Where is the Real China ?

"Shanghai ? People would tell me 'No..no..no.. Shanghai is not the real China.' Beijing ? 'No..no..no.. Beijing is not the real China.' Neither is Hangzhou, Suzhou, Guangzhou, Xian. After being in China for 10 years, I still don't know where the real China is" - Professor in Marketing Class

Coming to Shanghai for my MBA program, of course, I was one of those people here in search of the elusive "real China". After traveling to Beijing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Xian, Hohhot, Nanjing, I was just being a tourist and did not manage to see the "real China".

I remembered when I first arrived, one of my classmates told me that only a true Chinese could understand Feng Xiaogang's works fully. Almost immediately, I started to hunt high and low for his movies. I appreciate the dry humor in his movies and in fact, he is one of my favorite directors now. Yet, there is always a nagging thought at the back of my mind when I watch one of his movies, "Was I supposed to have laughed at that last line? Am I not Chinese enough to understand him?"

Other attempts to understand the real China included watching the CCTV - 1990 version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It was long, painful, and I had to use English subtitles. Haiz.. Jinyong? Is Jinyong Chinese enough? Going to visit my ancestral village in Guangzhou in end Feb, contemplating learning Chinese art history. Considering that here I was a native Chinese speaker with grandparents from Guangzhou and Fujian, I would think that I was as Chinese as they go. But here lies the irony, I was only Chinese in Singapore and only Singaporean in China.

If I could just make a humble suggestion, there is no Real China. There is a Real China like there is a unicorn, Santa Claus or a real Singaporean. For many people, their version of real china are girls in cheongsams working in the fields, rugged farmers smiling up at them and toilets that are only pits with no doors. A real Singaporean would be Mr Kiasu? Phua Chu Kang ?

In fact, I am sharing to you the most valuable lesson that I have received here. There is no Real China. This is a country so big and varying, filled with people and various extremes. This is something to be experienced on a day to day basis, to see for yourself how diverse all these people are. China, a country that is still evolving and defining itself, and I am glad to have spent the last year being here.

Old Movie Cafe at Duolun Street

Went to the Duolun Cultural Street for a short trip today. Had a quick laugh over a philosopher that lived around the area called Mao Dun - Or Contradiction in Chinese

Duolun was marketed as a cultural street as Lu Xun used to be a resident on the street. Now it has plenty of little stalls, antique and jewelery shops, a blend of the old, new and the tacky.


After shopping for a bit, we found a charming cafe called the Old Film Cafe.



Inside, we had a true globalism moment as we sat down there. Two Singaporeans chatting in English, were watching a old Bollywood movie with Chinese voice-overs in Shanghai.

The Day when the God of Fortune Descend Back to Earth

On the 5th day of the Chinese New Year, the God of Fortune descends back to Earth and people celebrate this occasion by setting off fireworks everywhere. I started off the day by visiting the Jade Buddha Temple in the morning.


I paid extra to buy good quality incense for prayer. I cannot have a repeat of what happened last year again. (Joss sticks breaking in half.. *shudder*)


Anyway, the Jade Buddha Temple has been transformed into a model for economic efficiency. Not your year this year? Come buy the pre-packaged prayer set. Lucky charms? One for every occasion. Incense for every type of prayer that you can dream of .. Just come and get itttttttttttttt... .

Sasha with the Little Grouchy Old Lady

Went to Sasha's to celebrate J's birthday tonight, followed by a visit to the gigolo bar. TO clarify, we watched. AHEM That was all.



Sasha, the mansion that it is housed in, was originally a gift from Soong Ziwen, or Charlie Soong, for his daughter Soong Meiling and Jiang Jieshi as a wedding gift. You might remember the movie about the Soong sisters, one loved money, one loved the country, one loved power. The three sisters were highly educated, the eldest married the richest man in China, the middle sister married Sun Yat-Sen, the youngest married Jiang Jieshi.

