Renee and Barry Redux -Shanghai weekend again

Last weekend we had 5 days off work because it was the Chinese Festival of Qing Ming. THe holiday was Thursday and Friday,with Sunday being designated a makeup day for Friday’s classes.However since we don’t teach Wednesday or Friday this meant we effectively were free from Tuesday night until Monday afteroon! We had originally planned to go off to Guangzhou and Huizhou,two cities where we have been offered jobs for next year (still having heard nothing from XMUT) but after I read the weather forecast calling for thunderstorms and heavy rain we decided to give that a miss. We also had trouble getting our passports back from the police station in time to buy train tickets. In the end,I discovered that the weather was forecast to be much better up north,so we hit on going up to see our friends Renee and Barry up in Shanghai,a splendid city which we know and love. Fortunately Barry was due in from Hawaii on that Wednesday evening, so we would be able to see him too.We bought train tickets on the fast train from Xiamen North Station to Shanghai Hongqiao Station which left Wednesday morning at 10am and arrived a mere 9 hours later at 19,20.It was a lot cheaper than flying and the train station is 10 minutes by bus from our house,whereas the airport is down on the island and you always have to check in at last 2 hours before the flight so we figured the journey would be ok and we would be able to look at the view on the way.In fact the train journey was pretty comfortable and I managed to sleep a fair bit of the way,as on Wednesday morning I woke up with a flowing nose and head cold. On arrival in Shanghai we attempted to get the metro straight to our old friend the Asset Hotel which we have stayed in twice before. However due to my cold we got off the metro at the wrong stop and ended up getting a taxi.No matter,The hotel is pretty cheap and comfortable and has free internet and wifi,and even a safe in the room and free breakfast.Tried to call Renee on her Chinese cellphone unsuccessfully.Later found out that she had tried to call me too likewise. Next day we managed to get hold of each other and they came over our hotel and we went together to our favourite haunts in Shanghai East Nanjing Road,People’s Square and the Bund.We walked around chatting and snapping and then hit a local place for lunch.Then we went back to our neighbourhood together and walked around there a bit and then found a great place for supper in the upscale shopping mall near Shanghai Stadium right near our hotel.It was a Korean barbecue place and we just had barbecued vegetables which were delicious.Had an earlyish night as my cold was still plaguing me somewhat.

Fuxing Park

 

Next day we met up again and this time went to walk in Tianzifang Art Market where we met Yossi Sedbon, the former Chief of Tel Aviv Police,whom we recognized from the TV. This market was too crowded and so we decided to head off to another area, the famous Shanghai neighbourhood called the French Concession.It is great,with some lovely architecture and an almost European feel to it.We found the beautiful Fuxing Park which had the most wonderful trees,a lake and people doing Tai Chi and couples doing ballroom dancing.The whole place was serene and gorgeous.We headed back to the Bund in the evening and went to the Peace Hotel as we had done the previous visit with Renee and Barry and again enjoyed the Jazz there.

European Style house in French Concession

 

Tai Chi in the Park

 

Now we are back in XIamen looking forward to Renee and Barry’s visit here next weekend.Tomorrow our department is taking us on a trip to the Botanical Gardens followed by a Buffet Lunch on the island.The sun is shining but everyone at XMUT is just gossipping about who is going and who is staying next semester and nobody seems to know what is true.Some have definitely signed and some have just started looking for work elsewhere.The atmosphere is pretty weird.We are leaning towards staying even though only I have been offered a job. We feel that we are not done with Xiamen yet.We feel comfortable here in the apartment and the city is great.WE have made friends here.Time will tell…..

 

 

Will the real China please stand up?

