“No matter how many ties I experience it, it’s fresh each time. The sensation of restarting distance and motion after extended periods sedentary strikes with rightness at each step. Humans were meant to stride.” – Old Sean
Again Exploring
I’ve earned myself a miniature vacation. After four months with my nose to the metaphorical grindstone, I’ve finally consolidated enough pennies and laundry-change to escape debt entirely.
In celebration, I booked a flight to Shanghai and let my company know I would be taking off work slight early on my last day of work to catch my plane.
I gathered up a single skinny backpack, crammed with a charging cable, one set of clothes, a toothbrush and umbrella before flying out, snoozing and lounging in a tiny seat as I shuttled towards Shanghai.
I love traveling light.
When I finally landed, I met up with a friend, who showed my around Shanghai at its most empty witching hours, from midnight to three AM.
Shanghai Nights
Our nightly explorations took us over wide swaths of a still-buzzing city.
The French Concession is Shanghai’s premium shopping and tourist area. Foot traffic abounds and broad-leafed trees gently bend inwards, making living tunnels down nearly every road.
At night, yellow lamps grin softly between the branches and the occasional car. We walked through a few parks and past building that had closed for night until finally reaching Wukang Mansion (The Normandie Building). This is a cool little structure bisects two roads. Supposedly, the Normandie Building is haunted by an actress from 1968 who dived from the seventh floor after being denounced and her films being famously labeled as “poisonous weeds”. The building has several other disconcerting legends and names circulating around it, such as the “Diving Board” or the Anti-Revisionist Tower during the Cultural Revolution.
Haunted buildings aside, the French Concession is really beautiful. Throughout my stay in Shanghai, I’d be visiting this area with its European architecture, comfortable winding walkways and numerous narrow parks tucked between rich shopping centers.
Shanghai Rise
That night, I took a very short nap before rising again to guzzle coffee. In this instance, it was at the excellent coffee shop known as Bathe Café.
A person should know that coffee is kind of the premiere feature of Shanghai. The entire city competes in a brewing extravaganza where artisanal coffee can be found on every corner. Some are classic, some are novel and some are clear experiments hoping to draw in a crowd. This café, Bathe, was modeled after a bathroom. The gelatinous cakes (which are pretty good) are served as bars of soap while the coffee itself is poured in interesting and marbled styles under decorative water taps.
After getting a snack of walnut bread, I insisted we visit the Propaganda Museum. Unfortunately, the museum doesn’t allow for pictures, so I don’t have any images available. However, for just 25 yuan, I was allowed to browse rare Chinese propaganda pieces dating back before the Cultural Revolution, showing Chairman Mao in his younger splendor, rising alongside his cult of personality. It’s a truly interesting find and I was surprised to find so many unblemished examples. On a side note, the Chinese Propaganda Museum is moving soon to a new location on December 3rd of 2019.
The Propaganda Museum’s new location is at Rm K, 7F, East Tower, Hua Min Han Zhen International Plaza No. 726 Yan An Xi Rd. Shanghai.
Midway Day
Next on the Shanghai itinerary was lunch, which was… challenging. Still located around the French Concession with numerous tourists and day-walkers, every restaurant we considered was painfully packed. After waiting fifteen minutes to be seated in a place that offered us a truly abysmal table, we departed to try out luck elsewhere.
Elsewhere turned out to be a place simply known as The Garden, filled an odd mash up of memorabilia and trinkets. Lights hung on long lines above and a children’s trampoline was actively being used by a birthday party in the courtyard. The décor is worth a look, as it’s crowded with historical icons, antiques behind glass cases and pillows plastered with the Union Jack Flag. I ordered a seafood risotto which was fairly decent.
Afterwards, we made our way to the Ancient City Wall. This is a cool enough feature to look at if it’s on your way around the city, but not exactly a tourist hot point. Entry is less than a dollar (5 yuan) and the building is actively being used as an office. Long-stringed Chinese instruments are on display, and there were children inside practicing simple songs. There was also some cool wood-cut calligraphy I’ve never seen in Asian.