In 1943, the house was lost to the Japanese army. In 1950, the building became a music school. And only much later, a group of expatriate businessman leased the house and named the mansion Sasha after the Soong's alleged mistress,

Food was so-so and not worth the price that they were asking for. Be it starters, main courses or the dessert platter that we ordered. But the atmosphere and the cocktails served are fantastic, therefore go there for drinks, soak up the history and read about the characters which are written about in the drinks menu. But go, only go, after dinner somewhere else.


Sasha's
Address: 11 Dongping Lu (corner of Hengshan Lu), Shanghai
Tel: (021) 64746628
Fax: (021) 64679403
Email: steven.burns@sashas-shanghai.com

Temple Fair in Beijing

Going to Beijing at an opportune time for the 庙会 or temple fairs, when I think of temple fairs, I somehow associated them with yukatas and Japan, curious to see my first Chinese one in action, we made our way to the Ditan Park.



Mobs of people, queues to buy tickets to enter the fair, kawaii cow figurines. We made our way into the fair apprehensively, but we were greeted with tons of stalls selling cute little items, food stalls from all over China, game stalls, puppet shows, lion dances, performances in various corners of the park. It was plenty of fun just walking around the park.




Bought a cute little red carp for the New Year...

CNY At Yuyuan

Went on the first day of the Chinese New Year at the Yuyuan Gardens in Shanghai. Since it was the first day of Chinese New Year, both me and J did not want to invoke any bad karma from swearing at people. To illustrate how much I really wanted good karma for the year as opposed to what happened last year, I had on lucky red undies just to be safe.

Maybe we were the only ones who felt about good karma, because even though it was the first day of the Chinese New Year, it did not stop anyone from cutting our queue or shoving us around. By the end of the day when we escaped the masses, we were chanting "karma" like a Buddhist sutra.


Anyway, we made it through the bridge of nine turns in Yuyuan for some good luck after massive amounts of effort.

CNYE Celebrations Along the Bund

Went for a fantastic seafood buffet dinner at the Westin. The Westin in Shanghai has a solid reputation for offering the best brunch in town, after dinner today, I might have to concur. Followed by a fireworks viewing at the Captain's Bar.

Met a Spanish film crew who was just filming the fireworks next to me (I know we are on Spanish TV tomorrow because the camera swung by our face at least 10 times during the night). Walked along the Bund with vendors selling tidbits, trinkets, and best of all, the giant lantern (孔龙灯). Setting off fireworks, and with some of the help from friendly passerbys, we went off our first lanterns after making our new year's wish.

Happy Chinese New Year !


Shaky Video of the Fireworks on the Bund coastline at Captain's Bar


Setting off our first Lantern into the night sky

Happy Chinese New Year !

So looking forward to CNY this year with J flying in, we are heading to Beijing for 3 days and spending the rest in Shanghai. This would be my 3rd trip to Beijing, with Dec 07, Feb 08 and now Jan 09. Even though, this might be my 3rd trip, but there is something about Beijing that I am never tired of...


鬼街 - The Beijing Supper Street


Tian An Men (We wanted to visit Mao's body in the first time we were there, but the amount of people queuing for it was ridiculous)


Leading to the Forbidden Palace .. (The last time I was there, some of the rooms were under serious renovation for the Olympics. In this trip, I will finally see the restored splendor)


Temple of Heaven - Where all the emperors prayed annually to the Gods



Shui Li Fang & Bird Nest


Great Wall


Summer Palace - Went there twice, once in Winter, once in Spring. There is something about the audio guide and the captions in the palace that always made me feel this anger towards the 八国联军. If I can describe the feeling, it would be:"OMG, there was some fabulous XXX thing but the army that came to invade burnt everything down, except for the stone bridge which is inflammable"


Panjiayuan 潘家园 Antique Market - Nothing but junk honestly. Fun though, to bargain for a few trinkets here and there.


Beihai Garden


WangFuJing Food Street


The most delicious yogurt I have ever tasted along Zhong Lo Gu Xiang

Other memorable aspects of my beijing trip, such as the day trip to Tianjin(there's really nothing there..dear god except for really good chestnuts), Lama Temple which was one of the best temples I had seen in China so far, going for a hot-springs bath in the outskirts of beijing, HouHai - the clubbing area by the lake, Beijing's best Peking duck at Dadong ! I can't wait for my Beijing trip, not to mention the Hairy Crab buffet at Westin, Shanghai during CNYE. J J J Come Sooonn

Suzhou Micro & Obituary Title

There was an exercise in my leadership class that wanted me to come up with my own personal mission statement. I couldn't manage to come up with something that I felt comfortable with, so I came up with my obituary.

