Back to China

Chris and I returned from the U.S. in the middle of December and, fortunately, didn't have long to wait before the girls started arriving.  We had less than a week to get over our jet lag, for Chris to get some work done before his vacation, and for me to catch up with my Tai-Tai friends in Shanghai.

I've been very lucky here in Shanghai to meet some wonderful women and have made some great friends.  We've met some great couples as well, mostly through Chris's work or Peter's friends, but it's the women friends I've met here that have made living in Shanghai a wonderful experience.  Chris doesn't have an office in Shanghai and covers the entire Southeast Asia region, so he travels extensively.  I've loved traveling with him at times, especially our trip to Australia, and the travel we've been able to do in Asia together and with our family, but day-to-day life here would be much harder and lonelier without my friends.

Because of school and work travels, the girls arrived here in Shanghai one a day for 3 days in a row, starting on Friday, December 19.  They each traveled to Elmhurst before flying to Shanghai both because the flight is shorter and direct if you start at O'Hare, but also because they each wanted to spend some time in Elmhurst before and/or after leaving Shanghai before returning to NYC, Ithaca, and Atlanta.  So, we started picking girls up at the airport on that Friday afternoon, when Samantha arrived, even before Chris returned from Ningbo.

On Saturday, before going to the airport to pick up Miranda, Chris, Samantha and I went to a Christmas market at the Kerry Parkside.  We sort of stumbled on it when we decided to go to Johnny Moo's for lunch.  Johnny Moo's is sort of a Johnny Rockets kind of place, with burgers, hot dogs, milkshakes and truly western food, which was a good choice the day after arriving. We also took a trip to the eyeglass market with Samantha, who was more excited about getting extra pairs of glasses and prescription sunglasses than you would believe.  The market is three floors and hundreds of stalls full of glasses and sunglasses, made to order. You can bring in your prescription from home or they'll do an eye exam on the spot.  The good news is, we could order two pairs of prescription sunglasses, a new pair of my regular progressive glasses, and a custom (extra-wide) pair of reading glasses for Chris, all for under $100 US. Samantha was like a kid in a candy store and can hardly wait to go pick up our order this week.

Miranda arrived on Saturday afternoon, so Sunday morning we headed to the Science and Technology Museum, not for the museum, which we've been to before, but for the knock-off markets beneath it.  Miranda and Samantha each had a list of gift items they wanted to buy for friends and, well, so did I, so we went to do some serious haggling.  We were there for two hours, but made a lot of great buys.

Elizabeth arrived on Sunday afternoon.  When we got home, everyone was busying wrapping Christmas gifts, as we had a little Shanghai family Christmas on Sunday evening.  Chris was surprised and excited to get a salt block and a salt block cookbook.  The block of salt can be used to serve cold foods or heated to cook hot foods.  He decided to try it out on Monday morning and made eggs.  While the eggs had a faint salty taste, the block didn't seem to impart too much salt in the cooking process.

Monday morning, we headed to the fabric market so the girls could order some tailor-made clothes.  Again, the market is three floors of hundreds of stalls of fabric and styles of clothing, so we wandered the market looking for things that appealed.  Samantha ordered a new trench coat for her professional, after-college life, as well as a dress and a blazer.  Elizabeth ordered three dresses and some slacks and Miranda ordered two blazers and a dress.  I even ordered a new silk blouse from the same stall I bought one from in March.  We went quickly on Monday morning, knowing that it would take a week for the clothes to be ready so we could pick them up after we got back from Cambodia before Elizabeth had to fly back to the U.S.

By Monday afternoon, the driver took us to the airport for our flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia and 5 days of tropical Christmas celebration, relaxing by the pool, massages, and exploration. 

Thanksgiving in the U.S.

In the middle of November, I flew back to Elmhurst, IL for a short visit to the U.S. to celebrate Thanksgiving with our family.  I was so happy to see my good friend Jane waiting for me when I got off the plane and had a wonderful visiting with her during my 3 weeks in town. I was able to tell Jane, and our friends, family and neighbors, that we are probably moving back to Elmhurst this summer, as Chris has been told he will be  moving to a new position located back in the U.S.  Jane was so happy she cried - which made me happy too! It was great to be able to take our house off the market - now we know why it didn't sell - and start moving furniture around and making a plan for moving back into our own house.

Chris arrived a few days after I did and then we drove to Watkins Glen, NY to meet up with our girls and spend Thanksgiving with my family.  We were both still a little jet-lagged, so we were able to start our 11-hour drive at 3 a.m.  We were lucky that the weather was pretty dry and above freezing on our drive - it makes it so much easier when we don't have to deal with snow and ice.

