Shanghai: Tonight We Go Nightclub?

Jenny and Holger left Shanghai, but Daniel was still at the hostel for another half-day. The rain wasn't so bad so Daniel and I went to the fake market of Shanghai.



The fake market was in the corridors of a subway station. It was much bigger than I thought it would be. Everyone sold similar things: headphones, watches, sunglasses, luggage, some clothing (mostly T-shirts), and other cheap souvenirs. Everything was a knock-off, but none of the vendors will admit that. They all ask outrageously high prices for these "genuine" articles that will clearly stop functioning in a month. It was very much like the market in Beijing, but the one in Beijing was a bit bigger and the starting prices were lower. I liked the Beijing market better because the vendors seemed happier. They would bargain and say things like "You crazy! That price too low! I make no profit!" But it was (mostly) in good fun. The Shanghai vendors just got angry. Daniel bought a few gifts, though, and got fair prices. Then he had to catch his train.

After saying goodbye to Daniel I was hanging out in the common room with Jake and Ben and we met Johnny (English). When Jake, Ben, and I were getting ready for dinner we met Karla (German) and some of the students from a Rotterdam university: Marco (Italian), Raphael (Brazilian), and John (Dutch). The three guys had traveled to Shanghai with more than twenty other graduate students from their international business school to attend a conference in Shanghai. Yeah, the group of twenty-five pretty much took over Blue Mountain Bund Youth Hostel that weekend. Karla invited us to go to a nightclub with her that evening. We accepted, but first we went to dinner with Johnny.

At dinner we met Norah. Norah was from Hong Kong and spoke perfect English. She reminded me a lot of my Spanish friend/host-sister Maca. It was the same strange feeling as the Chinese Sam in Beijing. The restaurant we went to was really tasty. We had tofu and spicy vegetables and some sweet and sour pork. It was nice having someone who spoke Chinese to help with the ordering rather than just guessing. Everytime I blindly order (which happens quite often) I am very thankful that I have no food allergies, diet restrictions, and I'm not a picky eater. I may starve.

After dinner Jake, Ben, and I had a beer with Daniel the Australian (D2). D2 was coming to the club (Cuvee) with us, but it was still early. The Rotterdam students were all prepping to go out that night, too, and the hostel was really hectic. Shanghai is a great place to go out. It is a high class district of China and has loads of tourists- foreign and Chinese alike- that come just for the city's reputation. Karla had come to Shanghai with the student organization AISSEC. It's a really neat program for students who want to go abroad. The individual programs vary and Karla lucked out. She was part of a cultural exchange, so her "studies" involved learning about Chinese culture. She went to a traditional Chinese opera, took paper-cutting classes, etc. It was fun, she says, but she also had loads of free time. So she and many of the other AISSEC students went out often. The five week project was complete, but she and a couple others had stayed on a bit longer. Stefanos, from Greece, was one of those students. Stefanos was leaving the next day. Because Karla and Stefanos had gone out so much in Shanghai the past month they got to know some of the club promoters. Club promoters are good friends to have. Friends of club promoters are good friends to have, too. Thanks to Karla's invitation and her friend the promoter, we didn't have to pay a cover and got free drinks all night. It's funny that I went to the nightclub because nearly every night in Beijing Li would ask Lucas, "Tonight we go nightclub?" (Yeah, Li's ideal day would be a day at the theme park, lots of spicy duck neck, then dancing a club till the wee hours of the morning). We never went to a club in Beijing.

Cuvee was all right, but there are definitely better clubs in Shanghai. After a while at Cuvee I went back to the hostel with Stefanos, Karla, and Horst. Horst worked at Blue Mountain and had become close with Karla and Stefanos. He spoke English well and was learning German. I liked Horst, he was silly. We didn't go straight back to the hostel from Cuvee. First we stopped at another club called Muse. We only stopped at Muse so Stefanos could say goodbye to his friends, but he didn't find them so we carried on. Just around the corner from the hostel we stopped for some food. Well, Stefanos stopped for some food. There were about half a dozen vendors selling various types of street food. Steanos got noodles from the man Karla affectionately called "Noodle Man." "Bar-B-Q Man" was another vendor. I think Noodle Man was drunk because he as being really silly with Stefanos. Neither Noodle Man or BBQ Man spoke any English, but we were still able to communicate. Communicating with locals can be one of the easiest, most natural acts; yet it is the most difficult phenomenon to explain to someone who has not traveled. I promise I will attempt to do just that in another post.

After meeting Noodle Man and BBQ Man we went back to the hostel. I chatted with friends and family back home a bit, then went to bed.

Stefanos and Noodle Man