Lost, Laundry, and a Whole Lotta Tea

I woke up this morning on our train to Shanghai two hours before our arrival. Eventually I think I woke up everyone in our cabin with my coughing… whoops. After watching a movie and packing up the cabin, we arrived at the station and hopped off of the train, bound for subway line two, which would be harder to find than we thought. Our train brought us into a different station than we thought it did, so we couldn’t locate the right subway line, probably because it didn’t go into that train station. After walking out of the train station in the pouring rain we found a subway entrance for line one and went down it to find the station totally packed. After shoving our way onto a train, I was too far back to get off easily. This became a problem when we realized we got to our stop right when we had to get off and my dad easily got off, leaving my mom and I on the train as the doors closed. Separated, my mom and I got to our hotel on our own to meet my dad there. He ended up arriving at the hotel an hour after us after riding the subway to the outside of the city and then back in because the trains were so full.

At the hotel we all located our dirty clothes for some much needed laundry. After an equally needed breakfast at the hotel I was finally able to wash off all of the grime and dirt that had accumulated on me during the second day of our Great Wall hike. Feeling refreshed, my dad left for a meeting and my mom and I headed out for Shanghai’s Old Town. Our first stop was the Chenxiangge Nunnery, which was similar to the temples we saw. Next we wandered through some windy residential alleys until we reached a larger road with many old shops on each side. After getting some chopsticks we decided we were pretty hungry and headed out to find some food. Lucky for me, I was craving Chinese food. After some egg roles and rice wrapper vegetables we walked to the famous Huxingting Teahouse. Is was lovely, surrounded by a pond filled with turtles and coy with a cool breeze blowing onto our cozy corner table. The tea was delicious and looked really cool because it came in a clear pot with a closed flower bulb and as it brewed the flower bloomed. We also got a few bites of tofu and some included tea quail eggs and unidentified packaged treats.

Feeling peaceful we headed to the Yuyuan Garden, a very nice reprieve from the city. It was built durning the Ming Dynasty and had some old charm to it. There were many beautiful rock arrangements, coy, and plants. There was even a wall with a sculpted dragon lying across the entire top. the garden started closing, so we headed out past some vendors, eventually reaching a popular steamed bun restaurant. We stopped for a dinner of “cakes,” dumplings, tapioca, and more tea.

Full, we walked around Old Town, as it was getting dark and the lights were coming on. We found some art vendors and stumbled upon a booth of a girl who cuts paper in a traditional Chinese style. As we gawked at the intricacy she told us her grandfather taught her how to cut and that she used nothing but scissors. I front of us she demonstrated how she cut by making two rabbits out of a piece of paper without opening her scissors once. My mom and I could do nothing but gawk at her speed and precision. With two extra cuts she added definition to the leg and eye. She was truly amazing and we bought two of her cuttings.

Next, while walking around more people asked to take pictures with me (see museum post), which I still find really really odd. One of the groups that wanted pictures with me did it with a cat snapchat type filter, which seems quite popular in China.

After enough pictures were taken my mom and I ran into a man on the street who took us up to a tea house, which we are positive he worked for, to show us a higher up view of old town. All of the lights were on now and the Bund was just starting to light up, making the sight a beautiful blend of the old and the new. We decided to do a tasting at the tea house, which was amazing as well. With a breeze and a view of the city we tried ten different kinds of traditional teas, brewed right in front of us while the woman who worked there told us about the health benefits of each. That tea was some of the best I’ve ever had, even living ten minutes from Celestial Seasonings. We bought a special, chewable tea leaf that is supposed to help with colds, but it is insanely sweet to eat so it really is just medicine.

Returning to the hotel, my mom and I headed to the fourth floor for some late night foot and neck massages. I couldn’t keep my eyes open, but the massage felt amazing after a hard day of touristing.