Tourist Whirlpools
Moving forward involved another bracing cup of coffee at a random shop before moving to Yixiulou.
Now, Yixiulou is a famous tourist attraction with stunning Chinese architecture, tourist shops and narrow roads cobbled in random directions. A famous geometric bridge extends over a shallow lake and there are tons of interesting trinkets on every corner.
I absolutely loathed it. It’s crowded, noisy and tacky.
I’m not saying this is a bad sight. Far from it. Objectively, Yixiulou is a great tourist access point for Chinese culture in Shanghai and has a great number of interesting features. I’m say that, for me, personally, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I felt cagey and hemmed in from all sides, with no way out but around and around.
To be fair, Yixiulou is supposedly much better at night, when the shop and building are beautifully lit up. But I didn’t stick around that long.
I was granted a slight reprieve in Yu Garden.
With an entry fee of about forty yuan, fewer people duck into this famous marvel. Greenish water soothingly rests alongside traditional buildings with arcing roofs and red walls. Interiors are on display, showing handsome hardwood furniture and the occasional red lantern glows softly above. Legions of overfed fish, ranging from muddy brown to ghostly white to vivid gold meander towards waterside tourists, hoping for a handout. High above, on roof edges and wall arches dragons and other creatures of Chinese mythos stand as statues. I like Yu Garden a lot, but it was still too crowded for my taste.
Upon exiting and shouldering my way out of Yixiulou, we made it to Gucheng Park, a blessedly quiet green patch. Here, bamboo grows in carefully designed grids, held in place by a network of their deceased brethren laid parallel to the ground. Fat, well-cared-for city cats prowl the bushes, batting paws at one another, nibbling on food left out by caretakers or snoozing greedily in warm sunbeams. Viewing platforms from the park allows for views of the Bund and overall, the park is a really nice place.
Shanghai’s True Skyline
The Bund was the next location on the list. Despite being among the most iconic skylines in the world, the Bund was a dull, mudded grey upon arrival. The sky had grown overcast and lights weren’t due to blink to life for a couple of hours yet. We checked the Bund Psychedelic Tunnel, which branched under the river, but a one way walk through the feature costs around 70 yuan. Pin some Christmas lights inside a toilet-paper tube and stare through it for a few minutes for the same effect. The Bund Psychedelic Tunnel is rated poorly for a good reason.
But that’s okay, because the Shanghai Riverwalk is interesting to see as well. Comprised of Chenyi Square and Huangpu Park, there are a lot of statues, green patches a people striding around this little walkway. Climbing the stairs along the walls to the river revealed a sizeable crowd of people, eagerly awaiting the Shanghai Skyline to blaze to life.
The nightly light show was still quite some time away, however, so we checked out Waibaidu Bridge first which is much better at night, when it’s lit up. We then stopped to see another couple of statues before heading down the road.
The House of Roosevelt is a club and restaurant on the ninth story of a beautiful old building. The service is lousy, the food is pricey, the portions are small and the music is tepid. But if you’re looking for the best damn view of Shanghai at night, this rooftop venue is hard to beat.
Across the river, lights gradually glowed forth, growing prouder every few minutes, until lances of flashing illumination glanced off clouds and reflected in the rivers below.
Shanghai has a fairly sturdy monopoly on quality night life.
A Shot in the Dark
Despite enjoying the river area, we had an appointment elsewhere. My friend had suggested visiting TeamLab, an exhibit on the other side of town.
And let me say, TeamLab puts skyline lights to shame.
TeamLab is a collaborative art group with their most famous location in Tokyo. Using mirrors, lights, mechanics, projectors and motion tracking technology, TeamLab is an absolute maze of color, light and motion that soothes, bamboozles and tingle all at once. Music, strange, instrumental and ethereal echoes from hidden speakers, and it’s impossible not to be astounded by the display. Everything from this setting is disorienting, welcome and alien, making the mind struggle slightly to keep up. The only grounding familiarity, in my opinion, comes in the form of fellow visitors, who are happily taking endless photos of the entire setting.
