Week 4

Last week was the first week I really felt like I ‘lived’ here. I caught myself at various points just looking around myself, and smiling. This place is so random, so messy, so all over the place – and I’m starting to love it.

So last week was the week I discovered the bars….as I mentioned last time, I went to a mixer and met various people, one of whom was a Canadian guy (Mark) who’s here one month every year. Nothing like that, late 40’s, happily married etc just a really friendly guy. Anyway we swapped WeChat details and he sent me a message saying he was going to a Canadian dive bar. So I kind of invited myself along (I was quite tipsy).

This bar was above a hairdressers’. Not even joking. It had pool tables, apparently normally it’s a comedy club too, and for every beer you bought they were giving away promotional underpants. Very very weird.  Anyway, I met some people that Mark had met over his month here – who were lovely. Two of them were married – an English girl and an Irish guy – they were drunk, bonkers and completely lovely. The English girl drank and swore so of course we got on brilliantly. They were off on their honeymoon but we swapped numbers so hopefully we will catch up when they get back and when I get back from the UK. We ended up going back to theirs and having a couple of drinks with another Canadian guy, his Russian wife and an American neighbour.  Then of course getting a cab was horrific at 1.30 in the morning, to the point where the taxi driver was trying to tell me he didn’t know the road I was telling him, despite being one of the main roads in the area.

I also went to a Brits Abroad mixer at a British pub called Abbey Road. Well they said it was a pub but it wasn’t it was essentially a wine bar (I don’t think Chinese people ‘get’ pubs – there was no red velvet sofas with holes in and my feet didn’t stick to the floor). I was concerned that Brits Abroad would be like ‘Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents’, or a load of football hooligans but actually it was the exact opposite. It was lots of married couples who have come out to Shanghai together, normally with one ‘trailing spouse’ ie they’ve moved for a job, normally the husband’s – and so are not working themselves. It made for an interesting evening. First I was told to go inside the bar because that’s where all the ‘young’uns’ were –which means 21 year olds that have just finished uni and have come to see mum and dad. Which is fine but they were all into the all night raving and dance music that I am just too old for!!! So I ended up sitting with the ‘older’ people (who were all closer to me in age anyway). What I found was their experience of Shanghai was, for the most part, completely different to what I have experienced so far or what I’m hoping to experience. For example, they all live in Pudong and rarely venture this side of the river. Only shop in the upmarket supermarkets (where things like a bag of pasta is 4 quid). One couple I spoke to had gotten a taxi over to the bar - it was raining so getting a cab was difficult. Mine cost me 16 RMB, theirs cost them 100. To do about another mile and a half. Why? Because the driver saw them as easy money and jacked the price up. And they paid it, because ‘it’s only a tenner and we needed the cab’. I would have told the driver where to get off and gotten another one.

And then Saturday. Not much during the day and then a housewarming party for someone from work – they live in the French Concession, which is the desired neighbourhood for expats (but is quite far from work, that's why I didn’t bother). She has what’s called a Lane House, which is a traditional Chinese house, no compound, no high rise, Chinese neighbours etc. It was impossible to find, and you had to walk through a Chinese family’s kitchen to get to it – but what a shock when you did – it was completely stunning. Over 3 floors, with a mezzanine for the bedroom, lovely integrated kitchen/diner etc. I had serious house envy. Until I went back to my place and saw my security guard J

Anyway, couple of drinks there and then off to an Aussie bar called Big Bamboo with Mark and a couple of his mates. Ended up meeting some guy from Pret a Manger in the UK who’s here one week a month so we’re going to go out for drinks next time he is here (again, married with kids, don’t get too excited). Not sure what it is but bloke expats seem to be a lot friendlier than girls….

So I ended up leaving Big Bamboo at 3am and walking home (it’s about 5 minutes). Anyone who knows me knows I never walk alone anywhere in the dark – I have no qualms about doing it here. Everywhere is so well-lit, loads of stores are open 24/7 so there’s always people around. Weird but I feel completely safe. I did contemplate going into the 24 hour KFC near my apartment for a late night/early morning snack – but when I peeped through the window the server was asleep on the counter so I didn’t want to disturb her! (Probably better that way).

And then yesterday I ended up walking about 5 miles and sweated it all out – I went past the Jade Buddha Temple (not to be confused with Jing’An Temple) which was a strange experience. It’s a beautiful building but they seem to be in the throes of demolishing it – or demolishing everything around it. The actual building still seems to be intact, but the facade on either side is half torn down and there just seems to be a pile of rubble behind what’s left. Probably making way for another skyscraper but that’s quite sad in my opinion. There’s not a massive amount of character left in that part of Shanghai, and looks like they’ve just ruined it.

I also went to a department store that called itself ‘the Chinese furniture equivalent of Harrods of London’. I took that to mean it was pretentious and overpriced, and indeed it was! I bought a bin. My favourite thing about the entire place was the benches they provide for you to rest on when you’re a bit tired – they already have bronze statues of old men sitting on them. Not really sure why. This place is so random!