I think one of the novelties of being in a foreign country is that I feel twice removed from my Chinese heritage. It is very a surreal and disorienting "out of body" "out of character" "out of comfort" state. It puts into perspective for me what it means to be Chinese. What it means to be the child of immigrant parents. What it means to be the child of Taiwanese-born Chinese parents. What it means to be American-born Chinese. What it means to be an American in a foreign country. A Chinese-American in a foreign country. A tri-lingual Chinese-American in a foreign country. And it makes me wonder how much or how little the people in that place understand this layered identity. How do they process me? All the nuances, the politics, the prejudices, the social constructs, my multi-cultural values, the pieces of my heritage that I choose to wear and the other pieces I've chosen to shed-- They can't they possibly understand any of that, but what do they see instead?

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Shanghai in a Day

Thanks to the beauty of jet lag, I woke up at a brilliant 5:00am this morning. Unfortunately our hotel has the crummiest business and fitness center hours, so as I was unable to reap the benefits of an early riser, the morning was largely unproductive...no matter. My dad and I slowly made our way out of bed and out the hotel to scavenge for breakfast in the morning rain. We found a tiny shop down the street selling bao :) yummmmmm...we bought 8 bao and 2 warm soy bean milk pouches for 13 RMB (roughly $2 USD)...we brought everything back to the hotel and I contently sat crosslegged on the window ledge stuffing my face and looking out on a wet and rainy Shanghai. omnomnomnomnom.

Our first stop for the day: Hotel Indigo Shanghai on the Bund. I had the privilege of meeting with Mr. Bruce Ryde, the General Manager of the hotel, to learn some of his insights on the Chinese hotel industry culture and practices, Hotel Indigo's branding in Asia, and working as an ex-pat. Then his assistant Karina kindly gave us a tour of the hotel. Standing at 184 rooms, this hotel is certainly operating at a different scale than Hotel Indigo Chelsea...

Then, my dad and I walked to the Yuyuan Bazaar and the Shanghai Old Street. A great place to shop and see Chinese architecture just like it looks in the movies...

Then, lunch in the Yuyuan Bazaar. Even in the most touristy spots, food here is ridiculously inexpensive...

We then went to visit the Chinese Pavilion on the (deserted) 2010 World Expo grounds. We got there just 10 minutes after they stopped selling tickets, but after being yelled at, stalked, haggled, hassled, and hustled by this obnoxious ticket scalper...we acquired tickets at an inflated, but still reasonable price. In the grand scheme of things, it was still quite worthwhile.

Then, in the evening we walked up and down the Bund (the riverside esplanade) and took a ferry cruise up and down the Huangpou river. In the past 20 years, Pudong has gone from farmlands to a city of neon and chrome...

Tomorrow afternoon we're off to Beijing!
再見!
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Shanghai

Just arrived in a rainy Shanghai! (I literally haven't seen the sun in 10 days! No matter where I go, as soon as I get there it starts raining! New York, Dallas, and now Shanghai too...)


Going to sleep soon, more to come tomorrow...
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)