That's a Murse...

^Man purse at the Apple Store in Pudong.

Yep, that’s a man purse all right, but more commonly referred to as a murse.  Actually, most men in China, I should say most wealthy men in Pudong, Shanghai, carry these bags and more often than not, they cost about a good portion of my education as you can see from mink fur on this guy’s murse.  This photo was taken while sitting at the Apple Genius Bar at the IFC mall.  Well, for 90% of college students that have a Mac, you might find yourself in China with a problem with your computer.  So, you can just go to Apple’s website, find the nearest retail store, and make an appointment with their Genius Bar, right?  Wrong.  You can never make an appointment online because with Shanghai’s 20+ millions residents there appointments are always reserved.  So what you need to do is march on into the Apple store, find the most senior looking person you can find, and pretend to be really upset about the fact that you can’t make an appointment.  Fortunately, they got me right in to talk with a specialist, but even this situation can be hit or miss because there will still be days when you’ll have to wait 2+ hours.  Just keep your fingers crossed.  The bright side is once you talk to someone, you can expect the same level of customer service that you’d get from Apple in the States.  I came in with software trouble and they came back suggesting I should replace my screen because it looks like there is something wrong with it.  Then they went on to diagnose my software problems.  Uhh, yeah I’ll take a new screen.

            Another service that I wish I had discovered sooner was delivery service in China.  Literally, pretty much name a product and it can be delivered.  Saturday morning, I ordered two shots of espresso, a salad, and a tuna sandwich on wheat bread, from my bed!  This is all coming from Ciao Café, the little Euro style, internet café, conveniently located across the street from the front gate of the SUFE campus.  I consider myself an espresso connoisseur and I typically can’t even consume what most coffee places call “espresso,” but this is probably the best stuff I’ve found in China, owing to their high turnover (fresh beans) and choice of Lavazza Espresso Beans (tolerable).  Beyond the coffee, they’ve got everything from paninis, to fruit drinks, and even pizzas, which I’m not a huge fan of.  But this ordering spree wasn’t over, I finally ordered my groceries from City Shop, and had them delivered that afternoon.  Delivery is free if you spend more than 200 Yuan, which is easy to do, believe me.  Mine was about 500 Yuan but I’m fully ready to open up my own Italian deli with my artisan bread, prosciutto, mozzarella, and coffee constantly brewing.  I think I mentioned in an earlier post, Shanghai has all the comforts of home…if you’re willing to pay for it.

^Sometimes you just have to go for it with some smoked ham, prosciutto crudo, fresh mozzarella, lettuce, avocado, and herbed goat cheese on a fresh grain bread.  Hunter and Chasen would be proud.

Natasha, Jakub, Nikolaj, and I also went to the 88^th floor of the Jin Mao tower this weekend, which was sick!  Perfect shot of the Shanghai Pearl and The Bund from this panorama sweep view, although, I didn’t like looking up at the International Financial Center’s bar, some 15 stories above that, so that’s definitely my next stop.

^88th floor observatory at the Jin Mao Tower.

All these things are great, but I ought to mention keeping your things safe while in Shanghai.  I’ve almost been pickpocketed once, and I actually recently saw it happen to someone else.  One night I walked into a crowded club and as I was walking through the crowd I felt a tug on the back of my pants, snapped around so fast, and started accusing this creepy European guy of trying to pickpocket me.  The guy pointed to his belt and claimed that it had gotten “stuck”.  After Jakub calmed me down, Jakub said to the guy, “Come on man, that’s the second time that has happened to this group,” at which point I really went off because he was definitely trying to take our stuff.  Then another time, I was walking to lunch with my colleagues from Vance Info, and the guy actually managed to get one of the co-workers’ phones out of her pocket, and ironically enough he tried to walk into a store to get away but it was the restaurant we were planning to eat lunch at!  Well, somehow or another, the girl put it all together that this guy had her phone, and she screamed, grabbed this guys hand, which revealed the bunny ears (her phone case, obvi) and made a scene like no other.  This guy booked it, but I stood there with my jaw dropped at what I saw right before my eyes.  Long story short; keep your stuff in a buttoned or zipped pocket, inside your coat, or maybe even a nice murse!

Exploring

^Luxun's home.  He is a famous and relatively recent writer in terms of China's long history of literature. 

Once a boy scout always a boy scout.  We spent the whole weekend exploring Zhejiang province, and Saturday morning we set out early and headed to a mountainous region and walked through Qianzhangyougu (literally translated as 10,000 foot deep valley). It really started to feel like spring with sunny weather and temperatures in he high 60's, so I decided to jump into the river for a swim. The mountain water wasn't quite as warm as the air…

^Picture taken at the aforementioned Qianzhangyougu, this was pretty much my last photo that day and even up until now because as I was handing my camera to friend that day, the camera dropped on the rocks, and then that wasn't good enough as I watched it tumble into the only perfect camera-sized hole in on the rock.

