HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!

What I've done lately...

23 Dec - Went to Xujiahui to take photos of the lovely Christmas lights and trees at night.

24 Dec - Went to a wedding. There were about 250 guests. It was nice and romantic but for us guests nothing really to do. Plus the room was just filled with smoke and making me quite sick. The food was very good though and the band (which was right behind us on a big stage) were awesome.

25 Dec - After a late night didn't feel like doing much. We swapped presents and that's about it.

26 Dec - Went to Novel Place, Xujiahui. First we went to Green Massage at Suite 102, 88 Xingen Lu just off Tianyaoqiao Lu (near Novel Place). We had a 70min all over body massage for 132 RMB each. The place was really nice. It looked like a spa you'd get in a 4-5 star hotel. The lighting was low, and everything seemed tranquil and nicely designed. They gave us silk satin robes to wear (mine was a purpley brown colour, and hubby's was a khaki green colour) and we put our own clothes away into a locker. The way the locker locked is the same at our gym, with a magnetic device.

Then, we were ushered into the massage room with 2 tables inside. They gave us a beautiful wooden Chinese oval shaped box to put our key inside and then this box was put underneath the beds. It was definitely the most thorough massage I think I've ever had and the best butt and leg massage. Afterwards we put back on many layers of clothes, paid, before venturing out into the cold air.

We had dinner at Blue Frog and we think we ordered exactly the same thing as the first time we went to Blue Frog. I ordered nachos (70 RMB). It is fantastic!

Afterwards we did some grocery shopping at City Shop just opposite it.

27 Dec - Stayed at home and bummed around not doing much.





28 Dec - Caught up with a friend I hadn't seen in a long time. We tackled the mega huge "Qipu Lu" wholesale stores. I'd read and heard about this place but never been because 1) it's a bit further out of town and 2) I heard how huge it was so I knew I'd need a lot of time, energy and MONEY. I had time but didn't have that much energy or money but still.. I went there with her and it was great fun. We saw some fake label clothes but I had a sneaking suspicion they were the real deal. I know skeptics would say "Sure, how can you tell? Are you sure?" but I really think I can tell. First of all the styling is Western, the sizing is Western, the quality of the fabric and the sewing, but also the tags both sewn on and the cardboard tags. The printing on fake clothing is usually pretty crap and riddled with spelling mistakes etc whereas on real branded items it's not. Sometimes there are even barcodes and prices listed on the tag (in American dollars).

Afterwards we went back to her place for tea and for dinner. We chatted about everything under the sun, watched a bit of tv, it was great fun and I didn't get home till almost 10pm.

29 Dec - Another bumming around at home not doing much day.





30 Dec - Met up with the same friend again and our hubbies met for the first time. We had dinner in a Japanese restaurant and then hubby and I had a massage (foot, since we'd just eaten). It was FREEZING as anything when we came out.

31 Dec - Wasn't quite sure what to do for NYE. Didn't want to go to the Bund as I knew it'd be mega crowded. Ended up having dinner in Itoya on Huaihai Lu. Yep that's 2 Japanese restaurants in a row! (Btw the food at the first place is good but not as good as Itoya. The service at the first place is really good and the service at Itoya was crap). Then we walked down to Xintiandi. It was pretty crowded with people and the roads were blocked off and there were police everywhere. Since Chinese people don't drink alcohol much it was very tame compared to what I'm used to in Sydney with stupid drunken idiots everywhere thinking they are 'funny'.

I recalled the first time we went to Xintiandi in September and how hot and humid it was and now it was freezing and very dry. So dry that hubby and keep on 'charging' each other every time we touch. Same with strangers too. My hair (now waist length) keeps flying everywhere too and sticking to things. Static electricity is kinda erm.... annoying?

Anyway we got there just before 10 and it was still OK. We realised we had 2 hours to kill. We didn't have a plan and just wandered into that small shopping centre at the end of the XTD block. We went up to the top and I saw a manicure place. I suddenly had this idea it would be good to do as I could kill a lot of time with it. So that's what I did and hubby just rested in a chair there.

After about an hour (including 20mins waiting for an available staff member and 10 minutes drying time) it was done. I got a hot pink colour (don't know the name) by OPI. It was pricey but heck we were in XTD! I also got little diamante thingies - one on each hand, but one of them has already fallen off :( It cost 150 RMB in total.





