A small wedding and a large tower: my trip to Shanghai

I had planned a trip to Shanghai months ago because a friend of mine wanted to go to her cousin's wedding, and I wanted a sightseeing partner. As the plans for the trip went through periods of fluctuation, it was settled, and me, my friend Nancy (originally born and partly raised in Shanghai) and my Korean friend Ally flew to the international business capitol of China. It was an eclectic vacation, including many of the tourist spots, and other things tourists never see. And all for very cheap. To play off of Mastercard advertisements: Swarovski crystal necklace for the bride of the wedding: 270 HKD. 54 xiaolong bao dumplings: 30 RMB. Ride to the top of the Oriental Pearl Tower: 135 RMB. Trip of a lifetime? Priceless.

When we landed, we immediately went to take the fastest train in Shanghai, which got us from Pudong Airport to the center of Shanghai city in less than 8 minutes, with top speeds of 430 kilometers per hour. After the train ride, and nearly an hour on the subway afterwards, we met with my friend's aunt, who took us to her grandmothers house. My friend Nancy was staying with her family, and my other friend and I stayed at a youth hostel nearby, for only 180 RMB a night. It was a cozy place painted yellow, and it reminded me of dormitories. The people there were polite and helpful, and they all spoke a variety of European languages, and English. They were also more than happy to help me practice putonghua over a mocha, which I did the third night.

Our room was no bigger than a normal hotel room, and even included a private bathroom (although the shower consisted of a hose with a head on the end, and a hole in ground. Every time we took a shower, the floor was covered in water). After putting our stuff away, getting our outfits for the wedding, and drinking a much needed mocha, we went to get ready for the weekend. My friend took us to a place to get our hair done, and I cut mine and got it styled for 20 RMB (approximately 2.50 US). The people there were friendly, and skilled in cutting hair (which surprised me). After we had all been primped, we took a subway to the center of Pudong. Shanghai is split into two main areas, Puxi and Pudong (which is quite logical, xi is west, and dong is east). They are split by the river. The wedding was held in the world financial center, smack in the center of the famous Shanghai skyline. As we exited the subway, we were nearly underneath the Oriental Pearl Tower, the third largest tower in the world.

The wedding was an interesting experience. The groom was my friend's cousin. His fiance (now wife) was so beautiful, wearing an elegant white gown. As everyone entered, the photographer took pictures of each of the guests with the bride and groom. My friend Ally and I felt slightly uncomfortable, as everyone was not speaking Putonghua (mandarin), but instead Shanghaihua, a Chinese dialect that I only marginally understood; my friend Ally only spoke English and Korean, so I believe she felt even more out of place. I was also the only white person in the entire wedding, which I should have expected. They walked down the hallway of the 5th floor of the World financial center as the traditional western wedding march played, and were married under a trellis in the center of the floor. After each of the parents spoke about their child, vows and rings were exchanged, the couple kissed, and then the bride threw the bouquet before heading back to the room for dinner.

The wedding was an interesting mix of western and eastern traditions. Obviously, the white gown, the wedding march that played as they walked down the aisle, and the throwing of the bouquet were all western traditions. However, one could see very clear traces of eastern traditions as well. For example, the parents came up to give speeches about the bride and groom during the ceremony; in a western wedding, this would happen at the reception, but I think they did it this way to emphasize the importance of the parents to the married couple. Also, the bride changed outfits about 4 times during the wedding. She began with the white dress; about half an hour later, she came back in a red dress, and had even redone her hair. I saw her an hour after that, and she was wearing a sparkling gold gown. She ended the evening in casual clothing, which she went to karaoke in after the end of the wedding. Furthermore, the relatives of each side were asked to come to the stage during the reception, and  they went  back and forth singing parts of songs with the word "love" in it. They kept going until they could no longer think of songs. My friend sang the theme song to the movie Titanic.

