Today after school, I made my first foray into the center of Shanghai. I bought myself a railway pass, which is very handy because it can also be used on the bus and in taxis, so I can make my way all around the city any way I please without needing to buy tickets constantly.
There is a railway station just around the corner from my residence, so I hoped on the 3 Line and rode it one stop. I think I might just ride the 3 Line for the hell of it at some point. The 3 Line is an elevated railway, so you get an amazing view of the city as you ride it. I changed trains to the 8 Line at Hongkou Stadium and went to the People's Square.
When I came out of the railway station, I felt a bit overwhelmed because of all the exits. Thankfully, there are English translations for the Chinese characters on the signs, but there were twenty different exits and I wasn't entirely sure where I wanted to go. I noticed an exit to take me to Nanjing Street, which is a major shopping street in Shanghai and my students had advised me to go there. So, I went out that exit and of course, immediately got lost. I had no idea how to find Nanjing road and the signs up on the street didn't have handy-dandy English translations. So, instead, I wandered down whatever street I was on and marveled at the buildings. Shanghai seems like a very modern city, but it has a lot of charm, too. Shanghai is one of those cities that has a nifty balance between ultra-sleek and old-fashioned. Eventually, in my wanderings, I found an entrance to the People's Park. The map said that there were gardens and waterfalls and ponds, so I figured this was as good a place as any to be lost. I headed in.
As I was walking, a man came up to me and asked "Excuse me, can I speak to you?" My first English Corner! The English Corner is a joke among the teachers at SISU. People wanting to practice their English will come up and "corner" foreigners and speak to them about anything and everything. His name is Chen En Ming and he followed me all around the park, asking me questions about where I am from, what America is like, and why I was in Shanghai. He seemed nice enough, but you always want to be cautious in a situation like that.
Mary warned me that most English Corners are simple enough--they really are just people wanting to practice their English with a native speaker. But sometimes, the person will be trying to scam you, so you should never go anyplace with them. Mary tells me that one of the most common scams is to invite a foreigner to tea, which sounds innocent enough, right? But by the time tea is done, the scammer will insist that you owe them X number of hundreds of yuan for the tea and they will badger you until you pay them.
Chen seems to have been one of the latter; we wound our way around the park and saw the lotus pond, which was pretty incredible. It had hundreds of lotus plants and Chen took my picture in front of the pond. In the middle of the park is the Museum of Contemporary Art. Right now, there is an exhibit from Singapore. I was interested in taking a look, but it was getting late and I had plans to meet Mary and Allan for dinner, so we made our way back toward the exit. We walked past the Children's Park, which had a bunch of carnival rides. Eventually, I found my way back to the exit by the rail station. I said good bye to Chen, and took the train back home.
This morning, Allan had read about a great seafood buffet in the Daily Expo newspaper. Mary, Allan and I took a taxi to the Four Points by Sheraton because it has a BOGO deal on Friday-Sunday nights. The taxi driver couldn't read the directions because they were in English, but he called the hotel, which was very good of him. The hotel was very nice, very Western. There were a LOT of young people there, strolling around in couples and dressed up. I guess Friday nights are date nights in China, too! The buffet was amazing. They had a whole spread of sushi and sashimi, and a whole other table of shrimp and crab and clams, mussels, and oysters. They also had hot soups and a made-to-order station where you could throw together whatever fish, meat, veggies, rice or noodles you wanted and the chef would cook it up for you.
My favorite part, though, was the dessert bar. Oh my god, sugar overload. I completely stuffed myself- probably ate more than I should have- but it was well worth the money. With the deal, the three of us only paid 100 yuan each. I checked my currency exchange app and it made me realize I made a math error in an earlier post. $1 is equal to about 7 yuan, not 14. I was thinking 100 yuan is equal to $14. Whoops! Still some really excellent prices here and $14 for a full spread buffet in a shnazzy hotel is a damn good deal.
When we had eaten so much we couldn't move anymore, we headed back out and flagged down a taxi for the drive home. This guy wasn't as nice as the last one though, we almost got cheated by the taxi driver. We looked like tourists, so he tried to take us way out of the way. Fortunately, we know the area and caught him at it. We made him turn off the meter and he turned around and took us straight back home once we called him on the bullshit. When he dropped us off in front of our residence, he said "Sorry, sorry". Mary quipped, "Yeah, sorry he got caught!" Lesson of the day: Make sure you watch the taxi meter!
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