Jing'an Si (静安寺)

On Tuesday, 05 December, the Colour Checker and I took a trip to Jing4an1 Si4 (Jing'an Temple, The Temple Of Peace And Tranquility), which is conveniently located a few subway stops away from Liz's and Ethan's place.  Jing'an Temple's been around for a long time and has had a couple of names throughout the centuries.  While reading the review of this location in Insight Guides, I got the impression that it wasn't a good place to visit.  Haters.  What I saw was AWEsome and far less touristy than other places upon which they had heaped loads of praise.

Before going to the temple, I firstly went to the gym.  I purchased a short-term membership to Will's Gym (威尔士) and I took ample advantage of it.  Afterwards I made my way to Zhong1shan1 Park (中山公园) Station and rode a few stops away to Jing'an Station.  At one of the malls near to Zhongshan Park, I saw an interesting Coca Cola display.

See:  the polar bears aren't in trouble!

Because of the egress from which I exited the subway at Jing'an, I wound-up walking all the way around the temple before finding the entrance.

 

Ah!  Found the entrance!

I walked around and took a few photos.  I should allow them to speak for themselves.

'Fraidy cat!

Rawr!

Silver Buddha 

The life story of the historical Buddha 

Bambi and his girlfriend?

Rawr!

The vegetarian meal I ate after my visit to the temple.  Yum!

After this outing, I headed back eventually to meet Liz for dinner.  She was quite busy throughout my stay because of work, so I was quite glad to spend some time with her.

Bound For The Bund

On Monday, 04 December 2012, I made my way to The Bund.  I decide not to take much money with me because, simply put, I did not want to spend much.  My main goal for the day was to find small buns called xiao3long2bao1 (小笼包), and I figured that I might meet with success there.  When I first exited the subway station, I saw the following.

AAAAAH!  I CAN'T ESCAPE IT!

After wandering around and seeing some interesting things, I was approached by a Chinese person with the English name John.  John wanted to chat with me for practising his English and, upon learning that I am a Canadian, to hear about different places and things in Canada.  He suggested that we either share a meal or a coffee, so I accompanied him to a gafe.  On the way, I started to feel leery of this arrangement, and I told John that I didn't want to go.  He immediately said 'This is not a scam!  Not a scam!'; his response seemed genuine enough for me to join him, provided that I remain vigilant.  When we first arrived at the cafe, he suggested that we look at the menu and, if I be unhappy, we would leave.  I looked at the menu, and I saw a drink which I would order.  I also noticed that each order included a 10% surcharge.  I confirmed with the fu2wu4yuan2 (服务员) that the cost was 43 yuan (and not 39, as advertised), so John ordered two such drinks.  Immediately after we were seated, I told John that I had little money on my person and that he should be clear that I would be unable to pay for his drink.  I swear, you've never seen anyone scramble so swiftly to cancel his order.

Throughout the course of our conversation, I described some things about Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto.  I also told him that I'd recently been in India.  He asked me whether I'd had on my person and Indian or Canadian currency, to which I responded 'I brought very little Chinese money with me; I have no other currency'.  I learnt from him that the most expensive part of driving in Shanghai is neither fuel nor insurance, but the buying of a licence plate, of which few are available.  Many persons apparently go to neighbouring provinces to get licence plates, both because they are more numerous and because they are less expensive to obtain.  Apparently the latter are prevented from using some freeways, however, and the reason for this is to regulate traffic.  At one point, John asked me about my wife (I have none) and my age (he claims that he thought I was 25).  Immediately after that, he complimented me on my 'milky white skin' (I'd been tanning in preparation for my trip to India), which prompted me to try to end the conversation.  After a few more minutes, we parted ways and I continued to explore the local shopping district.

Temperature:  spicy!

Sanctioned vehicles on an otherwise pedestrian-only road

Century Square

AAAAAH!  I CAN'T ESCAPE HIM!

Ultimately, I was unable to find anything which I wanted to eat, so I returned to Liz's and Ethan's place for a nap.

FOOOOOOOD

Sunday rolled around and I decided to go out to buy some snacks while Liz's and Ethan's Ayi did the housework while Ethan was having a swim.

I like Red Meat

Upon returning, I saw that Ayi had prepared lunch for us.  Yum yum!

Not pictured:  clean laundry

After Ethan returned from swimming, he took me to the place where I'd arranged to meet a friend of mine from BLCU, Rie.  The last time Rie and I saw each other was coincidentally a day and a half after I met Ethan for the first time, in Japan, after a trip I'd taken in 2008 to The Philippines.  She's a truly wonderful human being but I'm afraid that I felt uncomfortable while we were becoming reacquainted because her ability in Mandarin has improved immensely while I've been sliding down the learning curve like the banana splits.  Overall, I was really happy to see her, after more than four and a half years apart.

My next destination was Glo London for a dinner to celebrate HY's birthday.  The food was tasty and the company was good.

Pictured:  tasty food

Pictured:  good company

Happy Birthday!

My Passage From India

Hey everyone!  I left India on 30 November and arrived in Shanghai on 01 December, quite early in the morning.  Here's a brief account of that trip and my first day in China.

At the duty-free in Indira Gandhi International Airport, I bought a few souvenirs before settling at a McDonald's to eat a McSpicy Paneer which, I'm happy to report, did not make me ill at all.  In fact, one of the reasons I've taken so long to post anything since leaving India is because I've been well enough to go outside and do things.

Nom nom nom

It's GameTime™!

When I ordered the food from McDonald's, I didn't know that my flight would include a meal.  I was super-stuffed by the end of the meal, in no small part due to the fact that I was unable to eat much throughout my stay in India.  After eating my meal, I settled into a five-hour-long nap which took me almost all the way to Shanghai.

My flight arrived at 05:15, or so, Shanghai time.  I made my way through passport control relatively swiftly and grabbed my bag.  Liz had arranged airport transportation for me beforehand so I was able to make my way to her home by 07:30.  Unfortunately, she was unable to be there because, as she had informed me a few weeks before, she was in Harbin (in northern China) for a sales conference sponsored by her current employer, Hershey.  Instead, I was met by her husband, Ethan, who suggested that I have a nap because I'd not rested enough on the flight.  I lay down on the mattress which is serving as bed and I awakened four hours (which seemed like ten minutes) later.  Ethan went to have a swim and I returned to sleep for another short nap -- this one was five hours long!

After Ethan returned, he helped me to register at the local police station (foreign nationals who do not stay in hotels must do so within 24 hours of arriving if they stay in a city, and within 72 hours if they stay in the countryside).  After that, we obtained a SIM card from China Unicom (due to a misunderstanding, I was unable to get China Mobile for its BlackBerry services, as I had requested).  Unfortunately, because of the lack of BB service, I have no access to the native Google Maps app for BB, and the native e-mail is unable to operate without BS service.  At least I should be able to communicate with my local contact by using SMS, right?

After that, Ethan and I went for dinner at one franchise of a local chain of chicken restaurants at the subway station closest to Liz's and Ethan's home.  Before retiring, I realised that I really should've brought a sweater with me because Shanghai is in the south, and apartments south of the Chang Jiang (长江) don't have central heating.