Keat-In-Space: September 2011 - Shanghai 之 1st trip with 公公

21 September 2011 - 25 September 2011
Bay is 26 months old

婆婆 went for a tour with her friends and the last stop of their tour was in Shanghai. We decided to meet her in Shanghai. This was Dad's first trip to Shanghai and Bay's 1st trip with 公公.

As 姨妈 had to go to work early and no one will be home during the day, Kippy went for a 2-nights stay with 二姨妈.

Dad packed a plastic bag full of bedding and titbits for Kippy.
Dad dont even have to pack his own lugguage as Mum already packed it for him before she left for her tour.

2-nights boot camp for Kippy with Nala, Bimmy

Day 1 (Travelling Day)
As usual we took the noon time flight. The last time I took the same flight with Dad was almost 10 years ago. I always wonder where I got my "on the flight 饿鬼" genes from, my mum and my other siblings cannot eat anything on the flight, Bini even said she feels like puking during meal time on board... now I know!

Our oriental chicken rice set with chinese sausage (Dad's favourite!)
See... finished every single drop, he must be very hungry.

Bay was very sticky to me during the flight and insisted on sitting on my lap for almost the whole time, even during his nap. But he could sleep better when I was holding him, he slept for about 3 hours.

My view...

Soggy chicken nuggets child's meal for Bay.
He finished half of it as I bribed him with ice-cream and a mini Chupa Chups.

Having fun on board

Bay complained that his "ear pain pain" during previous flights, so I let him have a drink or sweet during descent. My new "秘密武器" is mini Chupa Chups. It's smaller that the normal one, so eventhough I would rather that he dont eat so much refined sugar, it's ok to take one.

"爱不释手"

I can't resist taking pics of the 云海... how I wish I have a better cam!

All eyes were on him when we arrived. Any vehical with signal lights on the top is a fire engine to him now.

@ 一茶一坐, our usual upon arrival dinner place

Day 2 (大拇指广场, 南京西路步行街, 外滩)
Mum was supposed to join us only from Day 3 onwards. Dad and us lazed in the house or hang around Thumb's plaza. Knowing my mum, she will want to join us and true enough, she called me in the afternoon and asked us to go over to 浦西 to meet her for dinner.

Morning: Running around Thumb's Plaza... and poor 公公 chasing behind him

Evening: With 公公 and 婆婆 @ 南京西路步行街

Our dinner at 望湘园 (RMB228) - crab roe beancurd, very nice fried black fungus (dad loved it so much!), steam rice in a small clay bowl, the legendary 剁椒鱼头, claypot chicken (not nice and no pic), fried mix vegetable (no pic)

Most restaurants in China will give free fruits after dinner and we got some free watermelon this time. I dont eat watermelon and we hardly buy them at home, in fact this was the first time Bay encountered watermelon with the skin on. I didnt have to teach him not to eat the skin, he knows! I told him that he must eat rice before he can have another slice of watermelon. H will eat 1 mouthful of rice and then asked for a slice. He had 7 slices altogether!

After dinner, we wanted to take a walk to the bund but along the way we got attracted to the Open-top Double Decker City Sightseeing Hop-On Hop-Off Bus. (See more information here)

Tickets are RMB 30 per adult and free for Bay. (this is the cheapest hop-on hop-off bus service I've seen in the world!)

We got on the bus at Stop 2, Nanjing Road Pedestrain Street (West). Ticket is valid for 24 hrs and thus we can use it until next day's evening. I'll highly recommend this for any first time tourist in Shanghai as the route pretty much covers all the must-see area within the city. This was Dad first time in Shanghai and so we had to bring him to all the places. Definitely beats taking cab (fighting to get a cab) or driving (and looking for parking). We took a ride on the bus and it's really interesting to see the city at night from the top of the "cabriolet" bus.

夜上海! Hop-off at the bund

Day 3 (豫园, 东方明珠塔)
We waited for mum at home before heading out for our own sightseeing. The plan was to go for lunch at 豫园 (城隍庙), tea at 新天地, followed by dinner around Pearl tower.