Well after having been inundated with emails from colleagues enquiring about China and teaching in China I thought I would take a break from my customary “diary” blog mode to answer here and also give my very limited view of things over here. Firstly many people were confused by the “traditional” view of China they have in their mind’s eye and the account I have been giving. Well let’s say it’s a bit like the Chinese student’s typical view of the UK- you know the thing pin-striped men in bowler hats sipping tea and discussing the Queen and the weather. OF course there are some people like that,but the modern UK is nothing like that.The same goes for China. You can find peasants bowed over in the fields with Chinese conical hats planting rice. But you also find people driving Buicks around Hangzou and chatting on their iphones. One of my students told me her friend chucked her boyfriend as he refused to buy her an Iphone. People here are VERY materialistic on the whole. There are public universities like ours,but there are also private universitiies for spoilt rich kids who failed the exams and are trying to get into quality programs abroad, and will get there. There are 22nd century skyscrapers,and behind them back alleys with people making dumplings off the back of a rickshaw. There are very ornamented temples such as the ones we saw in Hangzhou and there are little hovels looking like something out of Dickens.There are traditional restaurants serving all sorts of Chinese foods (not fortune cookies those aren’t real,and not just chow mein whatever that is!) but there are also McDonalds,KFC and Pizza Hut everywhere in every city even ours.In fact the opening of the new mall here complete with Pizza Hut and Walmart was a major event here.And we are only a city of 500,000. So what is the real China? Is Xiamen the real China or is Shanghai? Of course it all is!That’s what makes living here such a blast. You can have it all-Shanghai with rock and jazz clubs and little traditional villages that have not changed in centuries. More to come….

the Future generation of China

 

 

Renee and Barry Shanghai weekend-Shul and Jazz

Since this last weekend would be our last opportunity to visit our dear friends Renee and Barry in their Shanghai apartment before they return to Hawaii we were delighted that the weather was fine and we were finally able to see them.We arrived in Shanghai at 5pm and were met at the South Bus station which is a convenient short walk from the apartment given them by Shanghai Normal University. So it is different from the Lin’an setup as it is not a campus university. WE had a wonderful noodle supper lovingly prepared by Renee and then went out on the town. We went down to East Nanjing Road , the throbbing pedestrian street at the heart of the city and walked down to the famed Peace Hotel,where Barry assured us there would be live Jazz. Sure enough we were treated for the sum of 100 RMB including one drink to a marvellous band of old Chinese guys playing lots of smooth classic Jazz.Then at 10pm another younger band came on accompanied by a guest artist from New York, a sax player called Eric Wyatt, After Barry told him that he was from Brooklyn the guy game over to us and chatted, autographed a CD for us and also played a song about Brooklyn for Barry! It  was a terrific evening,as the hotel is a sort of Colonial style luxury hotel looking like something lavish from the 1920s. IT was great fun.

Next day we got up and after a splendid Renee breakfast we went down on the metro to the old Jewish Quarter of Shanghai called Huangpu where Jews had been taken in during the Second World War. There was a reconstruction of the Ohel Moshe Synagogue now a Museum and we had a wonderful guided tour from a young Chinese woman volunteer called Lulu who was most knowledgeable.

Ohel Moshe Shul Shanghai

WE then walked to the little park in the neighbourhood which had been where the Jewish children of the ghetto played, now full of the requisite Chinese doing their exercises, and old men playing cards etc. It was a charming place. IT is interesting to know that when most of the world turned its back the Shanghainese welcomed the Jewish refugees as best they could. We then stopped at a wonderful bakery next to Dalian Metro station for a coffee and a bun.

We took a metro to a place near the Pudong Tower where you can see a view over the whole city. But instead of going up that one we took the lift to the 85th floor of the Grand Hyatt Hotel where there is a bar. From there you can also see all the lights of the city,which is a truly amazing sight.

Roof of Hyatt Hotel

Then we took the metro again across town to eat at the famed Grandmother restaurant on Sichuan street which was wonderful and cheap. WE had planned to pop next door to the House of Blues but unfortunately it was too full and there was no room to sit, so we got a taxi home and fell into bed exhausted from our wonderful day.

With the Jazz musician Eric Wyatt at the Peace Hotel

The following day some other friends of Renee and Barry from Hawaii who are going to be staying in China for 5 weeks arrived and we all went off to take photos in the nearby park. This park was an oasis of green and calm in the city,full of Chinese doing whatever they like-exercises, cards, mahjong, singing folk songs,flying kites, walking dogs or just relaxing with their kids. IT was a wonderful finale to our weekend,as 3pm we had to get the bus back to Lin’an. We felt as always so close to Renee and Barry,happy to meet their friends Chuck and Meli and hope to see each other again really soon. It is great to meet people who share our love of China and the Chinese people who have always been so friendly and hospitable even if we can’t speak much Chinese.