Re-exploring Shanghai

Last weekend, one of my close friends Siu came to visit us in Shanghai from New York. It was one of those weekends of exploring Shanghai that I have not done in a while.

We have now lived in Shanghai for nearly 2 years and we have settled into our routines. So it has been a while since we have had a chance to explore the city that we are still newcomers to. We took Siu to some of the typical tourist areas such as Yu Yuan and Jin Mao Tower in Pudong. Since Siu was originally from Hong Kong he wanted to see some of the underbelly of Shanghai that a typical first time visitors to Shanghai might not be interested in seeing.

We took him to the Shanghai old street near Yu Yuan for some local fare. This is not an area where you will find tourists eating local food; this is where the locals, if not the newly minted Shanghai residents from other parts of China would eat. Here are some pictures:







The food stalls in these pictures are serving food from various parts of China and it reminded me that Shanghai has its parallels to New York in its diversity. Its just that in New York the diversity is on a global scale while in Shanghai the universe is within China. This also indicates that the influx of people from other parts of China has accelerated in recent times.

We also had a chance to visit an area called Taikang Lu. This is an area where the traditional houses in Shanghai known as Shikumen are still around. For a basic explanation of Shikumen please refer to this link:

http://www.answers.com/topic/shikumen?cat=travel

Taikang Lu is an area which has become a marriage of the old and new. Shikumen are traditional housing compounds for the local Shanghainese. On Taikang Lu, Shikumen are now being renovated to house cafes, bistros and small art galleries. It has a bit of a feel of Soho with a Chinese backdrop. The last time that I visited this area about a year ago there were only a few shops and galleries open, but now it has become a bustling area that caters to the expats and the younger generation of local Chinese.

I had a very good time showing Siu around Shanghai. It was especially interesting since Siu grew up in Hong Kong before moving to New York so there was a sense that he could relate and understand what we were showing him.