"She made a shitload of money while being a good daughter, mother, manager and friend"

No photos today, I woke up at 530am to prepare for a company visit in Suzhou. This company was a engineering/manufacturing company comprised of six joint ventures doing equipment like pressure gauges, valves to other parts.

They treated us graciously, we talked to the CEO who reminded me of my own father very much. Walking around these machines reminded me of my Dad's own factory when I was younger, and made me feel rather nostalgic. Here was a man who had no airs, walked around the factory in the same blazing yellow windbreaker as the same as his staff, who talked in simple and power metaphors. Here was a good one that he used to illustrate about cultural differences:-

"A Chinese Soldier and A Japanese Soldier are fighting on the battlefields with their bayonets. They come into close contact with each other and started on a sword fight.

The Japanese soldier will remove the bullets from his gun.
The Chinese soldier, if he loses the sword fight, will just pull the trigger to shoot the Japanese soldier"
In both scenarios, they just did what was normal in their cultures.

The CEO later gave me an autographed copy of his book on his style of leadership and life. My classmate who went with me cannot get over how the factory worker's pay(1500 rmb) in a month was less than his post MBA pay in a day.

The Elusive Xiao Long Bao Hunt

After reading about this xiao long bao report on Chowboard, I was totally embarrassed by my lack of knowledge regarding 德笼馆 the so-called best xiao long bao in Shanghai and I considered myself a foodie ?

Anyway, diet be damned, it was the eve of my birthday. Dreaming about dreamy xiao long baos, I made my way to the legendary shop.


Located on a dingy little street, I noted with a passing glance that many of the buildings were historically preserved by the Shanghai government.


The shop front was small, the interiors were old, dirty and run-down. I ordered my favorite salted egg xiao long bao and the mala xiao long bao. With 6 xiao long baos in a basket, they were slightly better than Jia Jia in terms of the consistency of the dumplings, the skin and the quality of meat. But the soup within the dumplings was a bit bland. For the mala ones, they were filled with chilli oil (never again!)

Considering the pain of locating the shop and the distance from the train station(Nanjing Dong), I would pick Jia Jia anytime for the convenience of the location of its store. The slight difference is not worth the trip.

Job Dating

I went for a job fair and a headhunter event today. Trying to find the perfect job is not easy, very much like waiting for Prince Charming to come and well, not everyone is Cinderella material. Some of us have to be the ugly step-sisters.

With little booths and tables set up for each company and candidates running from booth to booth, a job fair feels very much like a mass speed dating session with a "come, and get some of this". A match made in Heaven takes alot of legwork involved.

Whereas on the other hand, a headhunter event feels more along the lines of, "pimp me pimp me" or "i'm pimp-able material ! " as I run from booth to booth, explaining my strengths like a broken recorder and throwing around CVs like crazy.

Need.A.Job.Soon

The Guinness Joke

Have been trying to meet up with people left right and center ever since I got back to Shanghai. Had a nice lunch with my former group members at this Cantonese restaurant called Charme. Food presentation was solid, light on the oil but not on the taste.

After hearing about my experiences in Ireland, my Israeli teammate had to tell me the Guinness Joke

"The CEOs of Carlsberg, Guinness and Corona walk into a bar.
The CEO of Carlsberg tells the bartender, 'Give me the best beer in the world'
The bartender gives him a Carlsberg.

The CEO of Corona asks the bartender, 'Give me the best Mexican beer in the world'
The bartender gives him a Corona.

The CEO of Guinness tells the bartender, 'Give me a coffee'
The two other CEOs look at him in shock. 'WHY?'
The CEO of Guinness replies, 'I see that we're all not drinking today'"


3/F, Rm.319,
999 Pudong Nan Lu,
Pudong
near Shangcheng Lu,
Metro Line 2 Dongchang Lu Station
浦东南路999号新梅联合大厦3楼319号
近商城路, 地铁2号线东昌路站

Ice, I M Pei, Cold Spell

There is a cold spell over Shanghai currently. Even the fountains in my school are totally frozen over. If it is going to snow, this will definitely be the weekend. Brrrr...


