Zhaojiazhai

Back to Xia'nan - the neighbourhood of the Shanghai Tesco. This time we weren't in a mad rush to find Meg a toilet (incidentally, the best toilets are often found just *before* exiting subway payzones). We are seeing a completely different face of Shanghai than we saw last time, just over a decade ago. Perhaps some of it is the passage of time, but a big part is no doubt also the fact that this time we are living for an extended period on a Chinese campus amongst ordinary Chinese people. (Last time we stayed with Poppy's Aunt Anne in a serviced expat apartment downtown somewhere.)

First off, a giant modern metalwork piece featuring a piano quartet (with three cellos) complete with performers! It was rather difficult even to get a good photo, as the piano-man is about 10m away from these three giant bears on one side, and a giant bowling pin on another, not to mention a busy 8-lane traffic intersection! A shame that there is so much incoherent clutter on this street corner, as each piece is potentially interesting in its own right and together it makes no sense at all.

Next we headed toward what we thought was a park between Xia'nan and Huapeng metro stations. Dahuabei Park is a wedding venue that comes up as a large blotch of green on Google Maps. It did not seem to be privately-owned, as we were able to walk right up through the gates and wander around the whole place without anyone approaching us. The most interesting feature was the music blaring via these rather cool speakers embedded into rocks!

On the way back to Tesco’s, we caught a snap of this old dude on a bike, selling brightly coloured helium balloons, chatting with his buddy on a three-wheeler, who was cooking corn and yams on a portable gas BBQ. It captured for us the strange mix of new and old, modern and traditional, that permeates our Shanghai experience.

For lunch, we applied the law of the longest queue and the kids joined for a bowl of beef noodle soup牛肉面 at a literally hole in the wall diner. It was super popular with locals from all walks of life and very authentically tasty. The kids even ordered seconds of the sao bing烧饼 - it was pretty cool to see them puff up a bit like roti when cooking!

Last but not least, we had to give the European Charcoal product a try when we saw it again at the Tesco. Which brings us to the quote of the day from Davy (on trying European Charcoal): “OK I’ll try it, but can I stand in the middle of the road? That way, if I vomit, I won’t mess up the store!” It ended up being a really nummy drinkable yogurt, lightly sweetened and perhaps even a bit caramelly.Leia mais