Fuxing, Facial, and Foreigners

The theme of today is 3f, as opposed to 2t of yesterday. I wonder how long I can keep up with the alliterated titles.

First stop of the day was Fuxing gonyuan, the only French-styled park located in the Luwan district of Shanghai. I had expected to encounter something much like Boston Commons, a mostly quiet space with a sparse sprinkling of lounging lovers and colorfully-clad eccentrics plus some small vendors at the outside street corners.

Fuxing was nothing at all like what I had imagined.

First of all, it was full of people. About 90% of the people present were over the age of 50. 5% looked to be their grandchildren. But Fuxing was not at all an open air nursing home. Lively music emanated from all corners of the park. Clusters of senior citizens gathered around for dance lessons (many of them were surprisingly skilled). Others formed singing circles. Even the ones in wheelchairs energetically chatted with each other. Some pictures of these and other attractions.

A group of dancers. These appear to be swing dancing to the tune of old school Chinese songs built on the pentatonic scale.

Some singers. The poster is for lyrics.

A mini amusement park in the middle of Fuxing.
It was mostly empty, giving it a slightly eerie air.

An electric airplane much like the ones outside US supermarkets. This one played Christmas carols as it rocked up and down in slow motion. Still, the little girl inside seemed to have been enjoying it.

This "I was there" obligatory photo of the day shows the statue of Marx and Engels as Siamese twins. There are a couple of guys under it doing tai chi.

Some naked kid from Greco-Roman mythology surfing on a flying dolphin in the middle of a pool surrounded by flowers and those small white butterflies I used to catch as a kid.

As I was leaving the park, a group of foreign tourists came in. Curious, I followed them for a bit, hoping to figure out what language they spoke. The group of foreign tourists collided with a group of dancers, and a couple of the foreign ladies started dancing with the park dancers. The woman with the white shirt and blue skirt was one of them.

Second, it was completely devoid of anything commercial. No vendors, no solicitors. A restaurant/bar/club stood at one corner of the park, but it seemed to be closed during the day (or at least none of the old people at the park seemed interested in it). Overall, I found the atmosphere of Fuxing refreshing and rather idyllic, a fantastic contrast to the normal hustle and bustle of Shanghai streets.

At around 10:15, I left Fuxing and went on Huaihai lu to shop around. In front of a department store, I got conned into getting a free facial (first facial of my life) while 3 of the facial ladies told me that I was beautiful every 5 minutes while simultaneously lecturing me on the flaws of my skin and how I need to take better care of it. What they said was actually quite valid, at least compared to what I have read in teen beauty magazines and Cosmopolitan, so I ended up buying about $50 worth of products. My mother will be happy that I'm finally starting to take care of my face.

This afternoon, I headed a couple of blocks south of Huaihai lu to Xintiandi, a pedestrian street full of foreign-friendly (and hence overpriced) restaurants, bars, cafes, and boutiques. The place had at least a 1:1 foreigner/Chinese ratio, it might even be more heavily tipped toward the foreigner side. For about half an hour, I awkwardly walked around the place, ridiculously frustrated for I was itching to speak English (or French) to somebody.

There might have been more francophones than anglophones at Xintiandi. I ran into two separate French tours with Chinese guides who spoke fluent but heavily accented French. For a little while, I followed a boy in a striped shirt after I noticed that his guide book said not "China" but "Chine". A few minutes after I stopped tailing him, I came up with a small stalkery scheme to speak to one of the foreigners: "Excusez-moi, est-ce que vous pouvez prendre une photo pour moi? Merci!"

Unfortunately, I stopped running into French people after I came up with the idea. English-speaking people would have worked just as well, but I didn't run into any lone peripatetics

Feeling slightly tired and more than slightly awkward from circling the place 5 or 6 times, I stopped at a coffeehouse to rest and people-watch...

A few pictures for now. Narration to be continued.

Xintiandi architecture sample. This picture really doesn't show much. I guess I just liked the composition. Actually, no, I don't even think the composition is that great.

A better architectural sample. Note the melange of east and west styles
as can be seen in the windows and the columns.

These things were everywhere. They're kind of cute.

A mural next to the pond right outside of Xintiandi. The wor "Mural", related to the word "mur" (wall in French) is really not the appropriate word as this thing is on the ground.

The (incredibly Western. Even the baristas had fake English names on their name tags) coffeehouse that I used as an excuse to talk to strangers.