Shanghai - Day 2
The hunt for a decent coffee continues. Courts heads out on a solo mission to Starbucks. Still expensive ($8 each) still too milky. Better luck tomorrow.
We've booked a train later today to go and see an ancient water town so we've got until lunchtime to explore. We head out on foot in a new direction, destination is a xiaolongbao (soupy dumpling) joint Courts has found. Shanghai are famous for these and we've been here 2 days and still haven't sampled any, much to her chargrin. We arrive at the alleged destination and this place is nowhere to be found. Not to worry, we spy a heaving little hole in the wall with a line up. There's a woman with a huge hot plate serving up some sort of egg in wrap thing. Jeff jumps in line and Courts grabs a sesame covered pastry and a tea egg (egg boiled in tea, soy and spices). We pull up a gutter and dig in. 10/10 breakfast.
Fuelled for now we continue our wander. The surrounds are fairly similar to where we're staying but more boutique type shops. Same beautiful tree lined streets. We pop into the Shanghai library because it looks very impressive from the outside. There's some nice greenery inside but we can't really go anywhere so we bail. We trundle along until we make it to the Wukang Mansion (think a European version of New York's flat iron building). It's nice.
We think we've gotten the gist of this area so it's time to get to train station. A 20 minute Didi and we've arrived. This is a fast train station (not a metro) and it's more like an airport. Very big, very clean. We chow down some wontons (just ok) and then board the bullet.
Reaching speeds of 300kms (you can't tell from inside) we gawk at the scenery we're passing by. Apartment buildings and houses as far as the eye can see. Then farming and a lot of water. 40 minutes later and we've arrived at our destination. It's kind of barren and post apocalyptic. And then a bullet train comes barreling through the station and Courts breaks into a frightful sweat. You have to see it to understand how fast these things go.
We need to get a Didi to the ancient water city, Nanxun. It's a UNESCO heritage listed site famous for its houses backing onto the canals where its high quality silk could be loaded straight onto the boats headed for Shanghai and the rest of the world.
But as we're driving along we're wondering if we're in the right place. We're driving through a modern city with no charm or trees or water for that matter. We get dropped off at the gates and in we go. We're obviously in the right place as there's plenty of tourists around. We wander deeper in and it's definitely an ancient water town-turned tourist destination. Shops selling kitschy crap and plenty of food options. We're not getting much of the history and realise later we probably should have got a guide or hopped on a walking tour. Not to worry. We wander around a bit and buy another of those wrap things Jeff had for breakfast (not as good and with some fairly questionable tasting chicken). We continue on along the canal, which is now lined with mostly restaurants. They seem to be selling the same fair of tea, fruits and nuts (comes with a little stove thing that you cook them on yourself) and crabs (some fighting for their lasts breath, sadly). There's a guy doing a little fishing and A LOT of photo shoots going on. It's a very photogenic back drop.
It's time for a sit down. We park up along the canal and Jeff orders two Tsingtao's in what he thinks is a perfect Chinese pronunciation. The woman he's ordering from laughs hysterically but hands them over. They go down very well and the view is so lovely Jeff's orders another round. The same woman serves us and she can't stop laughing. Poor Jeff.
Whistle wetted we decide we've seen enough. Its a beautiful spot and it's certainly ancient but the tourist-isation of the place kind of takes away from it's charm. A Didi and fast train and we're back in Shanghai. Jeff has found a spot for dinner which serves xiaolongbao and turns out to be the same place Courts was looking for this morning. We find it this time (appears it was just closed this morning). You really can't rely on Google maps here as they don't have access to it in China) and grab a seat at one of 5 tiny tables. There's no xiaolongbao but we get a serve of wontons and dumplings which Jeff proclaims are the best he's had (he's a novice) and Courts says they're pretty good (she's an expert), between gasps for breath because she's gone overboard with the chilli oil.
We trundle on home, tomorrow's another day in our relentless pursuit for a good coffee and xiaolongbao.