There are lights hanging in an LED rain, clacking, glowing marbles the size of crystal balls, glass-screen projections in a maze, ponds of orange lilies on rubber wires, rooms of rain that avoids a seated individual, creatures made of flowers walking down hallway walls and blasts of butterflies winging through dark rooms. All surreal displays created spots in my eyes.
TeamLab remains my favorite thing I did in Shanghai.
Almost ready to call it a night, we went to dinner at a restaurant designed beneath a gorgeously-wrought clock-tower. Known simply as Roof 325, this place is modeled on the inside as a sort of New-York historic charm, British class and quiet, excellent food. I had a lovely meal of vegetable noodles before finally calling it a night.
Another Shanghai Sunrise
That night, I slept a total of ten hours, letting my body reset after such an active day. But upon awaking, I delved out again, hunting down more coffee with my friend. Around ten in the morning, we made our way to a place called Knock Coffee.
I ordered the famous Knock Coffee, which is a nifty little drink. The drink comes in a glass cup, the coffee contents protected by a solid shell of chocolate perched on the cup. An actual golden, miniature hammer is offered to the drinker, who must shatter the lid of chocolate before enjoying the pleasant drink.
Afterwards, I still felt hungry, so we ended up at a restaurant known as Husk.
Husk is currently my favorite food location in Shanghai. The food is exquisite and every bite brought me tangible joy. The ginger beer was brisk, the hummus and bread was crisp and not-too-filling, the roasted duck melted in my mouth and the banana dessert brought me lasting satisfaction.
In an attempt to mitigate some of my terrible eating habits, we went to Jing’an Sculpture Park. Located next to a couple of museums, the sculpture park is a very peaceful, artful setting. The sculptures aren’t permanent, but I sincerely hope the judgmental eyes of the multi-headed-white-ground ostrich stays around much longer. People deserve that kind of unwavering treatment and accompanying pleasure.
More Meandering
Next, we tried Shanghai’s exhibition center, which was sadly closed. I stopped for yet another coffee at a chain called Mellower, only to be disappointed. I had heard of a coffee known as “Coffee Mellow” in Shanghai. Supposedly, the coffee is served with a cotton-candy cloud over the cup. The heat of the coffee causes the “cloud” to drip and the coffee to sweeten. Sadly, the item had been discontinued, so I was forced to try a mango coffee instead.
It wasn’t the same.
However, our tour wasn’t completely finished.
Jing’an Temple, the golden Buddhist temple on Nanjing Road is an iconic building of Shanghai. The Jing’an district is named for it, and the outer edge of the temple is filled with Chinese-traditional shops and an authentic little market of shiny trinkets.
The inside of the temple is gorgeously constructed, with four-headed-lion pillars, intricately detailed walls, carefully crafted rails and impressive Buddha temples everywhere. Despite the skyscrapers in the background and supermall just across the sidewalk, Jing’an Temple feels like a beautifully maintained and well-preserved relic.
This was, as my exhausted body demanded, my last sight. My flight was due to leave in the witching hours the following morning, so we spent the remainder of my time in Shanghai watching a season of Supernatural and going out to Hot Pot (I had a yogurt bunny dessert).
Overall, this was my first break, vacation and subsequent trip in nearly three months of non-stop work in China.
And I’ve got to say, seems like I’ve still got it. Re-entering a state of travel and motion felt as natural as breathing a long breath of untainted, crisp, mountaintop air.
I’ll be taking another mini-vacation in the near future, hopefully early December. Until then,
Best regards and excellent trails,
Old Sean
Written November 19th 2019
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Ten years ago, I abandoned my military surplus store backpack for a Farpoint 40 Osprey Travel Pack. I’ve never replaced my bag since. The backpack has been with me around the world, through my departing Beijing and onwards through trips across Europe and South America. I have nothing but praise for Osprey Products.
