what would happen but I was told to meet at the university gate at 8pm. So me and another classmate walked together and in total 8 of us met up. We took a taxi to Shouning Lu which is near People's Square and I'd been before but only walked through. It can be a little intimidating to walk down this street. It is full of small eateries and outdoor bbq's, with seafood and skewers etc.

One friend had been here many times and took us into one where we sat upstairs. He then went to choose the food for us and ordered bottles and bottles of beer. He also taught us how to eat these crayfish. The restaurant gives you a silver tray to put the shells and bits in, plastic gloves, plastic cups, tissues. We had scallops, whelks, crayfish, oysters, chicken, beef, lamb skewers. In total we paid about 100RMB each which included all the drinks and another friend joined us mid-way.

We then got into a taxi to Hongmei Lu (Laowai Jie) where we went to Vegas Bar and played drinking games with dice, pool and table football until about 1am. It was really good fun and I feel closer to my classmates now.

 

On Friday my old classmates held a small party for three of us whose birthday it was and two friend's who are leaving Shanghai to go back home. We ate shabu shabu (Japanese hotpot) which was really good and a buffet style so we could order as much as we wanted. They surprised me with a cake too which was so sweet of them! It was apparently from a very famous Japanese bakery and chocolate (perfect for me!). Afterwards we went to Camel Bar nearby and had drinks and met a few more friends there. The kitchen also gave us some free pizza. All in all it was really fun and I always love days where anything can happen. 

 

 

Cats, Mr Bean Cafe, Science Museum and the rest...

So the rest of the week long holiday included seeing Cats at the Lyric Theatre at People's Square with two of my classmates. I had seen Cats before in London many many years ago and remember the stage being very small and circular but this stage was a normal one and our seats were up near the back despite it being "mid-range" at 380RMB. Also I'd tried many times to buy tickets and each time told it was sold out so it was very disappointing that being the last date of the show there were many empty seats.

The show was entirely in Chinese with subtitles up in Chinese which was a real challenge. Also it was quite interactive with cats coming into the audience and even during the interval there were cats rolling around the floor of the theatre! It was hard to follow the musical but it was a good experience. It was annoying though that the couple sitting behind us decided to move in front of us as there were empty seats and then spend most of the time surfing the internet on the smartphone which was so distracting! I find it annoying when they can't spend a few hours to enjoy a show without the internet.

 

One day I took a trip to Pudong to Huami Lu and went to the Mr Bean Cafe. It was so quiet and empty and also very expensive. A drink cost almost 50RMB. But the place was nice, lots of Mr Bean stuff and playing episodes on the projector. The location was so strange though at the basement. Also the shopping centre where it is located doesn't even seem to be finished. 

Across the way is the Kerry's Centre which is another shopping centre with many eating places and linked to the hotel. 

 

Another day I went to the Science Museum in Pudong. Entry is 60RMB for an adult and you can buy tickets to see 3D and 4D movies. As I was on my own the guy offered me the last 4D ticket of the day. However the showing wasn't until 1pm so I had lots of time on my own. Also since it was the holidays it was so busy there! 

They have many sections so animals, robots, human body etc. Standard science museum. It is a beautiful piece of architecture and many scenes from Kung Fu Dunk were filmed here. The centre has a big dome which is where the 4D cinema is located. 

As with most things in China there is no sense of safety and with so many people it felt even worse. I went to one exhibit which was designed like an eco-system and ended up queuing just to climb up stairs and find it was like a one way system where even if you wanted to get out you couldn't! So in the end just had to put up with it and pray we were near the exit. 

There was a rubiks cube solving robot which managed it in 2 minutes, a piano playing robot too. Also there was an area which was very interactive so you could (if there wasn't so many people!) play with exhibits. 

 

 

Shanghai Wild Animal Park

On the last day of the national holiday I went to Shanghai Wild Animal Park. It is quite far but I had heard many reviews that it was much better than Shanghai Zoo.

I took line 2 to Zhangjiang High Tech Park metro where for the first time ever I experienced the doors not opening and leaving the station! The man next to me was very frustrated but we just had to get off at the next station and hop on a train going back to Zhangjiang. A little troublesome.

Outside this metro are many many taxi drivers and tour guides who are the most forceful bunch I've met so far. They really hassle you and know you are going to the animal park but out of fear of being ripped off we decided to take the bus.

Opposite the station is a bus station and it seemed only the 2nd bus stop along where many people were queuing so using my Mandarin skills I managed to ask if this was the bus to the animal park which was confirmed. On the bus and there is a staff member with a machine who asks where are you going and uses your jiao tong card on it. It took about 30 minutes on a crazy bus to get there and on arrival there are locals trying to sell binoculars and are also quite forceful and follow you a lot!

I managed to use my student card so I paid only 65RMB to get in (normal entry is 130RMB). Inside the park you need to be prepared for many extra costs like feeding animals and taking photos with them all costs around 20-30RMB. You can rent these little cycle cars at 50RMB an hour but we decided to walk. It got a little frustrating that people would cycle up to the animal cages and block people on foot!

There are many animals there and a section for baby animals. We saw a baby tiger only a week old, baby cheetahs and I got to hold a baby lion and baby white tiger. This park also has 3 small pandas who were the most active in the whole park. You can ride camels and elephants too.

The other half of the park is safari and you use your ticket to get in there. You sit on a coach which is not ideal for seeing animals but I guess it's safer. Here you can see tigers, lions, zebras, cheetahs etc. The map was rather outdated with some animals missing or changed around.

The park is open from 8am - 4.30pm.

Day trip to Wuxi

I was at People's Square by 6.30am where I met Joseph and our tour group heading to Wuxi. The traffic was so bad that a normal 1.5 hour journey turned into 7 hours! Yes, 7 hours! What an experience!

When I saw the sign for Suzhou was 10km away and Wuxi 56km, it took us 4 hours to reach Suzhou that I felt like I would go crazy knowing we were not even halfway to Wuxi. The tour guide explained to us that this normal stretch of road should take 10 minutes, took us 2 hours. She also explained that the government had changed the rules this year that allowed small cars to travel for free and avoid the toll charge so there was an increase in cars.

As we were late, we were unable to visit Taihu (Tai Lake) which I was told is the largest inland lake in China. We drove past it and it is very big I have to say. We reached Ling Shan which is where one of the largest Buddha statues stands at 88 metres tall.

We rode on trolley cars to different stops and we arrived at 2.30pm where people had paid to have a vegetarian meal at the temple but Joseph and I didn't join them and walked by ourselves for a while.

We visited a huge palace that had so much gold. We were required to wear shoe coverings before entering. The huge hall was magnificent with a colour-changing constellation ceiling, many paintings and lots of gold decorations. The details in the wood carving was amazing. The next hallway led to 12 statues of the Chinese zodiac so we took photos next to our animals. The dragon was most popular with people.

The next room was the music room which had a colour-changing ceiling as well. In the centre of the room was a huge display of Siddhartha meditating under the tree. The hall had many seats and beautiful paintings on the wall.

After this palace we saw the musical fountain and then went to see the big Buddha. It was difficult to get a feel for the size as it was standing so tall but there is a replica of the hand that you can stand by and compare the size. At the base of the stairs is a hexagonal well that had been restored back to its original place from the Tang Dynasty.

The feeling of history and religion was very strong. I lit candles and incense and got to make a wish. We left at 6pm and it took us 2.5 hours this time to return to Shanghai.

I do wish we had more time to visit other places in Wuxi but I guess there will be another time - when it is not a national holiday! I feel I really should have listened to others who experienced this last year to not travel but it was just part of the experience. So for the rest of the holiday I intend to stay in Shanghai!