Final days in Shanghai

After jumping off the train to Suzhou, we decided to go out to the House of Blues and Jazz to check out some live music. Sore disappointment lay ahead as we discovered an empty building on a quiet street where the venue used to be located. Tom had a back-up plan however, so we went to a bar where we enjoyed english conversation with the bartender for a couple of hours. We were the only ones there.

On Monday, we had a plan. Phase one was to visit the famous Yuyuan Garden, followed by tea at a fancy tea house and some Nanxiang steamed buns. The morning was a success, although the street merchants trying to sell us watches and iPhones really got to Tom after a while.



Our excursion through the winding alleys surrounding the garden was followed by a pricy visit to the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium. If you're into walking through the occasional glass tunnel to look at enormous fish, sharks and turtles, the aquarium is a good place to visit. Overall, I thought it was slightly overpriced ($25 admission), but it was still an interesting experience.




What better way to end the night than do dine with our friend Jing, who introduced us to Shanghai a couple of weeks ago. We had a tasty dim sum meal at Ding Tai Fung followed by some drinks at a reputable jazz bar, JZ Club. Now that's how you do it, Hangzhou.


Today should be pretty quiet. Not much on the agenda, besides battling robots at the Science and Technology museum and picking up our tailored clothing. Perhaps I'll enjoy some tea served through a 60cm spout in the evening. We'll see.

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The Science and Technology museum was a complete bust. We were overwhelmed by thousands of children running and yelling while we walked past the rather mediocre exhibits. The highlight of the trip was ROBOT WORLD where we both failed at shooting arrows from a bow, but were soothed by a robotic piano performance. Hopefully dinner goes well. No battles with robot took place.


Only a few hours left!

Abort!

Last night in Hangzhou after parting with Fanny and Thomas, Tom and I decided to check out some live music that was playing at a nearby jazz cafe. It was just awful, even after a few beers. Avoid Friend's Jazz Bar in Hangzhou at all costs, unless you're interesting in old ladies swinging their hips and forgetting the words to songs while be backed by a mediocre band.

Today we were scheduled to take a four hour long train trip to Suzhou. Once we got on the train, however, we reconsidered. Our train would be passing through Shanghai, and would not be arriving in Suzhou until 6pm. After reading through the Lonely Planet's entry on the city, we decided that due to the weather and our limited time planned to be there (departing at noon the following day), we would not be able to truly enjoy what Suzhou has to offer. Thus, after a rather uncomfortable 3 hour train ride, we jumped off the train at Shanghai.

Ahhh. It feels good to be back.

Sorry, was that Debussy?

The four of us have been having a great time in Shanghai. We've been walking, shopping, and eating. Last night, Thomas, Fanny and I went out to have some dim sum and it was delicious! I couldn't believe the flavours coming out of some of the dishes we had. And get this: we mostly ordered vegetable plates. WOAH!! Awesome. I also had a mango lassi in the French Concession earlier in the day, so my digestive system was pretty happy with me.


Today was the day we'd all been waiting for. Thomas, an extraordinary amateur pianist, is here in Shanghai to perform in Pianestival, and tonight he showcased his talents. But before we dive into that part of the day, let's reminisce about the morning and afternoon!

Morning: Exploring the Shanghai Museum.





Afternoon: Buying 8 tailored shirts and a tailored suit.


And now on to the performance. For those of you who don't know Thomas Yu, check out the following video to get an idea of his stern personality and piano prowess.


Well, the truth is, he's a great guy and we've all been having a fantastic time together. For something a little more light-hearted before we move onto the brutal truths of the evening's performance, check out Thomas' arrangement of I Want You Back by Jackson 5 below.


All right, now that you've been sweetened up, here's how the night went down. The concert begins and the tiny venue is packed. Children are sitting at the front of the room away from their parents, and people are literally having conversations over the piano. At this point, Tom, Fanny and I were standing at the back of the room and could still hear the piano fairly well, albeit over the rustling of the crowd.

Midway through the third piece, somebody's cellphone goes off for a good 15 seconds. As you would expect, everyone was informed to be quiet and have their cellphones turned off during the concert. That, of course, doesn't apply to me, right? And so the rage began to build within me and my friends. It was only augmented when part way through the fourth piece, somebody who was delivering flowers barged into the room and loudly asked where the recipient was. Disastrous.


This was only the first performer. The audience seemed more well behaved for the second, or at least any rage that was felt seemed minuscule compared to that when Thomas, the third performer of the evening, took the stage. By this time, we were sitting in the second row. There were five children sitting down in front of the first row and they literally would not stop talking, making noise with paper and bags, banging their feet on the ground and thrusting their butts in the air with their heads firmly planted on the floor. Recall that this was a piano concert, not a puppet show.

It became nearly impossible to hear Thomas play. I caught beautiful glimpses of it in the rare few seconds of peace the children gave us, but the children were not the only ones disturbing the music: it seemed like a good time for the adults to do it as well. They ruffled bags and answered cellphones at will. Thomas, usually a very focused performer, had to get up and leave after his second of four pieces to try and find somebody to handle the noise issues.

Unfortunately, nobody was there and it wasn't until the fourth piece and encore, after Fanny and a few other audience members tried to control the children, that I was finally able to enjoy the music. The parts I heard were fantastic and if you ever get a chance to listen to this man play, do it! His musicality is off the charts, and he's a classy guy to boot.

It took a while for us all to relax after the show, but everyone's happy now. Heading out to Hangzhou on the 25th and Suzhou on the 26th then back to Shanghai for my final two days in China. Peace!