Sept 6-7, 2008 ...CJ and I walk the streets of Shanghai

Ni hao,
Sorry I have not written the last few days. I have been very busy walking 5-7 hours a day and when I get back to the hotel I am pooped and into bed early, and one night I was out to eat with CJ and the guys.
We are having fun here in China, but I will be ready to go back home to my quiet little neighborhood in Disneyland, Japan later this week.
I will write more later today I hope, but right now the weather is nice and sunny, so I am off to see if I can take a river cruise on the Huangpu. I did make 2 photo albums on FACEBOOK about the sights I have seen so far here in Shanghai so check those out..
Well it is about 9pm on MOnday night 9/8 and CJ is out to dinner with the work guys and I just got back from my supper of pizza and salad here in the hotel, so I will try to get you up to date on this past weekend.
CJ had off both Saturday and Sunday and so we enjoyed walking the streets of Shanghai together. Saturday we slept in and then after breakfast I took CJ on a tour of my market street. We saw more fruits and veggies, and then all the seafood and meat products. Fish heads, eel, chicken parts of all kinds ,turtles, bags of frogs, crabs, shrimp,...The oddest thing was the 10 tiny freshly skinned alive birds tied by their feet in bundles of 5. The hearts were still beating and heads twitching. CJ tried to get a video of it but some lady bought the 5 that were moving the most and by the time he got his camera out, they guy already had them in a bag for her. I wonder what kind of birds they were and if she was making soup?
Then we turned down the street I saw from the hotel and had a good show as a man sold a live chicken to a lady and right before our eyes, he slit it's throat, plunged it in hot water to soften the feathers and then plucked them all and butchered it,removed the guts....We then meandered through the streets looking for the french concession.
We passed through another street where they were busy making peking duck, boiling shrimp, tying up crabs to cook....Next stop was down a street that had all kinds of antiques and old trinkets for sale. Mao Sa Tung hats, figurines, pins,....We were looking for the spice market but I don't think we saw it. We did see one guy selling green and gold raisins that were very tasty. Down the road a bit we then came upon a foot massage place and so I went in to see how much it cost. 30 rem for 1 hour, that is $5.00. So I immediately sat down and had my feet pampered for the next hour. First they soaked them in hot rose water....Ahhh! CJ had his fingernails cut by the guy with a straight edge razor while they worked on my feet. Then they said they do full body massages upstairs for 30 rem as well and so of course we did NOT pass that deal up. We both had a full body 1 hour massage for 30rem each. When we were all said and done it cost us 100rem or $16. I couldn't help myself I had to give them each a 10 percent tip. It was too crazy of a price. I felt like a new woman and CJ was more relaxed than ever.
We then continued zig zagging our way through town up and down the streets that looked like they had some action on them. We finally got to the french concession area and enjoyed a walk in the Fuxing Park. It was very busy with families flying kites,little girls working hard paddling paddle boats on the pond. There were many different tables where groups of men were busy playing cards and crowds of more men gathered around the tables to watch. Other smaller tables and benches were full of men playing chinese chess and chinese checkers I think? There were also men and women doing ballroom dancing.
When exiting the park I had a good laugh when the park rules sign stated "No visitors shall urinate or shit"......YES it really said that..see photo. On the street outside the park they were having a Thai festival. We walked past the stands and saw a man carving veggies into flowers, got some travel brochures, sampled some herbal toothpaste, saw a man painting umbrellas, listened to a bit of music....
Then we made our way back to the hotel via numerous other parks and a rest before dinner out with the guys. We ended up at an old historic Irish pub O'Malley's. The boys enjoyed their Guinness beer with some big onion rings, potatoe wedges and Irish meat pies. I ate more grease that night then I have in years and so I stuck with a salad. UGH! The Guinness girls were there and having some kind of pool competition. If you ordered a Guinness you could play for free, but they all declined. CJ and Mike did get their photo with one of the girls. Back home and to bed.
Sunday Sept 7, 2008
Sunday we slept in again and then headed in the opposite direction after breakfast. CJ wanted to walk through Yuyuan Garden area and so we headed that way first. We instantly were swarmed by the watch and bag folks, so needless to say we made our way through there very quickly. We did walk over by the tea house and watched all the people walking across the bridge while watching the coi in the pond below. Next we walked toward the Bund area as CJ wanted to see that area as well. It was a beautiful day out, so quite a few people were around. Continuing on, we walked north of the Bund and around the curve in the river. When we got all the way over there,we could never find the walk along the water. Darn! So we just walked back through all the neighborhood streets and looked for roads that had action. We passed some workers dressed in blue who were all sitting around a big table and having a soup lunch. Then we came upon another huge shopping area and with that more watch and bag guys.:-( There were two guys that followed us for 4 blocks I think. Finally when I turned around and took his picture he left. There were so many people out and about it was ridiculous. I told CJ "NOW this is the crowded CHINA you hear about."
I so do NOT like the whole shopping thing and much prefer my little market streets with all the different looking and smelling foods. I think we hit all the shopping mall like areas in that stretch of town. It was so nice to get to the People's Park and to sit in the green grassy shaded area for a bit. Three college students from some province in the middle of China came by and chatted with CJ and I for about a 1/2 hour or so. They were buisness and english majors and did very well with it.
We then made our way back to the hotel and to the Chinese restaurant. I had won ton soup, black bean chicken,and white rice. CJ had teriakyi beef, garlic veggies and rice. We shared a really interesting and BIG desert. Fruit pancakes. There were 5 very brightly dyed and colored crepe skins folded into rectangles with whip cream and fruit inside. One had banana, another apple, mango, blueberry, papaya. I can't believe someone would eat that all on their own. It was tasty and the waitress Joyce was so cute and sweet. I don't like their English names. I prefer their real Chinese names. Seems more authentic to me.