The food was delicious, and traditionally Asian (although not entirely Chinese) including pig tongue, sushi, and pumpkin. The deserts were more western, and I was especially excited about individualized tirumisu and chocolate mousse. I thoroughly enjoyed explaining to all of the people at the table how tirumisu is made. After we ate, and the couple sang a song together, the wedding ended. We went nearby to karaoke afterwards, and sang a lot of mandarin songs; I sang some English ones, some of which the people in the room all knew (although it was pretty clear they didn't really know what they were saying). This lasted about two hours, and since the three of us could hardly keep our eyes open (we left our campus in Hong Kong at 4:45 in the morning) we went back.

The next morning, we began our day at 8:30 with breakfast at a local restaurant. Dumpling soup and baozi (stuffed buns) for all was a mere 15 RMB (about 2 US, for the three of us). We began the day at the famous Jade Buddha temple, a buddhist temple with two large statues of the buddha, both entirely made out of white jade. We then went to the Shanghai museum (completely on my request). The Shanghai museum is one of the biggest collections of Chinese art in the world, and the paintings, calligraphy, statues, and jades were incredible. Many of the pieces I had studied in art history classes, but seeing them live is a completely different experience. I felt so enlightened  to be there, and be so close to so many things with such a grand historical tradition.

After that, we went to another museum, which, until I arrived in Shanghai, I didn't know existed. My Korean friend had told me at the beginning of the trip that she wanted to go to this museum because it was important to her, and when we got there, I understood why. After the Sino-Japanese war at around the turn of the century, the nationalist government in Korea fled to various places throughout eastern Asia, one of which was Shanghai. About a decade later, the sects of this nationalist government, segments of which were in places such as Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, were unified in Shanghai. The purpose of this revolutionary organization was to fight for Korean autonomy and independence from the oppressive Japanese colonialist government. After Korean unification, the headquarters were hence transformed into a museum under the sponsorship of the Korean and Chinese government. It was very interesting to see the place where their business actually took place., but even more amazing to see how much it meant to my friend.

After that museum trip, we went to the bazaar outside of the yuyuan, a famous small town within Shanghai with the best shopping, and beautiful Ming architecture. It is most famous for the yu yuan (yu garden) itself, as the architecture and landscape is preserved in Ming dynasty style. But instead we wanted to shop, so we peeked in through the gates so we didn't have to pay 40 dollars. In the area, we ate xiaolong bao, the dumplings Shanghai is famous for. They are small and flavorful, and are known for having soup in the middle (as all kinds of dumplings in Shanghai have, actually. My Shanghainese friend told me about dumplings "if it doesn't have soup, it won't sell in Shanghai"). This particular town was known in tour books as having the best xiaolong bao, although luckily we avoided standing in a fantastically long line due to my friend's command of Shanghaihua. Afterwards, we went shopping, since everything was so cheap. Its amazing how much money I spent to save it buying cheap things in Shanghai.

The shops all closed down around 5, so we then walked towards Nanjing Road, another very famous street in Shanghai with the first department stores and large shops in Shanghai. Nanjing Road began developing at the end of the 19th century, and now is one of most famous places to go. The highlight of Nanjing road for me was the large snack shop, 2 floors, with all sorts of interesting and strange snacks, some only local to shanghai (such as mooncakes with pork in the middle). Dried seafood was also very popular, a traditional snack that became popular in the middle of the 19th century. After such a long day, we were all exhausted, and set off towards our hostel.

The next morning we met for breakfast (more dumplings and baozi; we just couldn't get enough at the price!) and then walked along the road where my friend's family lived and went shopping. We bought very cheap leather shoes, and my friends bought designer bras for 20 dollars! After a couple of hours of shopping, we went to meet my friend's aunt for lunch. They had made reservations at a hot pot restaurant, a type of food I had heard of, but never eaten before. It reminded me somewhat of fondue. A large pot was situated in the center of the table filled with soup. I'm not exactly sure if it starts with only soup since we were late, but when we got there it was filled with a large fish head (almost a foot long) and a lot of fishballs (which is ground of fish mixed with what I think was a flour material). When we got there, they began ordering other foods, which were then added to the soup to cook. We then all used chopsticks to pick out food. This included everything from spinach, rice and green bean noodles, tofu, and water lily root. We also progressively added the remainder of the fish. Finally, we had rolled up pieces of uncooked lamb, which we individually held with chopsticks in the soup until it cooked, much like one would in a fondue pot.