My sister Patty graciously put all 5 of us up for the week.  Chris and I arrived on Monday, Samantha arrived on Tuesday night, and then we picked up Elizabeth and Miranda on Wednesday.  Patty's daughter Lauren arrived on Wednesday as well, so we had a very full house.  We had some fun dinners out, saw the new Hunger Games movie, and played a lot of cards and games, as always.

Because we were planning to fly to Cambodia for Christmas week, we had our family Christmas gift exchange at Patty's house the night before Thanksgiving.  Good thing, because Samantha got a chance to use her new Kitchenaid stand mixer to make mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner.

Thursday's Thanksgiving Dinner was courtesy of my sister Cim and her husband, as they host for all of his family as well.  That made about 40 people for dinner in the church hall.  It was so nice to see (almost) all of my nephews, their spouses and kids, my niece, all 3 of my sisters and 2 brothers-in-law.  After dinner was over, everyone retired to Patty's house for football viewing, wine and games.

Again, because we wouldn't be in Watkins Glen (or even the U.S.) for Christmas, we brought all of our Christmas gifts for the family with us and had a mini-Christmas celebration at my sister Kate's house on Friday night, gifts and all.  Although it was hard to bid good-bye to everyone before we drove back to Elmhurst on Sunday, we knew we'd be seeing the girls again soon, wen they arrived in Shanghai.  All-in-all, this was a great holiday trip.




We had another two weeks in Elmhurst after Thanksgiving, which was a great chance to catch up with many friends.  I'm so lucky to be able to spend time with different groups of friends while I'm in town and am looking forward to living there full-time again to be able to do so more often.  Again, it was hard to leave when it came time to fly back to Shanghai, but we were both excited for the girls to arrive and start of family Christmas celebration in Shanghai and Cambodia.  

From Head to Toe...

Lately, I've been very busy, going places nearly every day, lots of luncheons and tours and shopping, etc.  Given that I'm going back to Elmhurst in less than two weeks, it's been great getting to spend time with my Shanghai Tai-Tai friends and seeing the sights.  

This week, I attended two very different events.  Tuesday, November 4 was the annual Australian Shanghai Association Melbourne Cup event.  In Australia, they say that the Melbourne Cup horse race is the race that stops the nation - it's a holiday and people even have the day off to watch a 3 minute race.  

In Shanghai, the Melbourne Cup is a (mostly) ladies' luncheon that is mostly about hats, although it does involve watching, and betting on, the race.  Both the women and the men attending the luncheon were dressed to the nines with wonderful outfits and even a fashion show.  Almost everyone wears a fancy dress hat, even me, although I'm not a hat person, other than sun hats.  I had to order a hat on TaoBao for the event, which fortunately cost 19 RMB (just over $3).
 
The good news is that the hat was so inexpensive and I wore a dress I've worn several times before.  The bad news is that I spent $200 US to buy a ticket to a luncheon where I couldn't even eat lunch.  At registration, they asked me if I wanted meat or vegetarian (of course, meat), and asked for any allergies.  I listed them all.  Asking me for the list implied that they would be able to accommodate my needs.


When I arrived at the event, I double-checked that they had my allergies on record and they assured me that the Chef was aware and made provisions.  Unfortunately, even if the Chef was aware, he made no adjustments for it.  I couldn't eat any of the appetizers, and was brought the vegetarian entree.  When I sent it back, they asked salmon or beef and I said beef, if it's safe.  They brought me salmon, which I really don't like.  And they had no plan at all for dessert.  The problem at these events, even if they know my allergies ahead of time, is that there's no provision for alternative options and the wait staff has no idea of my concerns, nor do they speak English.  

The Melbourne Cup could have been a fun event, but it involves a lot of drinking, which is hard to do on an empty stomach, especially as a diabetic.  It was great to see the hats, the gorgeous outfits, even on the men, but the lasting impression I walked away with was not a positive one.  I spent too much money to eat nothing at a luncheon, regardless of the fun everyone was having around me.

I went to a totally different type of event on Thursday, November 6, when we got a guided tour of a foot-binding museum.  Foot-binding is a horrifyingly fascinating  period with a 1,000-year history in China.  It was finally outlawed as part of the Revolution of 1911, when the Emperor was overthrown and the Republic of China was formed.  There are still women alive who have bound feet, although once those bones were broken and the feet were deformed, they couldn't go back to normal.
 

