We spent the morning strolling down Nanjing Rd, Shanghai’s big shopping street, + the nearest thing to a western style shopping facility in the whole of China, including Beijing. Except that strolling is the wrong word. Battling describes it better, for the pavement + the street itself was narrow + packed to capacity, a far cry from the vast expanses which served as roads in Beijing, which carried half the amount of vehicles + people. After an hour or so of this exhausting work (I like to think of myself as a city boy, but after an experience like this, I wonder), we made it to the dept store, again, China’s biggest. In case you didn’t know, Shanghai rates top of the tree for quite a few things in China – the biggest city, most Western, + so on. The dept store was a real flop tho’ – big, for sure, but not as well-stocked as many we’ve seen along the way.
We cut thro’ the People’s Park afterwards, + made our way via some back streets to the Yu Gardens, one of the reasons being that it had what was supposed to be a good restaurant right next door. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find out for ourselves because they had just stopped serving lunch. And the Gardens too I thought unimpressive – too touristy, too crowded. There were some gardens within the complex: a formal Chinese garden, for which one had to pay – we had an argument with the lady on the gate about whether we should pay “people’s” price, or “tourist” price. It was all rather silly, we only got involved in it because the woman at the ticket office had sold us people’s tickets, + the difference was not worth fighting about, but it soon became, on both sides, a matter of principle, or, if you prefer, face. For the record, we won, but the prize was not worth the struggle – very dull.
As we had missed our lunch, + had not bothered at all with breakfast, we went out early to dinner, having first spruced ourselves up with a shower – very necessary to shift the Shanghai grime. The first restaurant we tried (from the book) had been demolished, but we carried on further down Nanjing Rd (again) + came to a Szechuan restaurant. For once, our timing was perfect, + we arrived just as things were beginning to get going, but while there were still some empty seats. The meal was nothing more than just alright, however, + certainly nothing like Szechuan food we’ve had elsewhere.
We looked around the Seamen’s Mission afterwards, a remarkably un-Chinese place, + were particularly struck by some beautifully carved chests. They were quite reasonably priced too, but would have cost a fortune to send home. The temptation is strong to do something rash, + just buy one, but the realisation that we could barely lift it keeps us sensible, I think.
We then wandered out to the nearby park along the riverfront, + found a spot secluded enough to smoke our final 2 joints. There were still lots of people around, but fortunately this was laid-back Shanghai, so we weren’t surrounded by curious Chinese. The BH quickly had its desired effect, + we trotted off to see the jazz band which performs in the bar of the Peace Hotel. They were absolutely terrific, playing nothing beyond 1950. My favourite was their medley of Glenn Miller hits.
To finish the evening, we set off to find a place for some quiet love-making. No easy matter – in the hotel, we were separated into single-sex dorms on different floors, + elsewhere there are just too many people. Eventually, we located a spot on the edge of a building site. Hardly romantic, but it served the purpose.
Apologies for the final paragraph – usually I manage to avoid such things, but this was pretty… memorable.
The jazz band at the Peace Hotel were actually pretty famous, but they can’t have survived much longer than this post, for they were all pretty old then. But excellent, all the same, and a real throwback to what must have been a very different China indeed.