After the delicious meal, we went to get our hair shampooed. At first, I didn't understand why we would want to spend an hour to get our hair washed, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. They don't just wash your hair, but instead they take a good 20 minutes to massage your head, and then give you a full back massage. Afterwards, they blowdry and style your hair. All for a mere 10 RMB. It was such a fun experience. After our goodbyes to my friend's uncle, we took the subway to Pudong, where the wedding was. There, we finally got to sightsee. We took a cruise down the Huangpu river, which offered a magnificent sight of the bund. The bund as it is called is a series of beautiful buildings built at the turn of the century in European and American style. It is a beautiful picture of the cosmopolitan history of Shanghai. One of the more interesting buildings on the bund was the Shanghai customs building, built with London architecture common at the time. The original customs building was built under the Qing dynasty in the 19th century, but was torn down, and rebuilt in a western style, a symbol of China's loss of control and autonomy when it came to customs during that time. The skyline was lit up beautifully, with the bund to one side, and the Oriental Pearl Tower to the other.

After the river cruise we went to ride the elevator of the Oriental pearl tower, which quickly rocketed us up 360 stories to the top ball. There we were given a beautiful view of the entirety of Shanghai. We could see the yuyuan, the bund, and the rest of the entire city completely lit up. Even though it was cold (in the first ball, 90 stories up, we could sightsee outside; the other two balls were indoors) it was worth it for the view. We then spent time in the museum in the lobby, a wonderfully put together museum that showed the development of Shanghai as a city. It was split into 5 sections, and each section had a life sized diorama of what the city would have looked like at the time, including small dried seafood shops, a 1920's game arcade, and a courtroom for the 1870's, when China lost its judicial sovereignty.

The final day, we went to my friend's grandmother's apartment for lunch, where her uncle had prepared a large feast that including duck, chicken, vegetables, and Shanghai crab and small crustaceans local to Shanghai (they looked like really really big shrimp). We had a lot of fun learning how to open and eat the crabs, which were delicious. The family was incredibly proud of the food they had prepared, not as much about their personal skill in cooking, but about how each of the dishes were local to their area, and were the most delicious in the world. The claimed that the vegetables only grew in the Shanghai area, and the crustaceans could only be found in Shanghai waters. The crabs were not from the ocean, but from the Yangtze river, therefore unique. I thought it was very enlightening to see both their national and local pride shining through their meal. It turned out to be quite difficult dissecting and eating the seafood. Being western, I was used to the cleanest and neatest table manners at the table (for example, I was not used to spitting things out on the table, or using my hands to rip things apart) but I ended up making the biggest mess, spilling sauce and shooting random crab parts across the table. I think my friend's relatives were highly amused by my lack of grace in eating seafood.

We then said a long and sad goodbye, and headed towards the airport. We were able to take the fastest train in Shanghai again, and then checked into our flight. We were all extremely tired, and after the flight we were even more tired as we had managed to accumulate so much stuff while we were there. I think that what struck me most about Shanghai was the pride that the people had in their city. When I was talking to member's of my friend's family, they often talked about how various places were the "most famous places to go in Shanghai" or the best, or the most interesting, or most exciting (surprisingly, none of them were really proud of the Shanghai museum, but I guess I am unique in my love of museums). They were especially proud of their food. I was very nervous at many of the dinners, simply because I was not used to the culture. At the wedding, I didn't eat a lot compared to the other people not only because I was simply exhausted, but also because I was not used to eating strait for two hours, and many members of my friend's family were not only concerned but a bit insulted. After that, I was very conscious of my eating habits, making sure to eat slowly so that throughout the long meal, I was always eating something. I realized that even though there was a lot of ritualistic behavior, what was most important was simply being around family. In that way, it reminded me a lot of my family as well. Although there are differences in behavior and etiquette, the feelings and love one has for one's family and one's home are always the foundation of any gathering, and I felt so lucky to be able to share that with my friends.