After that we went back out and went to the famed French bakery, Paul. (photo from shanghaiist). It's only a very small bakery (as most bakeries are!) and really really crowded. Nevertheless we were served quickly and we ended up getting a raspberry custard tart, a slice of apple pie, and two croissants for 90 RMB. Pricey - yes, delicious - you betcha!!

Then we went back to the other side of XTD to get ready to watch the countdown on the big screen. By that time it was about 11:40 or so and it was getting more and more crowded by the second. Towards the last 10 minutes it really was like sardines in a can. Stupidheads also thought they wanted to move through the crowd at the last minute and not getting very far. Also I couldn't see a great deal due to tall people, people wearing bunny ears and lit-up devil's horns on their heads, and people holding helium balloons. Still, the good thing about the crowdedness was that it made us all surprisingly warm. My hands (despite wearing thick fleece lined gloves) had gone from frozen to thawed our warmness. Mmm... toasty.

So we watched the countdown, they we saw and heard fireworks. The fireworks were only a block away but behind some buildings so we couldn't see everything but it was OK. Enough excitement for me I thought. :) After that there was a mass exodus of people pushing towards one direction so I guess we just followed everyone.








Hubby thought it would be impossible to find a taxi, I chose to think positively and what do you know. Voila! We got one almost straight away. The traffic wasn't too bad either. We passed Xujiahui on the way home and saw there must've been a big even there too. I was almost kicking myself we didnt go there instead! There was a massive stage outside Grand Gateway and lots of policemen around. They were just starting to pack up the stage when we drove past and I saw 20 policemen standing around.

Eventually, we got home at around 12:45am.

I will say one more thing - I'll never complain about Sydney being cold ever again. This is the girl who thought 15 deg was very cold and 10 deg is downright freezing. After surviving the last couple of days where it has consistenly hovered around the 0 degree mark I will never take for granted Sydney's moderate climate ever again. Also I still find it so hard to understand how a place that gets to 38 degrees in summer can get to -5 in winter!

Also I have been wishing and wishing .. why won't it snow?
I've tried to read up on why and now snow forms but find it all a bit complicated. I think it has to be rainy or cloudy for it to snow? Since it's been sunny the last few days and will also be the following few days, I doubt it'll snow. Boo hoo.

Things to do in Shanghai...

After having guests stay with us recently I have made some mental notes of what they like to do.

Some are obvious like shop and eat, and shop some more, and eat some more... go to or just look at the Orient Pearl Tower. :)

Others which may not be so obvious but seem popular are:

1. Go to the fabric market. Get something made. If you want a suit you'll need at the very least a full week though. Simple things can be done in about 4 days. Bargain at least 10% if not 20% off! Start with 70% of the price they quote you. Addresses are listed in one of my older posts.

2. Get a massage. Massage places are EVERYWHERE and compared to almost any other country, are dirt cheap. The place we go to we pay 60 RMB for 1 hour for either a full body massage or foot massage. It is located in the Hongqiao/Gubei/Changning area known as "Little Japan" on Xianxia Lu and Zunyi Lu. It is always busy and they do a pretty good job!

When that's done, shop some more and eat some more ;)

Some places I can recommend are:

1. Xujiahui - where you can get anything under the sun, where there are 6? department stores, and the big Grand Gateway mall. Where the geeks can go crazy at Best Buy (or Metro City or Pacific Digital Plaza), and the foodies can go crazy at the top of Grand Gateway and Novel Place, and the shoe-aholics and clothes-aholics can go crazy at any store. My favourites are Pacific and No.6 department store. I can usually find clothes and shoes in there that I like at reasonable prices. The brands at Grand Gateway are generally way too expensive for me (since they are mostly foreign, mostly European brands). For basic staples (plain coloured tops, pants) Uniqlo (in GG) is great. Lots of easy-to-wear, mix-and-match stuff at great prices.

