We spent our first few days in Shanghai. Our first day was incredibly rainy, so we went to the Propaganda Art Museum. As a history major who is pretty nerdy about WWII propaganda, I thought the museum was pretty interesting. It is all privately owned by one Chinese man, who organized the museum for tourists. Everything was very carefully worded. He had great posters that glorified Mao and Co. and demonized Americans. He also had some cool artwork of the Shanghai girls of the 1920s.
The museum is near Taikang Lu, which is a maze of streets with art galleries, boutique shops, cafes, and bars galore. My mom, who is currently decorating her new home, found some artwork to hang on the walls. Taikang Lu was so Western I often forgot I was in China. That is, until I heard the sweet sweet sounds of an old guy hocking up spit.
That evening, we had a hot pot adventure (never ordered at a hot pot restaurant. Now I can.) and afterwards we saw the New Era Acrobat show. I don't care if you're eight years old, eighty years old, or a surly and cynical eighteen year old, that show was seriously amazing. A performer would come onstage and I would think "wow, he's going to balance on that wooden plank which is precariously on a round piece of glass" or "wow, those contortionists will make a pyramid" or "wow, there's a motorcycle in that ball that looks like a hamster exercise toy" but that was always only their first move. Then, the guy would add more glass and more wooden planks, then use his feet to kick teacups onto his head, which he balanced, and I was like HOLY %&@. Then, the contortionists would build up the pyramid and the guy would balance it all on one hand and I was like HOLY #$!. Then, they would put one more, then one more, then one more motorcycle in that tiny hamster ball until there were SEVEN motorcycles and I was speechless, watching the whole show through the cracks of my fingers. Clearly, loved the acrobat show. Not ashamed to admit it.
We woke up early the next morning for a Jewish tour of Shanghai. This tour was incredibly comprehensive and served not only as a great lesson on Jewish history, but on the history of Shanghai as a whole. I learned how Shanghai became an international port, with the Americans, French, British, and Australian governments all with stakes in the city. I was especially surprised to learn how much of the commercial areas of Shanghai were built by Jews from Baghdad. It was a lot of information and I spent a lot of time learning it: the tour didn't end until 2 PM at which point I was starved.
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| The park dedicated to Shanghai Jews |
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| The Jewish Quarter |
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| Thin "streets" for apartments called a "lilong" |
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| Kind of like a Jewish star? |
After the Jewish tour, my mom's college/early working gal bud Joan (who I visited in November, for those of you wanting chronology here) took us to a Chinese bathhouse. I faced all my prudish fears and de-robed for the saunas and hot tubs. I got some kind of traditional scrub thing, which was painful at first but totally worth it because my skin is so soft now I'm almost creeped out by it.
Between the bathhouse and the five hour tour, my mom and I crashed around 9 PM. We woke up the next morning and wandered around the Yuyuan Gardens area, not actually entering the Yuyuan garden for lack of good signage. We also had a bit of an adventure with a woman who worked at an arts and crafts stall who was determined to find me embroidery floss so I could continue my immature hobby of making friendship bracelets.
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| Isn't my mom beautiful? |
Later, we killed time around Fuxing Park, because we our noodle tour left from that area. Yes, noodle tour. I have always been a fan of noodles (studied abroad in Italy, of course) and I was so excited for this tour of Shanghai's best noodle shops. The tour included six dishes from four restaurants (plus egg tarts from a famous bakery), a tour of the French concession area with stops at an antique shop, lilong, and coffee shop, and a tour of a Shanghai wet market (sans bird-flu infected chickens.)
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| Fish noodles |
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| Hole-in-the-wall |
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| My favorite noodles, from the aforementioned establishment. Sesame chili noodles! |
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| Simple yet delicious garlicky onion noodles |
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| This guy really wanted his picture taken (at the wet market) |
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| Egg tart from Lillian's Bakery |
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| Shot from inside a Shanghai lilong |
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