“But that's the glory of foreign travel, as far as I am
concerned. I don't want to know what people are talking about. I can't think of
anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a
country where you are ignorant of almost everything. Suddenly you are five
years old again. You can't read anything, you have only the most rudimentary
sense of how things work, you can't even reliably cross a street without
endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting
guesses.”
― Bill Bryson, Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe
Bill Bryson is right. Crossing streets can be terrifying here, and I would be willing to bet much more so in China than whichever city Bryson had in mind while writing that paragraph. Back in the US you're taught to look both ways before crossing the street, but one of the first things I was taught upon my arrival was not to look both ways, but to look in every direction possible before crossing. It's not just the terrible traffic - any major city is going to have that problem - but the terrible traffic in combination with bike and pedestrian traffic.
Crossing most streets is really a three step process. First, you have to cross the bike lane. Usually this is pretty small and can be done in a couple strides. Second, you wait at the median separating the bike lane from the road until the pedestrian walk light turns green. While this may sound a dull task (and does in fact take far too much time), you're kept on your toes as members from the bike lane flippantly ride their way through to cross the street. Finally, you get to cross the street, and though you may have a walk light, drivers turning right often try to push their way through the throngs of people. I think it's safe to say that when considering the desiderata of the Chinese, quality driving skills should not be included.
Over the past few weeks I've been trying out some of the street food around campus. So far, I would have to say that my favorite is the jianbing: a giant crepe cooked on a large round grill with an extra egg or two spread out over the top of it, a sweet sauce (I believe it's hoisin. If not, it's similar), minced garlic, some very spicy minced chiles, lettuce, some crunchy fried dough, and optional bread and sausage. All of this is wrapped together and cut in half for easy eating.
Just down the street, a vendor sells something very similar. I'm not sure whether it's the same thing prepared differently, or if it does have a different name, but it's also delicious. The crepe mixture on this one definitely can't be called a crepe (it's much thicker) and instead of bread, you have the option of adding lamb. I feel like this option is much more filling and better suited for dinner if you buy a couple of them. The best thing is that each of these costs no more than 1 USD fully loaded.
The street food isn't the only thing the streets of Shanghai have to offer. Anyone who visits Shanghai has heard of (or will quickly have heard of) the fake markets. It seems to me that you can find fake markets almost everywhere in Shanghai - there is a pretty big one right outside the west gate of the university I'm attending, but when you hear people talking about fake markets, they're probably referring to one of the 3 major markets: Nanjing lu market, the cloth market, and the leather market. (I hope I have these right! The Nanjing lu market may in fact be one in the same with the leather market). I've only visited the market on Nanjing street, and it was pretty cool, but I'll discuss that in another post. It turns out there are several street markets that are, as a whole, much larger than any of the primary fake markets that most foreigners here of and are much more Chinese. This past weekend I went to visit one.
The first day of Chinese class, my teacher asked me what I thought about China. Not speaking much Chinese, I simply said 'hen hao.' She quickly realized she wasn't going to get much more than that out of me and reverted to English, and the first questioned she asked was whether or not I thought it was dirty. I said no, I didn't think so, because really most of Shanghai that I had seen was very clean. Walking around the city you will constantly see storekeepers sweeping their stores and a small area in front of their store. For the amount of traffic the metro receives, it really is very clean, and if you're in a station late enough you can see several crews mopping their way through.
It wasn't until arriving at this street market that I realized why my teacher would have asked about Shanghai's cleanliness. When you enter the main street it's packed with people, bikes and cars with no discernment between sidewalk and road. The group I was with quickly stepped into a large store and realized it was another fake market - one more traditional than the one we had previously visited.
To say this market was cramped would be an understatement. There weren't too many people there, but there was room for only a single person to move between the rows and rows of stalls, which were mostly set up in cells of 9. Cigarette butts, mud, bits of fabric and other refuse cluttered the floor and occasionally a draft from the outside would bring one of many unpleasant aromas to your nose. As we walked through the rows and rows we saw vendors selling almost anything you could think of. Some sold cell phones, memory cards, DVD's and old laptops that must have been from about 2001 while others sold more practical household items like hammers, sewing needles, nail clippers and razors. And it wasn't just the small things they sold. Head upstairs and there were rows and rows of refrigerators and washing machines. Of course, they also had an abundance of convincing knock-off clothes for sale too.
Crossing most streets is really a three step process. First, you have to cross the bike lane. Usually this is pretty small and can be done in a couple strides. Second, you wait at the median separating the bike lane from the road until the pedestrian walk light turns green. While this may sound a dull task (and does in fact take far too much time), you're kept on your toes as members from the bike lane flippantly ride their way through to cross the street. Finally, you get to cross the street, and though you may have a walk light, drivers turning right often try to push their way through the throngs of people. I think it's safe to say that when considering the desiderata of the Chinese, quality driving skills should not be included.
