One Wild & Crazy Night!
I unfortunately have to forego reporting the last few days’ activities. I have had the most unbelievable day (of which the night alone will take up this entire post – I swear, when I get a few minutes tomorrow, I’ll post some more, this was just too damn crazy!).So I was out all day today in the older section of town (quite beautiful, have lots of pictures), and told Kate that I would meet her by her gym for dinner and maybe to go out for a bit (possibly shopping down Nanjing, who knew …). Her gym is about an hour and a half walk away from where I was, so I left around 5 and reached People’s Square, where I took the subway one stop to her exit (I was already runny a little later than the 45 minutes I said I’d be there in). I almost took the bus from where I was to People’s Square (it would have required me to walk a block in the opposite direction of where I was going, so I didn’t do that. Well, I arrive at People’s Square, normally a popular area, around 6pm. People’s square is not just one intersection; it’s about two intersections, north & south on Tibet Rd. Nanjing, the big shopping streets is the northern intersection and extends East/West with the pedestrian part extending only east. I don’t know what the other street is, but it has the museum, art gallery and urban planning museum all in the same complex. There is also a large park at the centre garden of the square. Anyways, I walk from south to north up Tibet Rd. and notice hundred (if not thousands) of young people just congregating on the sidewalk and the travel is just getting a little on the difficult side, so I go to the mall to catch the train, which you are unable to access until October 7. So I walked a block north to Nanjing Rd where the pedestrian mall is, so see if I could access the metro there (because People’s Square is a transfer point for the two lines, there are two entrances that are a bit farther apart. However, if you go down the entrance closer to line 1, you can still walk to line 2, just underground). Thankfully I could, the street looked a little busy, but not more than a hoard of tourists would make it (the street takes about an hour or so to stroll down – it’s pretty long), so I headed into the subway, met up with Kate and had the most AMAZING vegetarian meal I’ve ever head. We had this “crab” dish that tasted like rice vinegar & ginger (all of the meat is “simulated”, there is no meat, no egg, no preservatives, no MSG – rare in this city – and all of the produce is organic), some dumplings with spinach, garlic, tofu & mushrooms in it, and this spicy dish of buckwheat noodles (kind of looked like oma’s noodle-like dumplings. You know, the white ones that are thinner, not the big ones she puts in soup) and carrots. Kate & I also had a glass of Cucumber, Kiwi and Pear juice. Wow, it was delicious!! So we leisurely enjoy our meal, eat much more than we should (and still spend less than any western restaurant. We paid less than 8 dollars Canadian each for the entire meal) and decide to check out People’s Square to see if there are still tons of people there. Well, we’re about a fifteen to twenty minute walk from People’s Square (I took the metro to get here, but it’s only one stop – but I was EXHAUSTED from a full day of walking – I swear, I’ll post it later!) and we knew we were going in the right direction because hoards of people were walking with us. Along the way were vendors of all kinds, lots of food vendors (smelled so yummy, but we were so full!), musicians, jewelry, and the popular items of the night – blow up things. It definitely sounds weird, but everyone wanted a blow up toy – they were mostly mallet-shaped (I got a “My Melody” one. It’s about 3 feet long and has My Melody’s face on either side of the mallet), Kate got a hammerhead shark of the same size that says “Get Hammered” (which works on so many levels). There were bigger ones, some smaller ones; blow up crowns, the blow up mace was cool, baseball bats, rods, hats/masks – all inflatable. Kate & I resisted at first because they look kind of stupid and we really didn’t know what they were for, so we kept walking. We finally get to Tibet Rd, the big intersection where the pedestrian mall starts, and there are people EVERYWHERE! Standing at the mouth of the subway, we took a few pictures, but it was a steady sea of people for the entire strip, plus all of the people continually streaming in, and it went right down to the bund, which is an extra half hour of walking. I’d tell you the distance in kilometer but I can’t find a map with a scale. We wandered down the entire rest of Nanjing road, witnessing the Chinese (or Shanghaiese) version of jacket slamming (at Queen’s. It’s the closest thing I can compare it to). Every once in a while huge groups of (usually boys) would just break out in a mosh pit of whacking with inflatable bats and hammers. The police were plentiful and were quick to break up these riots, in which not a single person was ever hurt. The police presence was kind of funny, as if inflatable tools would lead to some larger violence. And yes, it was mainly young people causing the “riots” but people of all ages were there: babies, grandparents, high school kids, university kids, professionals, couples, groups, etc. It was really an event for everyone. Well, after getting whacked by a few randoms, witnessing the courting dance of many young girls & boys as they whacked each other (it’s like mom said, they tease you because they like you!), we finally hit the bund and decided to drop into a café for a drink and a break. We had this delicious mint-chocolate blended drink (soooo fabulous!) sat for about 45 minutes then decided that it was almost 11, and probably time for us to head home because we were so pooped. Well, that proved to be more difficult than we anticipated. We wandered along the bund, hoping that a block or so over there would be a street that allowed car travel, but after 20 minutes of wandering down along the bund, we decided to turn up the next street. It was dark, dirty, smelly and we were exhausted but we pressed on, sing only one or two cabs with their lights on, but they were too far away to get (and by this time the subway was closed, so we were a little stuck). Finally after 45 minutes (since leaving the coffee shop) we finally ran up Renmin Rd. (about 5 minutes from where I was in Old Town earlier that day) and hailed a cab. We were so exhausted and so excited and couldn’t believe the night we just had. Earlier that night I made the comment that the only thing we really needed was fireworks or something spectacular, and on our way home on the highway – Fireworks! The whole night seemed surreal, and I still can’t believe what happened. If it was Canada, there would be so many drunk (and alternatively intoxicated) people, but here it was just people having a “wholesome” good time, it’s strange. Well, we finally got home (in 20 minutes – that cab must have been doing something illegal), and just collapsed, watched the season premiere of Veronica Mars (again) and went to bed. It was an incredible day!
posted by Jenn @ 1:21 a.m.
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