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.

Day out to Hongkou

Phew! A week into university and it has been hectic. I am now in Primary Intensive level 4 but I'm finding it managable - we'll see how that progresses as time goes by.

So, the weekend I decided to visit the Friends cafe which opened a month ago in Shanghai. The first branch is in Beijing. I read the article on one of the websites and took line 10 to Hailun Lu. The location of the cafe is quite odd and you walk through side streets, very old style streets with people napping, playing mahjong, hanging up laundry in the streets (very common sight in China).

I started to think I was in the wrong place until I crossed the bridge over the creek and was in a newer built up street and saw a big glass window and the "Friends" sign in neon lights. As I walked inside and it was much smaller than I'd thought it would be but it was pretty cosy. The interior is decorated just like Friends, complete with Pugsy, Joey's toy penguin! The orange sofa was there, giant cups, and the TV show playing in HD in the corner of the room. The mugs were all printed with quotes from the series, as were the menus, however one menu is only in Chinese and the other with some cake selections are written in English.

It turns out only the manager can speak some English so helped to translate the menu for me. We had a nice chat and he was curious how I found the place so I explained and now he is expecting more foreigners. I did hint he'd need to translate his menu into English...

It started to get busy so I headed out and slowly walked up to Luxun Park as there was a lantern festival. The weather has turned rather pleasant and the humidity is fading so the walk was nice until this woman with some laminated paper grabbed my arm as I walked past, chattering in Chinese but when I pulled away she grabbed me harder so I pointed at the paper and said loudly in English "I can't read any of that" and people stared and she let go.

Luxun Park was quite busy and the first thing you see when you enter is a big dragon sculpture made of Chinese dishes. The whole park has huge sculptures made of some material which I guess lights up but it was daytime. Also there are many things people are doing in the park, mostly singing their own karaoke from their loud machines, people dancing, some were in traditional dress doing dances, people playing cards and mahjong.

Afterwards I headed into Hongkou Plaza which I had read another article about some churros being sold there. The place is called San Gines and is found in the food court area in B2 level. The queue was long! I bought the ones with Spanish chocolate cost 19RMB for 6. It was interesting to watch how they made them.

I really like Hongkou Plaza, there are many western brand shops which I didn't even think existed in China, such as Desigual, Mango, Pull and Bear, Gap, Zara. Downstairs is a Carrefour, 2 floors of food places from sweet desserts to hot pot restaurants. There are some specialty foods like Belgium waffles, Japanese crepes, Korean Fusion snack foods, Hong Kong style waffles. I will definately visit a few more times!

I had dinner at Cafe de Coral which I'd been so a branch many years ago in Shenzhen. This place you order at the entrance and they hand you a plastic number stand and attach your reciept and waiters will rush around and deliver the food as it is cooked.

I had pretty nice wonton noodles for 23RMB.

I tried to go back to Luxun Park to see the lanterns at night but this now required you to buy a ticket for 50RMB and the queues was huge so I left.

The next day I headed to Shanghai Center in Jing'an where Crepes Co opened. I had a really nice crepe with chopped up ham, cheese and an egg. The coke arrived in some straw holder which was interesting. The crepe was really nice, best crepe I've had outside of France. Price was 55RMB which is reasonable seeing as going to My Old Dutch in London costs £5 only on a Monday.

Pancakes and KTV with the Meet Up crowd

It started off another rainy day with a thunderstorm which woke me up around 9am and left me in bed for an hour contemplating if I should still go to the Meet Up or not. By 10.30am it had stopped thundering but it was still raining and I thought to myself I'm sure people of Shanghai can't stop their lives because of heavy rain and that I should try my very best so I headed out.

I underestimated the rain from the 13th floor it didn't look that heavy but when I got to the front door it was pouring and pouring. I put up my umbrella and took a brave step outside. It isn't cold and still a bit humid and as I got to the main road I saw a taxi. I thought someone had just got inside as I saw it leave the kerb but I waved anyway and to my surprise it came for me!

I went to Julu Lu to Mr Pancake House and there I met some people from the Meet Up website. At first there were only 4 of us but soon we had about 12. I had breakfast pancakes which cost 42RMB and is very filling.

Afterwards a few of us went to Party World as Lucy, the organiser of the event, had booked a karaoke room for a few hours.

KTV here seems quite relaxed and they didn't seem to mind us bringing in outside food and drinks. I'm not too sure the price of the room per hour though as I didn't pay but Lucy assured me it wasn't much. So we had English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese songs which was interesting and all very good fun. People came and left throughout but I stayed until the end.

Around 5pm I got a taxi with a friend and went to Berlinda's place and watched a movie there with Jorge. Another friend, Sho, came and joined us and we headed to Koala Bar nearby for dinner and drinks. I see this bar on HuaiHai Xi Lu as it is near the university and the sign says its a coffee bar but it is more of a drinks bar and has a pool table in the back. The atmosphere was nice, we sat outside to eat and the waiter could speak and understand English which is a bonus.

Burgers cost around 50RMB and breezers around 40RMB which is a little steep I think.

I'm hoping tomorrow's weather is ok and that the predicted typhoon has moved away so that I can do some exploring with my friends.

A sushi experience

I met Yuki at Jing'an after her class and she took me to a cafe called Aura. They seem linked to Coolzey and think that Sherpa do delivery for them too.

The menu had Western dishes, pasta and dishes like tenderloin and mashed potatoes. They do a lunch set menu for 58RMB consists of a main, salad and a drink however I chose the Carbonara for 42RMB and smoothie for 22RMB. This was the first time since I arrived in Shanghai this time that something tasted really good.

Penne Carbonara at Aura cafe

After lunch we went to Enjoy Easy which is a chain of shops that sell a variety of good relatively cheap. So not quite a Pound Store but close enough with many items at 10-20RMB.

 Clear blue skies today in Jing'an

We then studied for about 4 hours in a Wagas Express until we were hungry for dinner around 7pm. We went to Sushi Meijin which had almost a 1 hour waiting time! Each dish here costs 10RMB unless you order noodles or something which will cost more. There is a conveyor belt but also each table has a touch screen where you can order too. The food gets made in the kitchen and shot across on a speedy sushi train to your table on a track above the conveyor belt. You then take your dishes and send the train back to the kitchen by hitting the red button. It was very fun and different experience!

I also saw sushi I hadn't seen before like ones with cheese on them. The sushi here is nicer than as Sushi Express but then it costs a little more (Sushi Express is 6RMB a plate).

 Touch screen at the table

 Conveyor belt sushi

 Salmon with cheese sushi!

Blurry speedy sushi train with special orders on it