Shanghai
Trip Start
Dec 27, 2005
1
5
20
Trip End
Jan 15, 2006
Shanghai,
China
Sunday, January 1, 2006
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First thing we had to do was to fly to Shanghai. Fortunately we left early for the airport because our flight was cancelled. Basically most of the 2 hours was spent trying to figure out who to talk to & where to go to get our tickets exchanged. Good thing I had a pretty solid grasp of the language. Anyways we got a flight out at the same 9:30 departure time. I guess the Shanghai-Beijing trip was very popular one since we flew in on a 747.
The flight was uneventful but I did get to see an example of the "little emperor" phenomenon w/the family sitting next to me. The mom & dad were waiting on this ~5 year old boy hand & foot. Man it's unbelievable. The mom kept asking the boy if she could feed him, if he needed a drink of water, and if he needed some entertainment
Airport 1
. I could tell the mom was afraid of flying but did not allow that to prevent her from waiting on the kid. Wow, when I was ~5, I was pretty independent already...We got into Shanghai Hongqiao airport at about noon time. Once again, bastards tried to trick us into using their jacked-up priced shuttles. I basically told this guy propositioning us that we didn't take illegal taxi's. He said he was trying to do us a favor. Whatever. I mean if none of the white people was taking the bait OBVIOUSLY there was something wrong.
Grand Hyatt
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Another amazing hotel. Not much else to say. After dropping our bags we went to the French Concession area for some Shanghainese food (Bao Lu). The food was surprisingly familiar to me as my family orders stuff similar to it. The only highlight was that they had 2 beers on the menu called "Little Blue" & "Little Red". I thought they were local beers & was pretty surprised when the waitress brought us a Bud & Bud Ice.
Dave's Tailor
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On the recommendation of our travel book, we went to Dave's Tailor shop
Airport 2
. Apparently Dave is a Taiwanese clothier who moved to Shanghai about 7-8 years ago. The reason for his move was that this clientele, the various Taiwanese Business men had all moved to Shanghai. Got the run-down on tailors in China. Basically his suggestion is that one should stick to HK or Taiwanese tailors. The mainlanders could not wear western suits after the communist revolution & consequently suit making was a lost art that is just recently rediscovered. Also learned about different grades of wool such as 150 vs. 180 vs. Cashmere blends. It's an excellent tailor as Dave's prices are very fair. 3000 to 20000 RMB depending on the quality of the wool. He makes any style you like. I ended up getting a 3-button Italian suit with Black pinstripe on black for about $600. The fitting will be when we get back into Shanghai from India on 1/13/2006.NYE
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NYE celebration was spent in the hotel. The locals generally spend NYE in public areas where there is TV stars wishing everyone Happy New Years. We chose to hang out at the various hotel bars. The NYE ball drop was awesomely choreographed. 10,000 balloons & streamers dropped at midnight. Awesome. Free champagne all night. Took some pretty cool pictures too.