Mothers and Grandmothers of little girls started binding their feet between 3 and 5 years of age.   The girls had to wear shoes all the time and as their feet continued to grow and they eventually they made the girls themselves break a bone in their feet that allowed the feet to be completely deformed. 

We saw a collection of shoes in the museum, which happened to be in the living room of a man who has amassed this collection.  What it appeared like to us was that this whole foot-binding process mostly involved subjugating women to keep them literally shackled to their houses and unable to move about freely.  And mostly, it was all about sex.  

Mothers bound their daughters feet so that they would be appealing to the opposite sex and could make a good marriage.  The girls had to send special shoes to the parents of a possible husband so that they could see how small her feet were and how good a job she did embroidering her shoes.  Then, her mother made her special wedding shoes to put on for her wedding day which included a miniature sex manual inside, since no one talked about sex or what was expected on the wedding night.  We also learned that the most famous prostitute in Canton had incredibly small feet because her foot binding caused an infection which allowed her toes to be amputated, making her incredibly desirable by men in the foot-binding culture.   


The man who put together this museum in his home was very kind and gave us a wonderful tour, via our tour guide, Janny.  He gave us tea and explained his collection to us, shelf by shelf.  He showed us the pictures of him when the BBC interviewed him and the guest book of people who have visited his collection.  The cynical Americans that we are, however, several of us wanted to take a peak at the size of his wife's feet.  :)

Tour of the water town, Zhujiajiao

On Friday, October 17, I went on a Community Center of Shanghai tour to Zhujiajiao with my friends Sandy Foley, Sarah Smith, Jen Manna and her son Brian. 
Zhujiajiao is an ancient town located in the Qingpu District of Shanghai, although it took us nearly two hours to get there from our part of Shanghai.  Our tour consisted of the 5 of us plus 2 elderly Chinese women and three Austrian tourists.  The guide spoke excellent English and was very informative.  

Zhujiajiao may be one of the most well-known ancient water towns near Shanghai, with unique old bridges running across narrow streams, small rivers shaded by willow trees and fresh local cuisine. However, Zhujiajiao is also a tourist town - most of the old buildings in the heart of town have been turned into shops, restaurants and tea houses, all selling the same things I've seen in every other water town.
 
We started our tour at some lovely gardens of the Zhu family which originally settled the town.  We got to see a demonstration of paper cutting, which is a beautiful art form.  It's amazing to me that they make elaborate paper cutting art with no pattern or guide, just by free-form cutting.  The prices were very reasonable, so several of us bought some traditional art work.

The gardens were peaceful and, for a first for me in a water town garden tour, actually contained a garden - a vegetable garden and an area where they were growing rice.  Not much rice, though, as the guide said it's mostly a place for parents to stop and tell their children to study hard or they will end up in the rice patties.  I always love the rock formations.  Our guide said that they took the limestone rocks, put them in the water for 200 years and then sculpted them into the formations we now see.  I even found one that looked like an elephant to me.

After touring the garden, we went out on the main streets of the water town, walking along the edge of the canals, to see the shops and boats cruising on the water.    We got to see locals selling their food, vegetables, and fish, including just-caught and cleaned fillets.  I don't consider it fresh water fish, however, given how far the water is from fresh.  We couldn't even see many fish swimming in the water of the canals, as it was so dirty.  But, there was a lot of interest in the cleaning of the fish, anyway.
 
We walked through the town and made our way to a Shanghai-nese restaurant for dinner.  Once again, I had checked with the tour guides ahead of time and told they couldn't guarantee any of the food would be allergen-free, so I had to bring my own lunch.  Given the cost of these tours, I really wish they'd make lunch optional, so I wouldn't have to pay for food I'm not able to eat.  My friends were mostly uncertain of the food as well, at least to start, but decided that much of it was pretty good.  During lunch, we learned that the Austrian family we were traveling with were in Shanghai visiting family who run the Zotter Chocolate store we had just visited on our tour the previous Tuesday.  I was so surprised, as they live near Graz, Austria, where Samantha had visited the Zotter Chocolate Factory last fall during her semester abroad.
 
After lunch, we continued our tour of the town, including the famous Fangsheng Bridge. We made our way over to Shanghai's first post office, which is about 300 years old. Fortunately, Zhujiajiao was not as crowded on a Friday afternoon as water towns sometimes are, but it was still quite busy.  The pleasant surprise was that the traffic on the way back to Pudong was not nearly as heavy as we expected.

