MagLev Train

I’ve got a couple hours of downtime before I head out for the train station to go to Hangzhou, so I’m going to catch up on reading stories for the boys and posting to the blog. Here’s a video of the maglev train ride. In the middle of it, you can hear me noting when we reached top speed of 431 km/hour.

Tags: MagLev, Shanghai

Shanghai railway station

I’m in a taxi headed to the Shanghai Railway Station. I hope I’m heading to the right place. I thought I was supposed to go to the new Shanghai South Railway Station but the guys at the hotel who helped me with the taxi said I needed this one, not South.

If they were wrong I can probably just get a different ticket but there’s not enough time now to get to the other one!

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OK…I made it on the train and all appears OK. The station was a typical Chinese mass of humanity, but once I figured out what was going on, with a little help from sone other passengers, I found my way to the #1 train seat 38. I’m actually sitting in 37 as an older gentleman who might be just as lost as me has settled into my assigned seat. No matter, this gives me the window so I’ll be able to see and take photos if anything interesting appears.

Train #1 is definitely the first class car. Not opulent but like a plane it has only 4 seats across and a couple attendents looking after us. When I first got on the train I just followed the crowd into the “4th” class cars. More crowded seating and no one around to direct me. I bet that section is not assigned seats and just general boarding.

The train just pulled out of the station. Very smooth so far. I know this isn’t a MagLev but the D trains (I’m on D5673) are supposed to be the new faster trains. I think that means that they make no stops along the way and perhaps actually move faster too. The Internet has some posts about a new MagLev that is in construction between Hangzhou and Shanghai intended to be ready by the World Expo.

Like every where I’ve been in China there is a ton of building going on. The station was under construction, and I read that the South station is brand new.

I just noticed the display over the doorway. It lists speed among other details, so I’ll have to take note how fast we get going once we get outside the city.

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Update: Looks like our cruising speed is 160km/HR or about 100mph. Very smooth going. Really a pleasant way to travel.
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Made it to Hangzhou, and was met at the station by a volunteer helping out at the conference. Things are a bit confused both at the hotel desk and the conference registration desk, but I’m sure they’ll get things ironed out. Must be tough to organize a conference where the local staff mostly do not speak English, and there are attendees from all over the planet, so lots of languages. I overheard one conversation about the need for a separate dining room for some of the participants who require a strict muslim diet. I’m guessing that includes no pork which I’m sure would be problematic in any regular Chinese banquet buffet.

Tags: Hangzhou, Shanghai, trains

Yulin Harbor Restaurant

At the recommendation of someone at the hotel, I went out in seek of spicy food at the Yulin Harbor Restaurant. Don’t ask me where the restaurant is, because I have no idea. I just know that through a lot of side streets and traffic an hour after I departed the hotel in a taxi, I arrived at the restaurant. Fortunately, the ride home was much faster…not sure if it was just later, or that this driver knew something the first didn’t know because I came back via a different route, with almost no traffic (at least by Shanghai standards).

The restaurant was clean and could pass for any western restaurant as far as how it was decorated and such. Definitely not a “hole-in-the-wall” kind of place.

Best part was that this menu had pictures, but the writing was entirely in Chinese or the pinyan version of the Chinese which didn’t do much for my understanding of what I was ordering. Again, I ordered way too much food, but I wanted to try a variety of foods. I ordered 5 dishes which in the end was about 150 RMB for dinner. That’s $22USD. If I could live here in China, and earn an American salary, I’d eat like a king!

The waitress pointed me at some of the restaurant’s specials which included a fish dish, another that she couldn’t describe initially, and a cabbage dish. I recognized Ma Po tofu, and I ordered that, and then added soup. The soup turned out to be a sweet egg drop-like soup with what tasted like glutinous rice flour balls. It made for a nice contracts to the hot stuff.

The Ma Po tofu was about what I expected, although the source of heat is a combination of red chili peppers like you usually see as well as whole peppercorns. I think they were more of the sichuan pepper corns then the traditional black ones. They added a quick bit of heat when you bit down on one, then a lingering tingling to your tongue. Eventually, I opted to stop eating them as my tongue was getting oddly numbed by them.