This was all after a night of good fun in Shaoxing.  If you can believe it, China has a lot of developed cities outside of Shanghai and Beijing.  In fact, if you come to China or have studied anything about its development, you will know that second and third tier cities are becoming almost as important to China as its first tier cities (Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.  Back to my point, in the afternoon we got our historic site fix by going to LuXun’s home. Then logically, a few of us found out what Shaoxings night scene was all about at a place called SOS and then G+.  The four of us guys that went out huddled up in the front of G+ and had a pep talk about how tonight was going to be a success.  So we get inside and its a typical Chinese club, (no dancing, only tables), which are full of drinks and food that the 4 people at the table will never finish (I’ll explain a little bit about face (mianzi) in another post).  Then we're just hanging out and a guy literally throws me into the wall as he walking out.  Now when you’re walking through a crowd of course you’ll bump into a few people but this was no bump.  So without giving it much thought I shoved him back and he starts insisting that I go outside with him.  I try to turn around and ignore him, but he grabbed me by the neck at which point in a 3-2-1 countdown, I exploded on this guy and all hell broke loose.  Fortunately, they tossed him out, gave my friends and I a table, we met 6 new friends, and then went back to the hotel for some junior high style fun and played spin the bottle.  Yeah, I'm not sure if you've heard of the 7-year hypothesis, but it essentially claims that at any point in an Asian woman's life, she looks and acts like she's 7 years younger, and that night was no exception.  Ahh, Junior High, the good ole' days.

^G+ in Shaoxing with our new Chinese friends.  You won't find a single picture in China without a peace sign.

We followed this all up by heading to Hangzhou on Saturday night, and we ate the some local delicacies such as mud chicken (use your imagination and it's about what you're thinking), and even ventured out and had scorpions and snake meat.  We felt it was important to have some controlled variables in order to compare cities, so we went to the G+ in Hangzhou, which was just as good as Shaoxing or Shanghai.

Then by Sunday afternoon after a long day of seeing West Lake and Tiger Run, an ancient mountain known for its pure water springs, our group of 30 plus students couldn't agree on anything, and from there a little argument broke out.  If you attend any study abroad with other American students you're bound some have small cliques within the group, and some people won't want to do what the group is doing, it's just human nature.  However, if I could impart one piece of advice, it would be take charge of your own experience abroad, find the things you love to do, and own your experience, but keep in mind that their are other people on the group to consider, and Wang Kai (resident director) does his best to keep everyone happy.

Poking and Prodding

12 Yuan, approximately $1.90, the amount that I paid for my hair cut this week.  I figure for 12 Yuan, one patch of hair missing isn't all that bad.  The fun part about getting your hair cut in China is that even if you know how to describe how you want your hair cut using Chinese, the hair cutter is still going to cut it as they please.  If you're a guy you're going to get this kind of short sided, long top, push over kind of thing that most Asian guys have, and if you're a girl, well...good luck=).

^Small patch missing from the hair line.

Beyond haircuts, my suit didn’t exactly come out as planned.  The custom-tailor experience in China certainly takes a little patience as I found out when I went to pick up my suit for the first time a few weeks ago.  They wrote my measurements wrong and when I tried on the suit for the first time I nearly exploded about how big it was.  I knew then that they would have to alter the suit so much to get it within reason that it would never be right.  Well after they fixed it two times, it was wearable still not tolerable, but its just an example of the chance you take when you have them make your clothes.  I also recently had a long caramel colored cashmere jacket made, and they nailed the fit, so it is a little hit or miss, certainly worth experimenting with though!

^Blue suit with a lighter blue pin stripe.  Red silk with golden dragons that I chose to have the suit lined with.

The weekend was jam packed from Friday afternoon until now, Monday afternoon, as I'm riding the metro to start my first day at my internship at Vance Info.  My teachers asked me to participate in an OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) on Friday afternoon to help train some of the teachers learning how to administer the test.  So I arrive at the Howard Johnson and they tell me they're ready for me to come in.  I walked in to a room thinking it would just be me and one other teacher.  Well they sat me at the front of a boardroom table with nearly 20 teachers there.  45 minutes of Chinese education’s specialty, poking and prodding!

^Literally one or two mouthfuls of every snack Nanjing had to offer.  Best way to discover local food!

From the interview, I got right in the car and headed to Nanjing for the weekend with my roommate and his family for a Chinese wedding.  Fortunately, Friday night was pretty relaxed; we went to Fuzimiao (Confucius’s Temple), which is also an ancient site for administering imperial entrance exams in dynastic china.  Well, it's a little more touristy now.  We rode a boat around the whole area and the ancient architecture was all decorated in red lanterns, bright lights, etc.  Saturday was even more eventful with a trip to the ancient Nanjing city wall, Taicheng, in the morning, a trip to Zhongshan Ling, Dr. Sun Yat Sen's tomb/memorial, in the afternoon, and the Chinese wedding at night. Walking into the wedding was certainly an experience.

^Base of Zhongshanling, great workout hiking those stairs.

