Day Two - Shanghai
July 27th, 2005 by ktula
Just as i walked out of the hotel, i was greeted this morning by this warm and extremely humid air. You have to be here to experience it. It was about 95 degrees Fahrenheit but it felt like 110.
First order of business for me was to get a prepaid SIM card for my phone. I easily found it at a newspaper/magazine store right outside the hotel. The prepaid SIM cost me RMB 100 and it has a value of RMB 50. Unfortunately, for some reason, i was not able to send any SMS out. I could receive SMS though. Have to figure out what’s up with that.
I spent most of the morning walking in the Jin-An district (静安区). There was a shopping mall called City Plaza which i saw the night before. It is located right next to the Jin-An Temple subway station. I was pretty happy when i found out that there was a food court at the basement of the mall. My initial happiness soon turned into disappointment. I was hoping that i could find some local food at the food court, but the food court has everything but local food !!! I was like, what the ??? It appears to me that the locals find western food more hip than local ones.
Last night, during the cab ride from the airport to the Hilton, the cab driver told me that the “small lobster” (小龍蝦) dish is very popular in Shanghai now. The way he said it, it sounded like it’s the biggest thing that has happened in Shanghai, next to the building of the formerly tallest building in the world. In the morning, Janet sent me a link to a site about eating out in Shanghai. Again, there was this page about “small lobsters”. So around lunch time, i noticed a restaurant that looked really familiar to one i read on the website. I went in there and ordered the most popular “small lobster” dish. Including the main entree, a giant bottle of Pepsi Cola, some clear plastic gloves and a roll of TP (i assumed this was the equivalent of paper towel or napkin, but of course, it could be used for what it was originally intended for - i just never got the chance to try it) for less than RMB 60.
People here seems awfully concerned about the use of their bare hands in eating. For example, last night, i was at a hotpot place directly across from the hotel. I noticed that most people eating there were wearing the same clear plastic gloves. Is the tap water here so bad that people can’t even use it to wash their hands before and after their meal? Anyway, back to the “small lobster”. Prior to being served with the “small lobster” dish, i had assumed that “small lobsters” were just lobsters that were smaller than usual. When my main entree was brought to me, i then realized that they were not lobsters. Damn it, they were nothing but crawfish or crayfish. Don’t get me wrong, the food was good but those were definitely not lobsters.
After checking out of the Hilton, i took a cab ride to the Shanghai train station. I checked into the Hua-Dong Hotel (華東). The good thing is my room came with free “high-speed” internet. The bad thing is the room is a smoking room. I had to call housekeeping to bring what appears to be an air ionizer to help reduce the smoky smell. Hopefully, it will work.
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