2. Huaihai Lu - previously known as Avenue Joffre, or the "Champs Elysee of the Orient" this road is about 15km long. Yep, mega long. It's divided up into three parts - West, Central and East. Most of the 'action' can be found in the Central part (which is also the longest). I have pretty much walked along the entire street. It is tiring but the most benefit can be gained (for a shopaholic) by walking across most of length of this street (not in the one go!). There is no point to take a taxi and you can take a bus or the subway but you miss a lot doing that since the stops can be far apart. If you are just randomly browsing it's much better to walk, and walk and... walk. Near Shaanxi Nan Lu, Maoming Nang Lu, Huangpi Nan Lu (and in between) there are lots of department stores and boutiques. This street is also the home of wedding dresses and bridal photography stores. One after another, big glass windows with glittering displays of fancy sequinned, frilled, coloured, embroidered, wedding dresses. Billions and billions of different kinds. They must do a good business because day or night, they are filled with customers looking at their large sample albums. I like to take the 911 bus along this street because it's a double decker one and you can feel like a real tourist sitting at the top and looking out the windows. At 2 RMB a trip it's fun just to ride the bus along the whole length of this road to get a feel of what it has to offer you! :) Once you have pinpointed the places that interest you (I actually marked on a map where my favourite stores were), then you can get out and start pounding the pavement.

3. Dain Ti Hill/Neo Tang Dynasty - crazy Chinese modern fushion cuisine. Really tasty. There are chains everywhere but seeing as I just talked about XJH there is one on the 5th floor of Grand Gateway. Usually it's so popular you have to queue for an hour or so but sometimes you can get lucky and only have to wait 5-10 minutes. There is also one in an expat type mall on Huahai Lu near the Hong Kong Plaza. The one with Delifrance out the front.

4. Lynn - modern Shanghainese cuisine. Now I don't normally like Chinese food much but this place was out of this world. It would have gotten a 10/10 if it weren't for the fact that they allowed smoking. The fish with pinenuts was absolutely delicious. It looks like an expensive type of place too (being right near the Ritz Carlton hotel and Nanjing Xi Lu) but for 4 people we paid 490 RMB including drinks.
99-1 Xikang Lu near Nanjing Xi Lu 西康路99-1号近南京西路

5. Wagas - the good ol' staple. My husband is addicted to this place. Opened by an Australian there are now restaurants all over Shanghai. It serves simple, healthy stuff - sandwiches, wraps, salads, pasta for a reasonable price, and great smoothies and freshly squeezed juices. Everything is really fresh! If you go after 6pm they have specials on the pasta. The one on Huaihai Lu near Huangpi Nan Lu is always busy and easily accessible.

Novel Place, TianYaoQiao Lu, XuJiaHui

On 21st November, last Wednesday I went to Xujiahui. I wanted to check out the City shop there. However, I had no idea where it was apart from the fact that it was on Tianyaoqiao Lu. I found it soon enough and found myself in a brand new Western orientated shopping complex called "Novel Place." In the underground level are lots of nice restaurants including Blue Frog (all over Shanghai), and Baby Doll (another one in Raffles City), and the American chain Applebees.







First of all I went to the City supermarket and spent ages there. This one is bigger than the one in Times Square. I also spent ages browsing the books they had there. Decided to buy two: "Bound feet and Western dress" by Pang-Mei Natasha Chang and "Chinglish", a hilarious photo book by Oliver Lutz Radtke. It's been so long since I've read a book and I hate fiction so this biography seemed perfect for me. :) The second one... just because I 'collect' weird books like this!





I also bought some delicious orange-jam-filled chocolate-covered biscuits known as "Jaffa cakes" in England and Australia but these were called "Soft Cake" and were made in Germany. I ate 1/3 box when I got home (oops!)

The best part was I got them to deliver all my stuff to me for free! Yay! So then I was free to peruse XJH without having to carry 2-3kg of groceries.

I then had lunch in Kissho of Tokyo. I don't know why I went there other than I was hungry and went to the first place I saw and I like Japanese. DO NOT GO THERE! That place was an absolute joke and I very rarely have anything bad to say about any restaurant I've been to here. First of all, it was reasonably empty and those that were there had teppanyaki or sushi train so in effect they were only cooking for me. I had to wait 15 mins for my meal. Given it was so quiet this was really unacceptable to me. Second of all, all the plates looked dirty. Thirdly there was an eyelash in my soup, and there seemed to bit bits of fluff (like you get on clothing or fabrics) INSIDE my tempura. OMG. Sickening. I know I should've complained but I just wanted to get the hell out of there. I ate a little bit so I wasn't hungry but certainly didn't finish it all given how gross I felt. YUCK.

This picture is exciting because it's what I believe to be my first (and only) Christmas-decorated building related sighting!! It's the Pacific department store.



This is just a random picture I thought which looked quite nice and almost un-China-ish! :D