One the things that I had taken for granted in Shanghai was my gorgeous school campus. The school campus is designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. Love it or hate it, the same designer who did the glass pyramids for the Lourve.

Shopping in Shanghai

China - The Factory of the World, afterall everything that we see or buy at home is about 80% made in China, I still remember my initial feelings of arriving in Shanghai. Retail heaven here I come !

Then ...... I saw the shops, the shopping centers, the prices. For the quality and price of local brands, it was not worth it at all. In fact, some of the styles were downright horrible. Imagine a big sunflower right smack in the cleavage of a swimsuit. Fabric, alot of it, it feels like wearing a huge tent instead of a fitting cropped top for 40 sin. Or either that wear something so small and fitting that you risk looking like a trannie from Thailand. NOOOOO. It was like paying Charles and Keith prices for something on sale at the wet market. Haiz ..

After some asking around, I found Qipu road - a wholesale distributing retail center in Shanghai. The local middle class totally shun it, deeming it too chaotic for their liking. It has its fans and its detractors. I, for one, love it. Here was the legendary cheap China goods that I was lusting for! Judge for yourself if a day's worth of haggling and squeezing in a crowd is worth it or not.

Earrings, Diamante Hairclips, Hair Pin - 30 rmb
2 cardigans - 120 rmb
1 spag top - 30 rmb
2 tank tops - 40 rmb
1 bracelet - 10 rmb
2 belts - 40 rmb
1 bag - 30 rmb

In fact, I only bought the bag so that I could hold everything in. (Not included was my fake 30 rmb Agnes B Voyage black coin purse). S$70 for the whole lot.


More conventionally, there are other shopping areas such as
Nanjing Road, HuaiHai Road, => They are alright, if you are looking for international brands. I might not be the most fashion forward person around but the better local Chinese brand designs charge competitive international prices too. As imported goods are priced higher in China due to the taxes instead of home, you might want to stroll down these streets to look for international brands not available at home. Just forget about cheap.

Yuyuan = > There is a small-goods market just located opposite Yuyuan. The idea is similiar to Qipu road, the necklaces, scarves, earrings are dirt cheap there. If you can survive in this place. Qipu road is the place for you.

Shanxi Nan Road and the areas around the old Xiangyang Market => full of little shops that you can haggle in. The prices vary, the collection wide and varying. It is my 2nd fav shopping area in Shanghai.

Shanghai Science and Technology Centre = > In Pudong, located at the metro, this is where one can find all the fake bags and tops that one might desire. Haggle well and haggle hard people, they are used to tourists and they are not afraid to argue. The rule of thumb is that nothing, absolutely NOTHING there is worth more than 300 rmb.

Taobao = > The cheapest place to shop in Shanghai. An auction site becomes a way of life, where supply truly meets demand here. Extensive amounts of goods and variety, courier services, pay-pal like payment online in China only. You can link your bank account to the site or pay for your purchases at the post-office. I would really miss this when I leave China.

Shanghai - The Nightlife

I am back in Shanghai ! Jetlagged, but back. Decided to just walk around my area in Pudong for some exercise, here are some photos.. Across the nice expat area that I live is a street of sin...

First, the bigass dirty KTV 金尊. It is around 3-4 floors high, two times the size of Hotel 81 Chinatown. One can only guess how many hostesses are serving inside.

Down the same street, are the sleazy hairdressing salons. With skimpily dressed women sitting inside, waiting for customers to go in to get their "hair" washed.

Neon Lit Massage parlors, Dimly Lit Pubs with Girls receiving commission from customers buying them drinks, and a conveniently located motel.

All complementary services located down the same street, targeting different income groups. I appreciate the different service offerings in order to cater to a larger demographic.

