After arriving at our Shanghai hotel, we ventured out to explore the Old City before joining our food tour. It turned out to be a fantastic four-restaurant experience with our local guide, Bill.
Our first stop featured Shanghai’s famous soup dumplings—a delicious mix of crab, shrimp, pork, and vegetables. Next, while sitting on crates, we enjoyed fried pork dumplings and fried rice without eggs—another fabulous course. The third stop was a bustling noodle restaurant, where tradition calls for ordering one very large bowl of noodles with multiple side dishes. Our guide ordered nearly ten, mostly pork-based (spicy pork balls, pig’s intestines, pig’s liver), along with some seafood and broccoli—vegetables were not exactly abundant. Our final stop was dessert, which is not a strong Chinese specialty. We tried bloody rice pudding with a lovely sweet sauce and another rice “soup.”
On Sunday, we enjoyed a spectacular four-hour city tour—a wonderful mix of history, sights, and culture. We began at People’s Square, formerly the site of a British horse racing track, and walked past government buildings old and new, theaters, and countless modern buildings with unique architecture, each sporting a spiffy nickname (the Rocket, the UFO building, the Bear Bottle Opener, the Kitchen Spatula).
We walked through the “marriage market,” where hundreds of parents stand holding their child’s data sheets, searching for future spouses for their only child. It was a bit bizarre to witness this unusual tradition, which exists across China. From there, we explored the Yuyuan Garden and Old City bazaar—bustling with eateries and antique markets—before emerging into a new outdoor mall filled with global brands and massive hotels. What a contrast.
We ended the day at The Bund, both before and after dark, to take in the stunning skyline along the river promenade and admire the illuminated mix of modern and colonial-era architecture. Before heading back to the hotel, we enjoyed crab dumplings and wonton soup at a small local eatery.
On Monday, we met our wonderful guide, Dinna, in the French Concession neighborhood for a lovely three-hour tour of this Art Deco area—so different from downtown Shanghai’s towering skyscrapers. We passed elegant mansions, tree-lined streets, quirky galleries, and local bakeries. We were surprised by the number of small, high-end boutiques tucked among old residential buildings in this non-touristy neighborhood. At the end of the tour, we had a small meal of crab soup dumplings (yes, again) before returning to the hotel.
After walking 26 miles around Shanghai, we welcomed some downtime at the hotel gym—lifting weights (no treadmill needed), followed by the steam room and sauna, and finally a much-needed green salad for dinner.
Nearly every continent was represented among the people we met on our three walking tours—Brazil, Australia, Slovenia, the UK, Lithuania, Russia, Venezuela (Darryl remarked, “Well, that’s uncomfortable”), Austria, Germany, the Philippines, Mexico, and India. And yes, we were the only Americans.
Two years ago, when we left Beijing, Darryl said, “I don’t need to come back to China.” Shanghai, however, is a complete counterpart to Beijing. There, we saw police, military, and security (black suits) at nearly every intersection and even needed our passports to ride the subway. The city felt far less open or welcoming. Shanghai, by contrast, feels friendly and inviting. We saw very few police and hardly any military presence. Our guide mentioned that the extensive camera system is there to “keep us safe” and spoke candidly about media censorship in China—something people are aware of and have found ways to navigate. Hearing stories from her childhood and from others who grew up under the one-child policy was both unique and fascinating.
This is my sixth visit to China, and each city has its own distinct character. I might be back.
We’re heading out shortly for a rather long six-hour flight to our next destination: Singapore.
Posted on behalf of Jane since she is having wifi difficulties.
Traveling Walters 