BB, Bund, and Bars

BB is an expat from Australia, whom I met at the cafe in Xintiandi. I had situated myself outside between two tables both with a lone foreigner. One appeared to be a middle aged businessman on the phone speaking very American English. BB was the other and the one with whom I finally got the nerve to strike up conversation.

BB has lived in Shanghai for 3 years and speaks fluent Chinese. Actually, he reads and writes Chinese better than I. After chatting for 3-ish hours, we agreed to meet up the next afternoon.

So yesterday, I bumped heads (Chinese idiom for "met up") with BB on Huaihai lu and we headed off to Taikang lu, a maze of pedestrian alleys full of art studios, boutiques, and foreign-friendly cafes. The studios/galleries displayed works of modern Chinese artists (all still alive). Some of the artists were even present and at work on paintings. Unfortunately, I could not take pictures of the artwork.

The attendants at the galleries were much less annoying than store clerks. Some tried to converse with me and introduced me to the paintings. Much fewer of them tried to speak to BB. The ones who did attempted to speak in English.

After viewing artwork, BB and I settled outside a cafe, whose menu promised "meiwei" (delicious) iced coffee drinks, and discussed cultures of China and Australia.

Pictures from Taikang lu:

A picturesque alleyway full of posters advertising artsy events.

People actually live on this street, as evident from the clothing hanging to dry. In China, almost nobody owns a drier.

BB with his "meiwei" iced coffee drink and my teapot of fruit tea.
He looks slightly like Scot Frank in this picture.
Come to think of it, his Chinese sounds like Scot Frank's.

At 5:30, my grandma called to check on me, at which point BB and I parted ways.

Two hours later, I hopped on a bus to the Bund. I had planned to meet up with Charlie Agoos, another CETI person in Shanghai, to go bar-hopping. He told me to meet him at the Henan lu metro station at 8:30.

My family suggested that I take the bus instead of the train and I ended up arriving at the Bund half an hour early, so I decided to wander around the river and Nanjinglu for a bit. The Bund is absolutely breathtaking at night. Because pictures explain better than words:

River view. Excuse the blurriness. My camera's "night" setting takes long exposures which are easily affected by slight shakes of my tripod-less hands.

Foreign banks, a fountain, and a statue of some famous dead guy.

Nanjing lu pedestrian street rivals Vegas.

At exactly 8:30, I showed up at the Hunan lu metro station, and ended up waiting at the exit for half an hour. It turned out that he had waited for me as well until after 9 by the street corner of Henan lu and Nanjing lu. Miscommunication... I kind of figured.

But since I was already out by the Bund at night with my handy list of Bars, I could not resist going bar-hopping for a little bit, just to take some pictures. First stop of the night: Bar Rouge.

Located on the top floor of some fancy building on the Bund, Bar Rouge is as pretentious as bars get around here. I got on the elevator with a group of guys around my age who were heading for the same place. Turned out that they were recent graduates of UVA and William & Mary in China for vacation. English speakers. Awesome (!) I hung out with them for the rest of the night.

Bar Rouge was full of pleasantly plump, middle aged foreigners nestled in a sea of red, red, and more red. The music was unbearably chic, the bartenders as well. We wanted to get a table, but apparently, that costs 2000 rmb, something that we (unlike the groups of pleasantly plump, middle aged foreigners) were not willing to part with, so we ended up taking a spot at the bar instead. After one ridiculously overpriced drink for each of the guys (and none for me), they decided to go somewhere else less expensive, pretentious, and red.

The bar at Bar Rouge, complete with red Venitian chandeliers, a magnificent view, and a couple of pleasantly plump, middle aged foreigners.

Reflections of the chandeliers on the shiny bar table.

A statue in the lobby of the building where Bar Rouge is housed.

More lobby art. These appear to be enormous sheets of crumpled paper and three mannequins peering at them from across the balcony.

When they decided to leave, I pulled out my handy list of bars on the Bund and suggested I <3 Shanghai, so we headed there next. The place was certainly less pretentious. Slightly seedy, it was full of Americans of all sorts and a pole for pole dancing, which I swung around for a little bit (completely clothed). It took me 15 minutes plus a few sips of my free ladies night "Shanghai Celebration" to realize that everything in the bar was in English.

The kitschy front sign.

My "Shanghai Celebration".

Self explanatory. Note that the Republic of Texas has 68 shots and is ranked 4th.

At 10:30, my new friends decided to take absinthe shots for the "Sovereign State of Northern Virginia". 10 minutes later, I realized that I promised my family I would be home by 11 and bid my new friends farewell.