Rice is Nice

The west side of Shanghai, including the French Concession, seems to be about the most pleasant part. The streets are leafy, the stores are nice, and the restaurants are varied. It's in this area that we visited the house of Soong Chingling. Soong Chingling was the wife of Sun Yat-Sen. She outlived him by several decades, and I think that part of the considerable adoration paid her (at least according to the museum) arose from two factors: her obvious association with the father of modern China and her support for Mao's declaration of the PRC. We even learned that she was a recipient of the Joseph Stalin Peace Prize. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,814679,00.html?iid=chix-digg
We attempted to visit Zhou Enlai's former home, which is in the heart of the French Concession and looks like something more at home in the English countryside, but it was closed. Sun Yat-Sen's home, just one block away from Zhou's, was open. We arrived a bit late, but the docents there were happy to let us wander well after closing. There was little to no discussion of Sun Yat-Sen's actual political beliefs, religion, or time spent in the US. For the most part, some of his belongings were well-displayed, as were some books and a bit of chronology of his political life. His home, nice but not grand, was western in style. Not surprisingly, he seems to have been a voracious reader, with a dusty study full of books.

Shanghai's prettiest faces

So Shin, the friend that we are staying with in Shanghai, finally came out tonight. We treated him to a great Japanese dinner at Shintori 02. http://www.madaboutshanghai.com/2007/03/shintori_shangh.htmlIf you're in Shanghai, and not on a strict budget, or, even better, on an expense account, eat here. It's incredibly stylish, with a dining gallery overlooking the main floor where the chefs cook up a variety of Japanese dishes. The restaurant is entered via an unmarked walkway, lined with lights and bamboo, off an ordinary street. The large, black, unmarked door opens automatically as you approach. And I guess it's not that expensive. We gorged ourselves, and drank beer, for the equivalent of about $40 per person -- much more than we have paid elsewhere on the trip but much less than one would pay in the US.

After dinner, we hit some of the bars on the Bund. http://www.smartshanghai.com/venue/473/Bar_Rouge_shanghaiThese were OK, were more akin to what one would find in South Beach than anything else. The crowd was heavily European, people were trying hard, and drinks were expensive. The views are not that exceptional late at night, because the lights on buildings in Shanghai are turned off at or around midnight.

Boozin' on the Bund