Back to Shanghai

Back to Shanghai this week for a client visit. My first real trip back here since March 2005 (the one in October 2006 does not really count in my books, since it only lasted 24 hours, most of which was spent sleeping in the hotel room). I am actually writing this blog entry on-board my return flight to Malaysia.

My first night in Shanghai was spent in the company of my Shanghai colleague, Jamie Zhu. First, it was a mandatory stop for me at one of the tea shops in 城隍廟 Cheng Huang Temple, to pick up a nice box of tea leaves. We attempted to go for dinner at 南翔饅頭館 Nan Xiang Man Tou Guan restaurant (there is a branch at The Curve in Petaling Jaya), famous for its 小籠包 xiao long bao (dumplings). Unfortunately, the long queue was rather discouraging, so we ended up having dinner near Jamie’s apartment instead. Jamie is a really nice girl, and it is always a pleasure being in her company. The only caveat is that her bullet-speed speech coupled with my very poor Mandarin listening skills, mean that I often only end up capturing half of what she is telling me (ironically, I find that we communicate a lot better when writing in Chinese). Despite that fact that she is an English major, I always resist the temptation to speak to her in English, as a way for me to brush up my Mandarin listening skills.

My second night was spent having dinner with Jamie, my other Shanghai colleague Billy Zhang and his wife Margaret. It was a significant dinner for me, not only because it was my first time meeting Margaret, but also because it would be my last dinner with Billy as a colleague, for that was also the day Billy officially tendered his resignation – leaving the company to pursue his full-time MBA. The two of us had a rough start in our collaboration back in early-2005, but we have come a long way, worked very well together in recent times, and I felt a little sad to see him go – he was truly a real pillar of strength at the Shanghai office. We adjourned for coffee at Starbucks outside the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, where Billy shared his vast collection of photographs from his various trips around the globe with Margaret. For reasons already mentioned above, I did not engage much in the conversation. Most of it sounded like Greek to me. I wish I had brought my 555 note book, so that they could write down what they were saying.

(L-R) 粽子 zong zi (dumpling); with Jamie, Margaret and Billy

On the third night in Shanghai, it was back to 城隍廟 Cheng Huang Temple again, this time with Jamie and three of my Malaysian colleagues who were also here on other assignments. This time, I decided that we would brave the long wait at the famed 小籠包 xiao long bao restaurant. It took 30 minutes to get a table and have our orders served. But I figured it was worth the wait, just to be able to say that I have eaten authentic 小籠包 xiao long bao at the xiao long bao restaurant in Shanghai.

(L-R) Jonathan, me, Jamie and Christy at 城隍廟 Cheng Huang Temple; enjoying 小籠包 xiao long bao

I figured that hardly qualifies as a decent dinner, so after the little 小籠包 xiao long bao feast, I suggested that the five of us adjourn downtown for some real food. Off the top of my head, I remembered this restaurant that my ex-colleague PH Lim brought me to – 滴水洞 (literally “The Cave of Dripping Water”), located at the intersection of 陜西南路 South Sha’anxi Road and 茂明路 Mao Ming Road, supposedly famous for its 湖南 Hunanese cuisine. It was quite embarrassing, as I had forgotten how to get there; it took two IDD calls to PH and one local call by Jamie to her friend to locate the place. But the good food made up for the mild fumble! I kind of felt sorry for Jamie, because linguistically, the tables were turned on the poor girl this time. She was in the company of four Malaysians speaking a crude mixture of Manglish (Malaysian English, or mangled English!) peppered with the occasional intrusion of Malay, Hokkien and Cantonese words – simply ghastly to the uninitiated. Well, we did try to accommodate her with some Mandarin!

At 滴水洞 Di Shui Dong Restaurant

A little bit about my hotel room: I stayed at the Four Points By Sharaton, located in 浦東Pudong’s 由由 You You district, and right next to the Shanghai office. The hotel was quite comfortable, except for a few minor niggles:

· There was no bench in the room to put my suitcase, so I ended up putting it on the floor by the door.

· The coffee terrace needs some improvement in guest admittance system for breakfast. On all three mornings, I was greeted by a long queue, with the staff at the front door struggling with the guest list and table allocation. I cannot quite fathom what the problem was, as it seemed to me that the occupancy rate was no more than 60 %.

· The coffee machine seemed to constantly run out of milk and hot water.

· The buffet breakfast selection was identical for all three days.

Well, one good thing is that the room came with an international adapter plug (not that it really mattered, since I normally bring my own, anyway). And there was unlimited Broadband Internet access (Howard-Johnson, the hotel I stayed at previously, charges for room Internet usage by the minute).

Oh, another thing I always enjoy during my trips to Shanghai - listening to the locals speak in the Shanghainese dialect. Especially the taxi drivers. I always get a kick out of listening to Billy and Jamie giving directions to the taxi drivers in the local dialect, and trying to decipher what they are saying. I got into the taxi on Tuesday morning, heading for a client's office in 宜山路 Yishan Road. The taxi driver, a kind-looking lady, mistook me for a local, and asked me in Shanghainese "yi-ze-lu, shi-ve-la? (宜山路, 是否啦?)". I wish I could tell you that I answered her in Shanghainese, but I can't. And it was only much later that I realised that I did know a couple of Shanghainese phrases from my Shanghainese phrasebook at home, and that I could have said "dei, dei" 對, 對 ("correct, correct"), or even ask her "li geh tah me yuoe va?" 離搿笪蠻遠伐? ("Is it far from here?" 離這兒很遠嗎?).

Time check: 2050hrs. I will be touching down in KLIA in half an hour. Will upload this blog entry once I get home. Good night.