Bund Again

Trip Start Apr 15, 2008

Trip End Apr 26, 2008

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Where I stayed

Holiday Inn Downtown Shanghai

(Shanghai hotels)

Flag of China Shanghai, Shanghai, China
Thursday, April 24, 2008

During the bus tour, I became friends with a pharmacist from Malaysia, Choe. Choe was on a business trip and had one free day, so he decided to take a tour of the Gardens in Suzhou. He became very interested in my argument with the tour guide on which garden was the best in Suzhou, Humble Administrator's or the Linger In Garden. I showed him the passage in the "Lonely Planet Guide to China", which stated the best was the Humble Administrator's Garden. He pointed out that you can not trust what you read in the Lonely Planet series and cited a recent case where one of the writers was bribed with gifts for a good review. At the end of our tour of the Linger In Garden, Choe agreed with the Lonely Planet because he was not impressed with the garden.

Because we were both single travelers, we made a good partnership...I would take photos of him with his camera...he would take photos of me with mine camera

Another sculpture on the riverwalk

. After the bus tour, Choe wanted to go to the Bund section because it has been 10 years since he visited that area and wondered if I wanted to come along. At first I was not going to go because I was a little tried and I already been to the Bund with Andy, yesterday. Since it would be nice to see both the Pudong and Bund section at night, I changed my mind.

Being descendants from Chinese who immigrated to Malaysia over 100 years ago, Choe could speak Chinese. Although he could not read Chinese, Choe thought he would be the primary person responsible for getting us from the hotel, where the tour bus dropped us off, to the Bund. Choe was in for a surprise! He was amazed how I easily navigated the Shanghai Metro...knowing when to transfer trains and what platforms to wait for the next train. Also I was able to identify which exit to use and direction to walk to gets us to the Bund. Of course, Choe would asked folks along the way to make sure I was not getting us lost, but I did not make one wrong turn.

We reached the pedestrian underpass, but this time we used it to cross to the river walk instead of taking the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. Choe wanted to ride the rail car but I told him it was not worth the money. Since I have not been wrong yet, Choe decided to follow my advise. The view of the Pudong area some the river walk was amazing. I wish I had a better camera to capture the night scene of the tall business buildings all lite up and the cruise boats on the Huangpu River adding to the light show. Unfortunately, the colonial buildings along the Bund are only lite up Friday and Saturday. I have seen pictures of the Bund buildings in full electrical grandeur and wanted to witness it for myself. This brings up an interesting point...most Chinese prefer to look at the Pudong section and see China's future

Pudong at night

. As Choe said 10 years ago there was nothing there now you have the Oriental Pearl and the Jinmao towers among others. On the other hand, Westerners preferred to view the old colonial buildings along the Bund (China's past).

As we walked along the promenade, we had to navigate through a swarm of peddlers selling everything from sparkling yo-yos to flashing girls. I used Andy's advice and did not acknowledge their existence. Choe was trying to politely say "no", which encouraged the marketeers to try harder...I guess there are not many street peddlers in Malaysia...probably because they would get caned. I saw an interesting sculpture of an egg?. The reason it caught my eye was because I saw an identical sculpture on the Pudong side, so I took a picture of it.

We were getting hungry so we walked back to Nanjing Road. According to Choe, it use to be filled with restaurants. Unfortunately, today all you will find is high rent fashion salons. So we had a dilemma, my good sense of direction does not help in locating restaurants I have never been to and Choe can not read the Chinese signs. We let our nose be our guide by turning down a street if we smelled something or back-tracking if the scent is lost. Eventually we found a noodle place and ate an order of beef noodles and little dragon balls, Shanghai specialties. Little dragon balls are won ton stuffed with meat and some soup broth, so when you bite into it out squirts this hot broth.

After the meal we walked to the Metro, I made sure Choe knew his way back and we parted ways.