A long overdue update..

EDIT: this was written a few weeks ago just hadn't got around to posting it.

What I like about life here (and it’s true of every big city I suppose) is the variety. On a weekend recently, I did a huge mix of stuff which kind of sums it up:

Friday night: Drinks at the Boxing Cat Brewery (possibly the best name for a pub ever). There tends to be a few different types of drinking/bar locations in Shanghai that I’ve seen:

-          The crazy streets full of bars that cater for expats. The main one here is called Yongkang Lu (Lu means road), and it’s like being in Benidorm. Or Liverpool. Not my scene at all.

-          The ‘local’ streets – like Danshui Lu. Lots of bars that cater for expats, but are street bars and very small. Generally, the alcohol is also fake which means you will end up with a skull-splitting headache the next day (as I have learned the hard way)

-          The ‘designated areas’ –like Xintiandi. The ‘designated areas’ isn’t the official name for them of course, but what they tend to be is areas of the city that are re-developed, sometimes keeping some of the original architecture, sometimes not. Xintiandi is one of the biggest – it’s old Shikumen style buildings (Japanese) but has been turned into a trendy bar and restaurant area. Caters mainly for people with way too much money and tourists. Unless it’s Happy Hour in which case it’s carnage (mainly Brits and Aussies, I have to say. Maybe our reputation is justified).

Anyway, so the Boxing Cat is located in a Xintiandi-style area called Sinan Mansions which is beautiful, but dead. Apparently, it opened about 5 years ago and was really popular, but lots of turnover of bars and restaurants opening and closing means it’s now not as much of a destination. The bar we were in was busy, but next door a place called ‘Rendezvous’ was completely empty apart from a Chinese woman murdering ‘Against All Odds’ by Phil Collins. And there’s always a new neighbourhood/place to go, again the same as in New York/London I guess.  I also witnessed the worst of expat behaviour – haughty rudeness from a British girl who kicked up such a fuss about a slight smell of bleach that I wanted to smack her.

Saturday day-time:  Brunch with a work colleague and her friend in Tianzifang. Tianzifang (you can read more about it here) is a maze of little side streets off Taikang Lu in the French Concession. Architecture-wise, it’s similar to Xintiandi but it’s not been cleaned and tidied up so it has so much more character. There’s all sorts in there –little markets, bars, restaurants, souvenir shops etc. Hugely busy so not much chance to look around, definitely one to go to early or late (like most tourist places here), but a fantastic atmosphere regardless – it gives you a real sense of place.

Saturday night: the Kung Fu Comedy Club (really). I wrote about a dive bar that was giving out free underpants with beer not long after I got here – well this is its comedy club. Really popular, they do open mic nights and have house and visiting comedians too. There was even a piece about it on CNN this week! This one was a Taiwanese/American who’s been on loads of US shows and was really funny. Then we went to a place called Arcade, which from the outside looked like a prison, not a bar, but once you were inside it was lovely. Also, it’s called Arcade because it has an old Arcade game machine which you can play and it’s projected on the big screen – everything from Mortal Kombat to Pac Man – very cool.

Sunday:  Latin American food festival at a downtown restaurant. Gorgeous day for it, sun was shining, live Latina music in the garden, everybody dancing and loads of great food and wine. I went with a colleague and her Italian friends and it was so much fun – everyone was in such a good mood – couple of pictures below.

EDIT: I wrote this a few weeks ago so before my trip to Singapore – I’ll talk about that next time.