1st Real Shanghai Weekend

Aighty, so on the weekend of August 7th I took an awesome little trip to Shanghai. Finally I got out of my small town and into a bigger city. And let me tell you, SHANGHAI IS AWESOME! It is a bigger version of NYC and definitely way cheaper. Going out there for me is like being an Investment Banker in NYC pre 2007. The city never sleeps, and there are things going on all over. We started off by getting in around 730ish (about a 4 – 4.5hr trip for me) and checked into the hotel. The hotel is awesome looking! It has what appears to be a gold pagoda on the rooftop that was all lit up and the room albeit small, was beautiful, immaculate with a very nice bathroom as well. Pictures included.

After I set up shop, showered up, had room service, it was time to hit up the town. We started by going to an underground pub (literally subterranean, it seems to be my Shanghai modus operandi…) for some pool, darts, foosball, and some stout beers, mmmmmm. 7 of us spent about 2-3hrs there shooting the breeze, playing games and enjoying ourselves. After this we needed to grab some food for the one guy who hadn’t eaten. Well luckily right next to the pub were two street vendors selling food. Now although this isn’t for the faint of stomach, let me tell you it was awesome. The first guy had a charcoal grill attached to his bicycle which is an awesome idea. In front of this he had a portable rack system and table. On the racks were different veggies in skewers. On the table was different meat/poultry/fish/etc. on a skewer. Basically it was kind of a-la-carte, and you would just grab whatever skewers you wanted, no labels obviously, and would bring it to him. He would then grill the items for ya. Seasoning an all, it tasted awesome, just need to have an idea of what they are cooking for ya. The other spot behind him was a girl with a wok on a propane burner. And no lie made one mean chow mien. Go figure the best chow mien I have ever had, might have actually come from a street vendor in China…

Well after we were all full, we flagged a taxi and took it to an area known as the French Concession. This was the first really happening area that I have seen. The area is full of bars, clubs, restaurants, and even a bowling alley. We end up going into one club/bar called Zapatas. It was pretty cool. You walk in and there is a huge patio area with a bar, chairs, and people relaxing everywhere. Inside there are two floors, floor one has a dance floor and bar (where the sorority girls decide they need to dance on the bar) and the 2nd floor is some tables, another bar, and a smaller dance floor. Place overall was pretty good. It was mostly ExPats here (American and European) and a few random incredibly hammered Chinese. Also the other thing you can find in these ExPat clubs is what is politely referred to as ‘Temporary Employees’ (think about it and you can probably figure it out). After this we took our beers, walked over to a small pub (no Open Container Laws in China btw) and grabbed a few good American beers at another pub then called it a night.

Next morning we woke up early, had breakfast, and then met up with an HR lady from Shanghai to take us around ‘Metro City’. Now this area is a technology market from all sorts of ranges, from complete knockoff items of computers, parts, eReaders, iPods, to Alienware, Macbook Pros, and even the iPhone 4. Obviously some of this is not supposed to be in China, but still cool to see it all, and its all for the haggling. This isn’t the same as the completely fake ‘Pearl Market’ but you can still get a bargain. We walked around saw different things, one guy made some purchases, and then went back to relax. Later I met up with some local friends, had some pizza, drank some beers, then hit up an underground hipster bar for some live music. Music was kinda weird to say the least. They used a Nintendo DS and a Wii Remote as instruments, but it was cool nonetheless. After this we rolled from club to club making our way through the city. Most places were pretty interesting with the exception of the music. They love their techno music here, and I frankly, do not. Oh well, when in Rome right? End of the night was at a place called Shelter (go figure to end the night at a subterranean techno club). Fun weekend but getting back to the hotel around 530am kinda takes it out of ya.

The next day was some more wrapping up of things, I ended up going back to the Metro City and selling my soul, I mean, buying a 32GB iPhone 3GS. Reason I did this, is because with it I can get my personal and work email with me at all times. Unfortunately my blackberry was working for the shear purpose of receiving/making calls and texts. But I needed more. So I succumbed. All in all the phone is awesome for gaming, ok for calling/texting, and crappy for business since on this version you can’t multitask. As per the deal, it cost me around $500 which is a respectable price for a phone that I knew worked, and could visibly see was defect free. It was interesting to haggle the price down, they put a calculator and write what they are willing to pay, you can laugh off the original price, then put your own. If you don’t think its going anywhere, just walk to the next booth literally 5ft away since they have the same exact merchandise. In the end I think we both got what we wanted. I got a respectable price for the phone, and he got to sell one.

I’m gonna cap it here, hopefully another post later this week as I talk about the other stuff going on, and my upcoming trip to Seoul…