Shanghai Part 2 (8-10)

Saturday was my second and last day in Shanghai. I’m not much of a city person unless there are a lot of interesting places to see, and, for me, Shanghai didn’t have that. My plan was to go to the history museum. Since it was raining fairly heavily in the morning, I delayed leaving the hotel and did a few things to get ready to apply for my new China visa. When I left, I decided to walk to People’s Square and the museum. Since I didn’t know there was a more direct way, I took the long way to Nanjing Road West, which turned out to be OK because I found the metro station I could use to get to the airport without having to change lines.

On the way to People’s Square, I came across People’s Park, which is bigger than the one in Chengdu. Like Chengdu’s People’s Park, there are people advertising for partners, often older people with ads for grandchildren. The ads were posted on umbrellas.

People’s Square is what it usually is in Chinese cities—the area in front of the municipal government building, which is usually called People’s Hall. The museum is opposite People’s Hall. Although the museum is free and there are no tickets, the line to go through security took 45 minutes. It has four floors with exhibits about pottery, ceramics, bronzes, and jade. 

Ceramic pillow

It also has an exhibit about the minorities that has costumes of many of the 54 minorities. Although I intended to go fairly quickly, since I’d just been to the museum in Xi’an, I got caught up in my museum mode and ended out spending three hours wandering through the exhibits.

After leaving the museum, I walked down Nanjing Road East, which I had read is one of the world’s busiest shopping streets. It’s a pedestrian street that has a tram for those who don’t want to walk or don’t want to walk both ways. 

Shortly after entering the pedestrian street, I was greeted by a young man who asked me to take a photo of him and his cousin, and he took a photo of me, too. Then he began chatting more in quite good English. After a few minutes, he invited me to join them for a tea ceremony they were going to. I did, since I was interested in the tea ceremony and they were pleasant to chat with. I enjoyed the ceremony and learned a lot through the man’s interpretation. 

We tasted six different kinds of tea. One has flowers sewn inside a ball of green tea. When it sits in hot water, the ball opens and the flowers are displayed. Another was a fruit tea. Three were types of green tea, and one was black tea. Each was prepared in a different pot. One had special paint that changed color when it was hot. I learned that the teacup with a lid and a saucer has three parts to represent the sky/heaven, earth, and the people/life between them. After the ceremony, they, of course, tried to sell tea. The special was a set of three teas for 600 RMB/$100. This seemed high, but I have seen some expensive teas. Then the man got pushy about my buying the set of three because there was some special deal where if two people bought the set, then one would be free. Or something like that. All his chatter was getting overwhelming. I didn’t have that much money with me, but I considered buying one kind of tea. He offered to pay what I couldn’t so they could take advantage of the special deal. Finally, I said I couldn’t do it. It was then that I realized that the whole thing was a scam. I’d read about this scam and Paul had told about his experience getting caught in it in Beijing. I had been wary on Friday and when I met someone earlier on Saturday, but I was seduced by the friendliness and my interest in the tea ceremony and I was tired from the museum and didn’t think about it. I picked up my money, stood up, and walked past the young woman. Then the man said I could buy one kind of tea. I informed him that this was one of those scams I’d read about where they take advantage of tourists. I thought about giving them no money but decided to leave 100 RMB because I did enjoy the tea and the ceremony and chatting with them. At that point, the man, like Simon in Tongkou, quickly changed from being very friendly to speaking rudely, telling me to just get out. I liked the flowers in a ball tea enough that I bought some at the airport. It was expensive but less than they were charging. I really can’t compare accurately because I don’t know how many balls were in their container, but I don’t think there would have been more than I bought.

After that experience, I continued walking down Nanjing Road. It was pretty crowded but not too bad. It was still possible to walk easily if one was aware. I went to a restaurant on a side street for dinner and bought a few custard tarts that were the best I’ve had. When I returned to the street, it was dusk and the lights were on, adding to the atmosphere. 

I continued on to the Bund, arriving shortly before 7:00. It was crowded—very crowded. People were standing looking at the skyline across the river. So I joined them and was lucky to be in the third row. 

At 7:00 the lights on some of the buildings went on. We waited. Since the people around me waited, I did, too, thinking about the display in Hong Kong and thinking more lights would come on. 7:30 came and went. As a few people left, I moved to the front and waited longer. 8:00 came and went. At 8:30 the people who had been in front of me and were now beside me left. I decided to wait until 9:00. I’m not sure why. But it was a pleasant evening to be out and I was content standing there. No more lights came on.

Sunday I left Shanghai—and China. On the way to the metro, I passed a wall outside a construction site that was covered with potted flowers. What a nice way to block the construction site. Taking the metro was great. When the train stopped after half an hour, I noticed that a lot of people were getting off. I didn’t think we had gone far enough, but a woman told me that it was the terminal stop. It was the terminal stop for that train and passengers got onto another train (no new ticket needed) for the rest of the trip. Interesting. This was a really good way to go to the airport.

As we flew south of Shanghai, the clouds and sky were magnificent. It was the “sea of clouds” that has eluded me at the mountains.