Being the only foreigner there, when I walked in the room, there was a solid 2 seconds of silence, and as I walked to my seat, I could just feel every set of eyes in the room burning a hole right through me.  The MC also couldn't resist coming over to the table to see the "foreign friend" and see how my Chinese was.  Fortunately, I managed to get out a few good luck wishes to the newly weds, and thanked them for having me.  Then after as they progressed through the rigmarole that is a Chinese wedding and the bride had changed at least 5 times, they arrived at an event where people would teach the bride to say I love you in other languages. Someone taught them English, so my roommate told me I had to go on stage and teach them Italian. I said, "The Amo!" and thought phew, I'm in the clear let me go sit down. Of course that wasn't good enough and the MC went on to ask me to introduce myself, describe the brides beauty, and describe what my level of satisfaction would be if she were my wife. Umm, well…

^MC getting the show on the road.

Socialism with Chinese Characteristics

            There are still so many industries in China that haven’t discovered the idea of customer service yet.  It must stem from the communist thinking that when a product or service is offered to a consumer, it is offered in one bland form, on the producer’s terms and conditions, and if you don’t like it you can go find another option (wait, there are no other options because there’s no competition.)  Take the past week in the SUFE dorms for example.  When the heater broke in my room along with several other rooms, instead of trying to get the resources together to fix the actual problem, they simply told us to switch rooms, within one hour.  The 阿姨 (pronounced Ah-Yee) working that night was appalled at the idea that she had to open a new room for us, so she gave us a new key and said move it all within an hour.  The best part is now I don’t have internet again because China Telecom (state-owned enterprise of course) requires at least one week before they can get over here to switch my internet service to the new room.  There is no competitor to China Telecom so you will get their service when they feel like it.

^Tea with Moony at Tianzifang.

            But if options are what you’re looking for, then you need to head over to 田子坊 (Tianzifang), which is just a short walk away from Dapuqiao Metro station on Line 9.  This place is hands down the best place I have found to shop for souvenirs, find some decent European style cafés, and even smoke some hookah.  Pretty much to go to any other market and then reference the prices at Tianzifang and you will find that in most cases they are 25-50% cheaper at Tianzifang.  Also, if you’re looking to buy some original art at knock-off prices you’ve got to see the big art exhibit at Tianzifang.  When you walk into the art exhibit walk straight into the first shop and have a cup of tea with the shop owner, Moony (all Chinese people have chosen the most ridiculous English names i.e. Moony, Purple, Kitty, etc.), she’ll tell you all she can about the art.

^Tea set purchased on Tianzifang.  450 Yuan for all of the above, best deal I've found.

            I’ve also had a blast kicking it with my roommate, he’s literally so 高富帅(Gaofushuai [Tall, Rich, Handsome], which equals us saying swag) for a Chinese college student.  In fact, he makes me feel like the nerd sometimes.  His friends had a table at a bar last Wednesday night and unfortunately I had to decline, but he came back at 3:00AM with some wild stories about the gold-diggers at the bar that night.  In the same token, all that swag sort of disappears when they start playing their computer games.  My roommate and his friends are a bunch of 宅男 (Zhainan = computer geeks).  At one point a few of them had bet on a game and played for every waking moment for two days straight.  Get ready to hear them freaking out in Chinese about how they’re lost in the game, or can’t afford the sword they’ve been saving up for.

      

^Roommates playing their online games in my room.  If you look closely at the one all the way on the right you'll see the anime mouse pad with boobs on it that they all have.

             The nightlife in Shanghai is not a bad time.  It’s like New York but newer and flashier.  On Friday night we made it over to Sugar for a free champagne cocktail hour, which happens every friday night and has such a great mix of people from fellow study abroad students, to executive level expats, to some Chinese people.  Then after that we made it over to No. 88 Bar, which has really become of our favorites, and is an awesome time if you’re looking for a more Asian experience, plus you’ll probably get a kick out of all of the Chinese couples’ drunken antics.  They also have shows every night, for example, this past friday they did a Michael Jackson, Adele, and Usher performance, all look-alikes of course.  Saturday we made it over to Bar Rouge on The Bund and the view of Pudong from this top floor club was pretty good. Thatsshanghai.com will likely be your best bet for keeping up with the never-ending stream of events going on in Shanghai.  Look out for the free stuff because you really don’t have to spend much to enjoy this city on the weekends.

^Wealthy Chinaman ordering a flaming tower at No. 88 bar.

             It’s been a fun mix of professionalism and recreation in Shanghai.  Before I arrived in Shanghai, I contacted all of my alumni from GWU living here and one is currently working at the newly launched Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance within Jiao Tong University.  He got me and a friend set up with a ticket to their annual Spring show and I got the chance to meet some of the current and prospective MBA students, as well as watch this most entertaining show.  If you’re vigilant about networking here, you’re going to do just fine because everyone has been doing their best to lend a helping hand.

^Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance's Annul Spring Festival, Chinamen in perfect form.