The tour was interesting and the company was fun, although I may have seen enough water towns.  While the canals and bridges are beautiful, the villages have become so tourist-oriented that they feel very similar.  Our tour guide told us that many people sell or rent out their homes in the center of these towns to stores and restaurants and become so wealthy that they buy the newly constructed homes that are popping up everywhere on the outskirts of town.  The only people actually living in much of the old town are the poor who live in the hovels that seem to always be falling down.  It's actually a little sad and the constant calls from the shop keepers to buy their wares is more than a little tiring.  But, we had a beautiful day for our tour and great company, including my friends, the Austrian tourists, and the 85-year-old Chinese woman and her friend who kept up with all the walking this tour involved.  I really enjoyed it and look forward to doing some more tours in the future with my friends, although maybe not of water towns.
 


 

SEA Alternative Shanghai Day Trip

On Tuesday, October 14, I went on an SEA tour to discover another side of Shanghai with my friends Jen Manna and Jenni Rosen, as well as a bus full of other Shanghai Tai-Tais.  

We started out at the magnificent Sanshan Guild Hall built by Fujian fruit merchants in the late Qing Dynasty which has been restored to its early grandeur, including the enormous gilded hall, theater stage and statue of sea goddess Mazu.  Here, going through a museum in the former club, we learned about the regional and commercial clubs of old Shanghai.  When people migrated to Shanghai from other provinces, they often joined the provincial club in Shanghai with others from their province.  These social clubs also provided benefits for the unemployed and helped return the body of a deceased club member to their hometown for burial.

After we left the museum, we headed to the north end of the Bund, walking past the first Christian Church established in Shanghai.  It was a beautiful sunny day with bright blue skies, which one of the best things about fall in Shanghai.  Along the way, we saw a lot of couple in wedding attire taking photos, especially around the church.  Brides were wearing white dresses, red dresses, and green dresses, the traditional colors, as well as other colors.  Chinese couples take their wedding pictures weeks or even months before the wedding takes place, so the couple often takes advantage of a great day, especially since air quality in Shanghai is so iffy.  We had one bad day this week, but most of the time, the air has been clear, which is a nice change around here.

After walking across the Suzhou creek, we  visited the former Astor House Hotel which was the first western hotel in China.  The hotel is still beautiful and many famous celebrities from around the world have stayed there, including President Ulysses S. Grant and Albert Einstein.  The hotel has been renovated, but the old part of the building has been changed into a huge compound with local Chinese living in old hotel rooms as their day to day family home. Because of the location at the north end of the Bund, these homes are quite expensive and fairly prestigious.  We even were lucky enough to have a resident show us around. 
 
Wandering through the old hotel, we were all struck by the traditional homes of the local Chinese, including small hotel rooms turned into apartments, as well as the kitchens that had been built in the hallways.  We saw glimpses of the old grandeur of the hotel, the carved railings and ancient woodwork, but covered in hanging laundry, soaking bok choy, and the detritus of everyday, working life in Shanghai.
 
After leaving the Astor Hotel, we climbed back on our bus and headed out to visit the biggest, and creepiest, Slaughterhouse in 1930s, located in the historic Hongkou District. This eerie Gotham-deco architectural achievement in concrete, glass, and steel, was originally intended for herding cows to their doom.  We all decided that the slaughterhouse, which is now a mall filled with restaurants, cafes, boutiques, and furniture stores, would be a good place for a Halloween party and haunting house.  Our guide said it had recently be used for a fashion show - for me, very similar to a haunted house.  :)

We had lunch at a local Shanghai-nese restaurant and then jumped back on the bus and headed over to the former British Police Station, what used to be prison cells and offices back in the 1920’s now shelter low-income residents living in a Roman coliseum-looking square-shaped compound; 5 story buildings surround a spacious courtyard in the middle which house over 250 families. 

The prison was a startling experience for most of us.  The idea of a family living in an apartment the size of a prison cell, and paying one million RMB (approximately $165,000) for the privilege to do so, was staggering.  The courtyard of the prison, where we could see the residents working on their scooters, hanging their laundry, cooking on the outdoor kitchens, was overwhelming.  

We ended the day at a redevelopment of a historical textile factory on the banks of the Huang Pu River, filled with "outlets" such as Nike and other western retailers.  We were excited to find a Austrian-transplant, the  Zotter Chocolate Factory. While the chocolate is actually made in Austria, there are tastings, a film, and lots of chocolate.  It was a great day with friends and a great look at many off-the-beaten path sides of Shanghai.