豫园合影
Wanted to bring Dad for the famous 南翔 buns but it was too crowded and he was not interested to queue.

We went for a walk in the old streets around 豫园 and Bay fell asleep on the stroller. I have been to this area many times but have not got a chance to explore the surrounding streets. Just behind the new mega shopping mall are really old streets with local streets side stalls, such big contrast!

Guess what mummy did while Bay was taking his nap?

Shopping at my favourite H&M! I always head for the discount area first and there were loads of summer clothes on sale. Brought some shorts for Bay (50-70% off), 顺便 grabbed some accessories for RMB10 each (60-80% off)

We run out of time to go to 新天地, so we went straight to Pearl Tower on the City Sightseeing bus instead. Hop-off at the Pearl Tower stop and then cross the mega circular bridge to Super Brand Mall.

Running around on the mega circular bridge

Dinner at 桥江南 - 蒜泥白肉 (must try), 鲜青椒水煮鱼 (less oily version of the original 水煮鱼), roasted chicken, salad with sasame-peanut sauce, seafood 锅巴 (so so only)
Kudos to 桥江南 management who had decided to stop the sales of shark fins and bird nest in their chain of restuarants.

Day 4 (朱家角古镇)
Yeah! It's Saturday finally. After a lazy start, we finally decided to go to 朱家角古镇, which is about an hour drive from Shanghai city. A trip to Shanghai is not complete without visiting any of the 江南水乡. There are also 乌镇 and 周庄 but they are slightly longer drive away. After a take-out lunch on the car, we reached our destination.

Getting there
We drove. There are also bus services available from Shanghai city

There are different types of ticket packages. We bought the Line 1 package which includes a boat ride and entrance to 9 attractions. There is a 20% discount for online purchase of the tickets for Line 1 and 2.

The sales assistance at the ticket booth told us that we do not need to take the trishaw as it is just a short walk from the car park to the entrance. Somehow when the trishaw peddler approached us, we took it! It cost us RMB100 per trishaw for about 4 hours. Actually we were on the trishaw for less than 30 mins altogether as trishaws are not allowed in the old town! The plus point though was that the peddler doubled up as a tour guide to bring us around the town, if not we would be hopelessly lost.

New mode of transport for Bay

Zoom!!!

Map of the old town area

Stop 1: 城隍庙

Stop 2: 廊桥

Stop 3: 圆津禅院

Stop 4: 泰安桥

Stop 5: Strolling and snacking along 北大街

Stop 6: 童天和药号 (medicine shop)

Stop 7: 永丰桥

Stop 8: 大清邮局 (Post office during Qing dynasty)

Stop 9: 延艺庭 (a shop selling artifacts)

Stop 10: 放生桥

Stop 11: Boat ride

Stop 12: 课植园 (previosly home of a rich man)

For dinner, we went to the highly recommended 吉士酒家. We first tried this restaurant serving authentic Shanghainese food during the previous trip and I had been wanting to bring dad to this place since then. Each one of dishes we ordered are nicely prepared and delicious.

I will definitely bring all our guests in Shanghai to this restaurant. It is a small restaurant though with only about 10 tables and have to make reservation 2 weeks in advance in order to get a table. We tried to booked a few days ago and had to use Mark's colleague's connection to get a slot at 6.30 pm. Must try their 葱烤鸦片鱼头 (Baked Cod Fish Head with Spring Onion), remember to order this dish when you make the reservation as supply is limited. My cam ran out of battery and thus no pics for many dishes. Boo!

My koala bear and me (I had to 抱抱 him throughout the dinner!)

Dishes: 凉菜－老醋海蜇, 干煸刀豆 (I loved it but forgot to take a pic);
热菜－红烧肉 (no pic), 蟹粉粉皮 (Bay loved it!), 葱烤鸦片鱼头 (must try), 红烧海参 (I prefer this that the meat), tomota chicken clear soup (no pic); spicy chicken and prawn;
甜品－酒酿汤圆 (no pic);
Total price: RMB 900 and Mark had to give the manager RMB 100 tip for arranging the table for us at such short notice