PVG is a pretty nice airport! and full of Expo decor. Customs and Immigration lines were fabulously quick. The immigration official asked if I had a Chinese name. I told him my parents gave me one but it’s not official. He made me write it down on my arrival paperwork anyways.
^Haibao welcomes you to China!Five minutes later while trying to buy get through a metal detector, the rush of Chinese culture came flooding back... First, we have absolutely no understanding of the concept of waiting in lines. Two, we have no regard for other people’s personal space. I was standing in a “line/mass of people” and two people just straight up cut in front of me. I told both to "pai dway." They did, and are now hovering behind me like a bear on honey.
OH EM GEE, the maglev is SO NICE. I found a window seat among some Japanese tourists. They’re taking mad photos. I am too. We just hit 301 kmph!
This train is a beast! It sucks that America is so caught up in arguing and paperwork that we can’t ever have nice things… The Sounder Transit? Ughhh, super lame. After covering 30 something kilometers in 8 minutes, I found Sara!
We took a cab back to her place for only $3 (so cheap!). She lives in Pudong, which is East of the Huangpu River in Shanghai. We dropped everything off and took the subway to People's Square in search of food.
We tried to get some Xiaolongbao, but the hole in the wall place we went to was out for the day… luckily there was a Little Yang’s Fried Dumplings house across the street.
When we walked in, the employees greeted us in Chinese. Then one employee asked the other, “Why are you greeting her? She doesn’t understand!” If only they knew her Chinese is better than mine. We got two orders of Fried Xiaolongbao.
a fierce 3-minutes later:
After the first meal, we tried to find this local bakery that has well made everything, however we found they were shut down… apparently this is quite common here. SOoo, We ventured around Nanjing East Road, and WOW this place was packed! the photo doesn't do it justice, but it was just tons of people everyyywhere.
We made our way to a Taiwanese dessert place that she'd been wanting to visit. She got Mango something and I got a standard issue bubble tea.
After some sightseeing and an adventure in a public toilet (ask me about the girl who couldn’t flush her number-two sometime), we got back on the subway to meet up with my dad’s business contact in Shanghai. He scored Opening Day tickets to the Expo for us. We got out to the burbs and met at a McDonalds. He brought his wife, son, and mother there and we exchanged items. I got them chocolate and a toy 787 for his son. He got us opening day tickets.
Ah yes, the trade imbalance…
After the handoff, we had to make our way back to People's Square Station. We had dinner reservations on the 45th floor restaurant of the Radisson (Epicure 45). We sat next to a 68-yr old Chinese man. Midway through the trip, he turns to me and asks me where Sara is from. I tell him America. Then he asks me where I’m from, and mention America. He informs me that I’m Chinese.
This brings back what happened this morning at immigrations. The locals don't understand the concept of Chinese people being born and growing up in America and referring to themselves as Americans. On the flip side, I refer to myself as Chinese when I'm asked, "what are you" in the states. It's quite interesting... Maybe I'll reply "American/Texan/I'm from Chuck Norris' city" for all future questions of this nature.
The discussion with our new friend continue, he asks if she’s visiting me, and I reply that it’s actually the opposite. You should have seen the look on his face; actually, most people have that same reaction. Chinese guy visiting a white girl in China, what the heck is this world coming to?!
He then proceeds to guess our ages (this guy was good) and asks us to guess his (big fail). Then he tells us a little about himself, he moved to Shanghai to retire after working at a power plant up in Northern China, and he was headed downtown to watch the Expo Fireworks Show.
Then he points to my shorts and sandals and smirks at me. I get confused, he then comments on me wearing shorts, sandals and a t-shirt and quips that it’s not summer yet. In typical/default Chinese fashion, he warns that I’d catch a cold... ahhhahh I smiled and said I was used to this weather in 'Merica (I carried Tiger Balm with me at all times,
just in case). We got to the station and went our separate ways.
Epicurian 45 is a rotating restaurant on top of a tall structure (a la Space Needle or Reunion Tower) with an AMAZING view of everything. We also got lucky, because it was also Expo fireworks night. The food was western and tasty, and the fireworks came on 1-hour late.
After dinner, we had options with meeting up with her bf or some friends she knew. Jet lag was getting to me and so we just tried to get home. The subways were an absolute mess from the crowds watching the fireworks. We got to our train and waited among hundreds of other locals (again with absolutely no personal space). When the train arrived, everyone saw that it was completely packed and the masses let out the loudest collective “AIYAAAAAAA!!!” I’ve ever heard.
This was the last train.
The doors opened and everyone just started pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing. It was one giant
There were battle cries, immense pain, and screams for help. The scene was utterly hopeless. It was a human stampede. There were random hands and arms in my face and I was getting jabbed by everything from everywhere. This was one battle we didn’t win... When the doors closed and we came to our senses, we ran outside with the others who didn’t get on the train and tried to catch a cab.
Half an hour later, we did and made it home.
