Adventures with Chen Li Long!

        We arrived in Shanghai and I was amazed at the number of skyscrapers! I knew that it would be very developed, but the number of buildings in a little absurd. The city basically popped up over night! The majority of the world's cranes are located in Shanghai, working on these huge buildings. I was supposed to travel with Tian, Emerson and Karim to go the the Indian consulate so they could get their visas and then we were going to book flights to Guangzhou, but somehow I missed them.
        Instead, I spent the day with Max (Chen Li Long), Will and Keith. We went to Yuyuan Garden which was packed with people! It was a little overwhelming. But it was still cool to see because the buildings were much older than the rest of Shanghai. Before entering the garden, I hardly felt like I was in China. Everything was so westernized that I felt like I could easily have been anywhere else (other than the fact that most of the signs were in Chinese). The architecture around the Bund (where our boat was docked) is distinctly European, nothing traditional whatsoever. To be honest, I found the area rather boring.
        But then we walked through the gates of the garden and it was like a totally different world! Red paper lantern adorned the street, the buildings were in a more Chinese style and there we lots of nice little alleyways packed with food vendors and small shops. We walked down one of the alleyways to find a dumpling shop. Max did most of the talking for us (since he's from Shanghai) and basically served as our guide. However, he said he never really visits the city because there are too many people for his liking (which I completely understand, I'd stay in the outskirts of town as well if I lived here). He likes his peace and serenity, which is hard to find when your being pushed around by hundreds of people all rushing around to wherever. Nonetheless, he was kind enough to make one trip there to show us tourists around.
        “The garden was first established in 1559 as a private garden created by Pan Yunduan, who spent almost 20 years building a garden to please his father Pan En, a high-ranking official in the Ming Dynasty, during his father's old age. Over the years, the gardens fell into disrepair until about 1760 when bought by merchants, then suffered extensive damage in the 19th century. In 1842, during the Opium Wars, the British army occupied the Town God Temple for five days. During the Taiping Rebellion the gardens were occupied by imperial troops, and damaged again by the Japanese in 1942. They were repaired by the Shanghai government from 1956-1961, opened to the public in 1961, and declared a national monument in 1982. “
        The images wikipedia gives, however, makes the place seem very peaceful and lovely. Yes, it was beautiful, but it was far from peaceful with all the New Years and Expo festivities going on.
        We ate some delicious soup dumplings and kept walking. Everywhere we looked there were decorations for both the New Year and the World Expo. We were in Shanghai during the Chinese New Year, so there were good luck and fortune symbols everywhere as well as images of tigers (since it is entering the year of the tiger). The 2010 World Expo is going to occur in Shanghai, so there were also lots of decorations in preparation for that.
        The symbol of the expo is a blue gumby-like figure; he was everywhere! The extent of decorations was a little excessive in my opinion, and I was totally overwhelmed. But I suppose walking through this is all a part of the China experience. We walked on the famous nine-turned bridge and I felt like herded cattle. There were so many people that I could barely move my arms! There were many lovely ponds and buildings around, but its nearly impossible to thoroughly enjoy them when you have hundreds of people pushing you around and a cacophony of noise is polluting your eardrums. Clearly, I am not a city person.
        I had no interest in the hundreds of thousands of nic-nacs being sold everywhere nor in the chaos. My eyes were so huge with overwhelming shock that Max thought there was something wrong with me. I told him I was fine, just overwhelmed by everything.
        There was a very pungent smell in the gardens. I had also caught whiphs of it elsewhere. Its hard to describe... kind of like burning shit, ie very nasty. I think it was the most pungent smell I've ever come across. Max told me its the smell of stinky tofu, apparently its very tasty and the Chinese love it. I wanted to try some, because he told me it tastes nothing like it smells, but I never ended up succeeding.
        After leaving the garden we went to eat lunch and meet up with Max's girlfriend, who introduced us by her “English name”, Emma. I find it interesting that they all acquire English names, but I supposed it makes sense. We did the same in our Spanish classes. But I'd prefer to call them by their real names, however, they are difficult for me to remember and I probably botch the pronunciation :(  I guess that's why they tell us their English names instead.. because us ignorant English speakers fail and using their real names... :(
        Another of Max's friends joined us and we went on a hunt for a new charger for my camera. They took us to People's Square and we found the electronics department. Max told me his friend is the best bargainer in all of Shanghai, and she agreed to help me find a charger. They guy first wanted to charge 300 RMB (Chinese money, 7RMB=~$1) but she got him down to 150RMB and included another battery! I hate shopping and I'm a terrible bargainer, but it was really awesome to watch her haggle with the guy!
        Then we ate some delicious egg tarts (kinda like a sweet quiche) that are a dish from Macao (which was colonized by the French, so that explains the similarity to quiche) and headed to Max's house for dinner.
        He lives about 20 or 30 minutes outside of the city center in a much quieter part of Shanghai. The area is still very developed, with many tall buildings, but there aren't as many people all over the place. He lives in one of the many communities on the outlying parts of the city. These communities are gated  and a hundred or so families live in each one, often in small quarters (at least compared to the US, with our absurdly sprawled out homes).
        His house was beautiful and his family made us feel very at home! We ate dinner with them for Chinese New Year and then looked at photo albums of Max growing up. His mom was more than thrilled to pull out all the albums, but of course Max wanted her to stop, hahaha. One picture that really stuck me was one from about 12 years ago. Max and his class were on a field trip to Pudong (the modern, business district) and they took a class shot with the Pearl Tower in the background. What struck me was how few building there were! There were only about 3 or 4 tall buildings other than the Pearl Tower. Today, the entire skyline is packed! The city really did just pop up overnight.
        His family didn't speak any English, so I tried to use the few Chinese phrases I knew and we just spent a lot of time laughing. I explored the house a little and there were dead fish and a duck hanging in the bathroom! Apparently, they are for the dishes they prepare for the New Year. They marinate the food and then hang it to dry. I guess the bathroom was a good place to put them because it doesn't matter so much if it smells like fish.
        After laughing at pictures, we returned to the city center. The others went out but I returned to the ship because I needed to be awake early for Sunrise Tai Chi and my trip to Hangzhou!