Over the past few weeks I've been trying out some of the street food around campus. So far, I would have to say that my favorite is the jianbing: a giant crepe cooked on a large round grill with an extra egg or two spread out over the top of it, a sweet sauce (I believe it's hoisin. If not, it's similar), minced garlic, some very spicy minced chiles, lettuce, some crunchy fried dough, and optional bread and sausage. All of this is wrapped together and cut in half for easy eating.
Just down the street, a vendor sells something very similar. I'm not sure whether it's the same thing prepared differently, or if it does have a different name, but it's also delicious. The crepe mixture on this one definitely can't be called a crepe (it's much thicker) and instead of bread, you have the option of adding lamb. I feel like this option is much more filling and better suited for dinner if you buy a couple of them. The best thing is that each of these costs no more than 1 USD fully loaded.
The street food isn't the only thing the streets of Shanghai have to offer. Anyone who visits Shanghai has heard of (or will quickly have heard of) the fake markets. It seems to me that you can find fake markets almost everywhere in Shanghai - there is a pretty big one right outside the west gate of the university I'm attending, but when you hear people talking about fake markets, they're probably referring to one of the 3 major markets: Nanjing lu market, the cloth market, and the leather market. (I hope I have these right! The Nanjing lu market may in fact be one in the same with the leather market). I've only visited the market on Nanjing street, and it was pretty cool, but I'll discuss that in another post. It turns out there are several street markets that are, as a whole, much larger than any of the primary fake markets that most foreigners here of and are much more Chinese. This past weekend I went to visit one.
The first day of Chinese class, my teacher asked me what I thought about China. Not speaking much Chinese, I simply said 'hen hao.' She quickly realized she wasn't going to get much more than that out of me and reverted to English, and the first questioned she asked was whether or not I thought it was dirty. I said no, I didn't think so, because really most of Shanghai that I had seen was very clean. Walking around the city you will constantly see storekeepers sweeping their stores and a small area in front of their store. For the amount of traffic the metro receives, it really is very clean, and if you're in a station late enough you can see several crews mopping their way through.
It wasn't until arriving at this street market that I realized why my teacher would have asked about Shanghai's cleanliness. When you enter the main street it's packed with people, bikes and cars with no discernment between sidewalk and road. The group I was with quickly stepped into a large store and realized it was another fake market - one more traditional than the one we had previously visited.
To say this market was cramped would be an understatement. There weren't too many people there, but there was room for only a single person to move between the rows and rows of stalls, which were mostly set up in cells of 9. Cigarette butts, mud, bits of fabric and other refuse cluttered the floor and occasionally a draft from the outside would bring one of many unpleasant aromas to your nose. As we walked through the rows and rows we saw vendors selling almost anything you could think of. Some sold cell phones, memory cards, DVD's and old laptops that must have been from about 2001 while others sold more practical household items like hammers, sewing needles, nail clippers and razors. And it wasn't just the small things they sold. Head upstairs and there were rows and rows of refrigerators and washing machines. Of course, they also had an abundance of convincing knock-off clothes for sale too.
A picture of the upper floor. A little less cramped than the lower.
When we had seen all there was to see of the fake market, we took the nearest exit and headed downstairs, expecting to be spit back out onto the streets. Instead, we found ourselves in the middle of a grocery store. It was an amazing grocery with lots of individual vendors set up around the perimeter. The most notable items were the pig's face, live turtles, and pots of live eels. I could probably write out several paragraphs describing everything, but it would be much easier to just upload a few photos taken from my cell phone.
Meat selection
A few people picking out some produce
I have no idea what type of eggs are here
Pot of slithering eels
A little more of the seafood
Part of the produce section
After leaving the grocery store we went down a few blocks and into a pet market. Many of the shops were closing up for the night, but there were still plenty open that were housing dogs, cats, rabbits, birds of all sorts, and even crickets. I have no idea why you would buy a cricket. Here in Asia, it's apparently cool to play dress up with your dog. I was lucky to come across a woman buying clothes for hers and was able to snag a picture. It's a little hard to see the dog, so I'll try to get a better picture from somewhere else, but this one was definitely worth trying to get a picture of.
It's hard to see, but this is probably the most fashionable dog I've ever come across.
Our last stop in this street market was the antique street. They had some pretty cool items, but it seemed to me that it was much more touristy than the other streets we had been on. It was much less crowded and, unlike the last few places we had been, most of the vendors were shouting out to us in English to buy something from them: a practice common in the major fake markets that rarely seems to work. They weren't much more successful here.
It was just about to start raining, but the Chinese don't find the rain and clouds dreary the way westerners do, so I doubt that had much to do with the lack of people on this street.
And thus ended the street market adventure.
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