The cabbage was simple, but tasted good, and it allowed me to think I was being healthy by including a vegetable in my meal I actually ate pretty much the whole plate. The other two house specialities presented a little more challenge. The fish dish was exactly that, but with a slight twist that I couldn’t tell by the pictures. The menu showed two pieces, one covered in red and the other in green. I assumed it was the two fillets, one side covered in red chili then other in a green. I got the red and green part right, but I got the fillet part wrong. Instead, I got two large (like 4-5 inches across and 6 inches long) fish heads. Just as Grandma always showed us, the cheeks contained some good meat, and at the base of the head where it was cut from the body, there was a fair amount of meat. I’m not sure if others would have consumed more of the head, but I decided I didn’t need to go that far…I had enough adventure remaining to tackle the other dish.

The last house specialty was not described initially. It was just supposed to be a specialty that I must have. It contained chunks of white meat with some bones that had a delicate flavor…it didn’t taste like chicken. And the bones were not fish bones…or chicken bones…but it tasted good. The dish also had a lot of lotus root and what I think were taro root chips. Eventually I got an explanation that I understood…the meat was frog meat. So, I can now add that to my list of things I’ve eaten. Good thing the cooked frog didn’t resemble a live frog at all…or I might not have eaten it at!

Tags: frog, Shanghai, spicy food

Pearl Tower

Next stop was the Pearl Tower. It is the most well recognized part of the city skyline here in Shanghai. Kind of like the TransAmerica Tower in San Francisco or the Empire State Building in New York. Not only tall, but it has a distinctive shape. I paid my entrance fee and made my way inside to wait for the elevator. I believe there is an observation level well above where I managed to get to, but I wasn’t really going to argue with the elevator operators…They took us up to a deck that is 263m from the ground and does give you a commanding view of the city. I wandered about and made my way to a few different levels including one with glass floors that extend out over nothing allowing you to look down to the ground. For the most part, it didn’t bother me too much to walk on the glass, although there were many who could barely convince themselves to even place one foot on the glass. Looking down does give you a bit of vertigo!

When I made it all the way to the ground, it was starting to get late, and I realized that taxis were not so easy to come by any longer. I ended up waiting for close to 40 minutes at a taxi stand before my turn was up. Once evening hits, traffic gets thick, and unless you happen to be where someone else wants to stop, getting a taxi isn’t simple…note to self…map out where the metro is!

Tags: Pearl Tower, Shanghai

Xiǎolóngbāo

OK…so I’m settled in to the hotel, and I haven’t eaten since this morning in the airport. After all, it’s all about the food, right? So, I remember years ago as a kid eating “Shao-Lum-bao” at my cousins’ home in Long Island. At the time, these were small chinese dumplings that we steamed ourselves right from the freezer. They were good, but until I began preparations (ie researching food) for Shanghai, I hadn’t realized that these were something special to Shanghai…and that what I had eaten from the freezer were nothing compared to the real deal.

I found a variety of articles on the web and even one in the airline magazine when we flew to Cupertino the other week. But, the reality of a big city (and I mean big) where taxi driver’s do not speak English, I didn’t really attempt to find the same places as the articles…especially since many of them didn’t really spell it out where to go,…just the such and such place near the corner of such and such.

I made my way to the Yuyuan Garden figuring I could do some shopping, sightseeing and eating all at once. Turned out I was right. I did find a dumpling restaurant that, by descriptions I’d read online, may have been one of the places detailed as it was multiple stories, and at the ground level, there was a long line of people standing and waiting to get some Xiǎolóngbāo. However, as noted in the some articles, just go upstairs, and find a table. I did just that, and found a table without waiting. I think it was more expensive upstairs, but by US standards, everything was cheap.Ordered the dumplings along with another recommendation which was a good choice. It was like a large dumpling about the size of baseball with a straw. Inside was a crab soup. Don’t forget kids…never drink soup through a straw…well, I did anyway, but did so very carefully so I wouldn’t burn my mouth!

So what is the deal with Xiaolongbao? These appear to be simple dumplings, but what makes them different is that they have not only a meat filling, but broth. Apparently, reading up on these tasty things before I got here, someone figured out how to mix in broth in gelatin form into the meat mixture. So, when cooked, the broth is released inside the dumpling. Biting into one and you get a juicy, moist dumpling not at all like what you might be used to. They really were very good, and I’m not sure I’ll every figure out how to do it, but it gives me something to aspire to!

These two things along with a few other tidbits that they insisted I eat…clearly when a non-Chinese speaking person shows up…these waitresses understand the upsell…but I had no problems since the menu had no photos and no English…of course, I sometimes wonder if they have other menus for people that they more quickly figure out speak no Chinese? Anyway a very filling lunch for less then $10 USD.

Tags: Shanghai, Xiaolongbao