14 Hours in the Heathrow Airport

Waving goodbye to my friend at 730pm, I wandered off from the newly built Terminal 5 with my 3 big bags weighing a combined 28kg. With such baggage(physically!), I decided to head to Terminal 2 where my flight was supposed to take off at 8:50am the next day.

8pm - Took the Heathrow Express train to Terminal 1-2-3

9pm - Had Coffee and cupcake, bought munchies to last me through the night from Boots before it closes

10pm - Every shop in T2 has closed. Found a spot to camp out, using an 'illegal' power plug to juice up my laptop. All power plugs in the Heathrow airport public areas are supposed to be deactivated, even the staff are not allowed to use them for personal usage.

11pm - Started to browse through the year's supply of Cosmo that I downloaded from www.verycd.com on New Year's Day.

1120pm - Felt my IQ level going down with the flipping of each page of Cosmo. Deleted the whole lot.

1130pm - Started to read Elle. Lasted through a magazine. While the articles are smart and interesting, realized that there were more ads than articles. It felt like a comic book(Look at those pretty pictures called Prada, Gucci and Dior!), but for grown-up women (or men! I'm not judging here).

12am - Couldn't stomach another copy of Elle. Started on the Scarlett Assassin by Margaret Atwood, winner of the Booker Prize. Noticed that more and more people are sleeping around me, on the carpets, on the seats. Munching a bit of candy to keep up the energy levels, so that I will not feel sleepy.

4am - Cannot stop reading the intriguing novel, not even when smelly, homeless man started to sleep near me. Must persist..

5am - Shops start preparing to start up. Finished the novel when I realized that I had read this book previously as I found myself anticipating the endings rather accurately. Dead tired, decided to head off to T1 where my air-ticket had indicated.

6am - Cursing and swearing, as I discover that the ticket was wrong and I was supposed to check in at T2. Brain not working anymore. Couldn't even manage a smirk when the air stewardess got scolded by her colleague for pronouncing Singapore as "Sin - Pore"

630am - Finally got rid of bags !! Tidied up in the toilets, toothbrush, facial foam. Nice, clean and wet. Damn it, I forgot to pack my face-towel in my hand luggage.

7am - Went past the gates ! Shopping time !!! Was ecstatic for 5 minutes when I realize that the number of shops numbered less than 10.

730am - Feeling miserable, tired, sleepy, just want to board my DAMN Plane !!! Plane delayed for an hour. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

735am - Started to freak out as I realize that I would miss my transit flight from Zurich to Shanghai. Hyperventilate! Panic Mode, called for help at the Information Desk, was reassured that the staff at the boarding gate will do something regarding the situation.

745am - The waiting. Oh the dreadful waiting. Tempted to buy 46 pounds LongChamp bag which I always see on the arms of Parisian girls. Bored, started to read the new Jeffrey Archer novel blatantly at WHSmith.

755am - Can I board yet ? Can I board yet ? Runs back to bookstore to continue reading.

805am - Can I board yet ? Can I board yet ? Runs back to bookstore to continue reading. Not even tempted by chocolate, this is BAD

815am - Can I board yet ? Can I board yet ? Runs back to bookstore to continue reading.

830am - Can I board yet ? Can I board yet ? Runs back to bookstore to continue reading.

840am - The status has changed ! I can board the plane !!!! Heads happily to gate, even happier to see that I was not the only one panicking about missing the transit. Not enough energy to even kick up a fuss now..

850am - Can I board yet ? Can I board yet ? Trapped at the 'holding pen', Stares blankly, nods off to sleep, stares blankly

9am - Can I board yet ? Can I board yet ? Yes I can !

920am - Can we take off soon ? Can we.... ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

On My Last Day of London, I Saw The Line

Decided to make a quick day trip to the charming UNESCO village of Greenwich which was fortunately very near where I was staying at Canary Wharf.

The sights and pace of Greenwich was significantly different from Central London, despite the financial district of Canary Wharf being just across the river.


Checked out the Naval College Christopher Wein designed.


The impressive Painted Hall that took 19 years to complete


The Chapel - rebuilt after a fire in 1789

Trafalgar Tavern, where Dickens used to eat at


and lastly, Royal Observatory, Greenwich

The Home of the Greenwich Meridian Line !